Getting Distracted? You Might Be Impotent...

 “People are not lazy. They simply have impotent goals - that is, goals that do not inspire them.”

 - Tony Robbins

Man, do I struggle with this. Not being lazy, but making sure I have the right goals to focus on. I have found time and time again that there is a direct correlation between the strength of one's goal and the amount of time wasted in trying to achieve them. 

I’m not going to spend a whole post talking about goal setting because there is a mountain of information already available on the subject and quite frankly, the goal setting process must be a deeply personal experience in order to effectively attach emotions to those goals.

If I were to identify the two biggest enemies of time in my day, they would be distractions and distractions. Not a typo folks. In everyone’s day there are activities that excite you and motivate you, activities that you would swear are sucking your will to live, and all the other crap in between. For everything outside the activities that excite me, I find that it’s a real struggle to push through them because I always forget why I’m even doing them in the first place. 

How I overcome the distractions: 

1. Trust yourself. You’ve been doing what you do for a long time and (should) have an idea of where you’re going and what the career end game looks like. Use this to your advantage and remind yourself that those soul-sucking activities are simply a means to an end, nothing more. 

2. Music. I try to listen to music as much as possible throughout the day because it does a few things for me. First, it gives me an energy boost to push through the crap. Second, it’s a counter-distraction. I’ll explain: When it’s quiet in my office I hear background noises, notifications dinging on my phone, and people talking in the background. To pile on even further, my mind wanders in a quiet space and begins it’s creative process. Good for planning, bad for working. Music drowns out all the background noise and keeps my mind from wandering. 

3. Getting passionate. Who we are is not the sum of the tasks on our list each day. We are emotional beings that have beliefs and dreams. Build your passions around your schedule to help you maintain perspective on the bigger picture. Identify how a particular task will help you achieve your dreams. Vision board? Diary? Scrapbook? Whatever floats your boat. 

How do you overcome distractions? What tricks have you learned? Share in the comments!