What prevents you from completing necessary tasks? What prevents you from moving forward at times? Does the opinions of others cause you to renege on ideas? Do you spend hours on social media watching the highlight reels in the lives of others? Do you have too many items on your to-do list for the children? Is that significant other unsupportive?
These are often times situations that have in past times, prevented me from moving forward, some more than others. I am certain that I am not alone.
Recently, I decided to reduce my social media (SM) participation. What began as a couple of weeks easily became a couple of months. I found that I spent an extraordinary amount of time just scrolling to see what every one had going on. Before I knew it hours had flown by. On one hand, that is how I remain connected to my family back home; on the other hand, I am just looking at a bunch of nothing. Do not misunderstand me, SM is multi-splendored tool and platform. However, it has the potential to morph into a huge distraction.
I am just going to be me and be completely honest and transparent. What I discovered is that the amount of time that I wasted on SM, I could have had a plethora of other tasks completed. As an iPhone user, there is this little feature in your settings that will track your screen time. Mannnn, I will not even begin to divulge the numbers! Let's just say it was significant weekly and daily time spent, lol. By that time, all I wanted to do was watch television to wind down. That was another thing to waste time doing.
At the end of the year, I determined that I would be #MORE. What does that look like, you ask. Well, for me it means: I am more productive, more intentional, more aware, more active, more focused and more timely to name a few. When I took the time away from Social Media, I knew the yield would outweigh any possible consequences. I reference consequences because, Sm allows business owners to utilize the platform to increase business, as you are aware of. While I am sure that some business was lost, the peace of mind and insight that I gained was immeasurable. There is something to be said about being quiet and listening to the voice of God to gain direction and insight for your next moves.
Now, I won't lie and tell you that some of the insight I am overjoyed about, specifically those things that I need to modify. Allow me to say this, God will check you about you if you let Him! Just be prepared for the gut punch when it happens. ;) Then, there are other aspects that I am #MORE excited about. For instance, I can say that this is shaping up to be a year of learning and producing at the same time. I mean classes on top of classes running simultaneously, reading books to gain more knowledge and being judicious about what/when to implement said knowledge. Actually, this portion is not that bad, due to the fact that I like to learn. The implementation portion is where it proves to be slightly challenging. So, I have been working on things behind the scenes. Stay tuned!
Truthfully, this is where I definitely need to dig deeper to ensure the following things: trusted voices do not derail my process with their fears or lack of vision and insight, that I am "eating the meat and spitting out the bones," avoiding fears, not giving in to insecurities and side stepping comparison. Try as one may, these are situations, well let's call a spade a spade, they are distractions! They will arise come what may. The key, I have found is to be on the look out for them, you know be ready with the preemptive strikes. When you have a plan in place for those distractions that will show up; people, places and things, you will be less thrown off kilter. Another method, is to move in silence, be stealth!
So, I said all of that to say, take some time to assess your distractions. Become acquainted with them so that you are readily able to recognize them and strike before they strike you. Write them down if need be and create a plan of action for yourself. If you are able to identify patterns of previous distractions and how you responded, then you will see where you can make appropriate adjustments. Remember, time will pass no matter what you are distracted by. However, will your goals, dreams and aspirations be accomplished despite the distractions? Choose to be #MORE in the face of your distractions!