Make Distractions Your Best Friends And They Don’t Kill Your Time And Energy Anymore

Shedding a positive light on distractions

Photo by Federico Beccari on Unsplash

Distraction imposes on you as if it were your best buddy.

Always around, chatting with you, telling you interesting stuff, making you feel good, holding your attention.

Except your real best buddy has your well-being in mind, whereas the “distraction industry” only looks out for their own well-being and race after your attention and your bank account.

Distractions steer you away from the real tasks and goals you try to focus on.

They squeeze in between your ability to pay attention and your opportunity for success.

On the other hand, distractions are wonderful collaborators when it comes to producing excuses that you couldn’t reach your goal line. Welcome, dear distraction, just come into my house.

But let’s turn this around.

We hear all the time how bad distractions are and how they consume our time, sanity, and money.

All true.

But it’s also a matter of perspective.

Distractions Can Be Your Worst Enemy — Or Not

We have often heard from good coaches, players, or leaders that in combat, sports, or business we need to know our enemy so we can win.

So, learn about your enemy, be aware of the distracting forces, and, like in martial arts or meditation, gently leverage their force and guide them right away from you.

In my training in karate and yoseikan budo, I learned to direct the energy the opponent is using to attack me past me. You grab the arm or leg he is throwing at you and guide it past you. Simply spoken. It’s not easy and it needs a lot of practice. But it’s very effective.

My big brother used to do this with me when I was little. It drove me mad. So, who was wasting energy here? Me, by getting so upset about it and trying to fight back.

Better not to invest too much energy and time in the competition, the opponent, or distracting force, because this energy is better used when we put it into…