thoughts on distraction

Hello faithful reader!

I like to-do lists. They add order to the world and help me prioritize my time.

They also gird me against being distracted.

This is important because I am exceptionally able to be distracted.

And I think most of us are.

Given a simple situation, most of us can tell you what action we should take.

However, with a little duress, a little distraction - and any one of us can be nudged in a direction we'd never normally take.

The simplest, though, is simply distraction.

Maybe it's letting urgent things supersede important things.

Maybe it's just one more level or quest on your game before you start.

Maybe it's finishing the chapter in your book before you finish your homework.

Biblically, Esau [Genesis 25] got distracted and traded away his birthright. The execution of this was a few chapters later - which is also how distraction works. You don't normally notice when it's happening.

-: anxious :-

I find it hard to focus on important things - and so I stay busy with things I care about, but that aren't.

It is very easy to be anxious - give yourself goals that you care about and then don't work on them.

Worse yet, work on them but make no progress.

The key seems to be to discern what allows you to personally marshal your attention.

And to make sure your heart and mind aren't a distraction.

But, it also ties into distraction. If you allow yourself to be too distracted, you can be impacted by anxiety and not realize it.

-: pondering :-

These are common issues; so common, in fact, that there is a really good chance anyone reading above may think it fluff.

Don't shut off. Don't go away.

Ask instead - what can you do to gird against it?

Is there a habit or mindset you can acquire that would perpetually protect you?

Are there questions you can ask which diminish or eliminate the negative consequences?

What can a person do to potentially eliminate the downside?

Because - I don't think the real problem is the distraction or the anxiety.

The problem is what you do when you feel them.

-: idea :-

What if education were reduced to being a set of answers you could implement no matter the problem. Some examples might be "How do I discern whether what I learned is true? What specific skills do I require to make more money? What kind of relationships should I build and foster to ensure I am well positioned for future problems?" Too much of standard education seems to be focused on having answers to these questions instead of training people to ask these and discern good answers to them. If we had these questions, and intentionally filtered the goals we set for ourselves, we might, as a people, be arbitrarily more effective - because we were focused on genuine improvement versus short-term satisfaction.