Distractions
They’re everywhere and they aren’t going away. If we want to live our lives on purpose and avoid getting caught up in the swirl of busyness and distractions, we’ll have to find a way to overcome them to stay focused on our purpose.
It sounds obvious, but it’s not easy to accomplish.
I suspect most of us are familiar with the following scenario or a similar version: You’re in the middle of a focused task and the cell phone chimes indicating a text has arrived, begging for attention. You know you should let it be and finish what you’re doing, but…well…it’ll only take a minute, so you grab your phone. While responding to the message, a social media notification pops up. In the middle of checking that, a few pictures grab your attention. Then you decide to just quickly check your email since you’ve already got your phone unlocked. Suddenly, the phone rings, and you’re caught up in a ‘quick’ conversation. Before you know it, an hour or more has passed, and that thing you were supposed to be doing is left half-done and it’s time to start the next thing.
Maybe it’s not the phone for you, but I’m guessing you’re familiar with the plethora of different ways our attention is competed for at any given moment.
Busyness
Busyness may be the greatest distraction we fight.
We live in a time where the most common response to the question, “How are you?” is “Oh, good, but we’re so busy!” or some other declaration of busyness.
You’ve said it.
I’ve said it.
We’re all so busy, yet it seems like no one is accomplishing what they wish they were accomplishing. Every minute of the day feels packed to the brim but when the end of the day arrives, there’s not much to show for it besides a few items checked off the list and exhausted minds and bodies tumbling into bed.
Our days are full.
Yet it seems the fuller they become, the more empty we feel.
A lot of people bemoan the busy, wishing to slow down but don’t know how to prune anything out, so they stay caught up in the never-ending cycle.
Others wear their busyness like a badge of honor.
It’s easy to buy into the belief that busyness means we matter. Busyness can falsely make us feel we’re important because we have so much to do. Additionally, many of us have also fought feelings of anxiety and guilt if we don’t fill every moment of our days with something. If we’re not telling people how busy we are, we may subconsciously feel like they’re going to judge us and deem us lazy (maybe that’s just me, but I have a feeling I’m not alone).
Busyness has become the expected baseline for most people but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy. Busy is not the standard by which we should base our worth. And the thing that makes it even harder is, there are so many good things that can keep us busy! Serving at church, men’s groups, women’s groups, Bible Studies, volunteering in the community or at your child’s school, and an abundance of fun social activities to choose from. It’s easy to see how we can let these activities drive us and fill us with a sense of purpose.
However, when endeavoring to live on purpose, it’s essential to remember that those good things can be a distraction from the best things.
How to live on purpose:
So how do we manage to live a focused life and not allow the inevitable distractions to take us away from our main purpose? How do even know what our main purpose is, for that matter?
Here are some tips I’ve personally found to help live a more focused life among the vast distractions we face every day. Perhaps you will find them helpful as well.
Reflect
The first thing we need to do is reflect upon the things we’re currently filling our days with and hold them up against our true priorities. We can’t begin to live on purpose and avoid distractions if we aren’t sure what our direction is. Yet, how often do we pause to actually consider what we’re choosing to spend our time on and why? For many people, the beginning of a new year is the time to reflect and set goals. However, after a month, or maybe two, our enthusiasm dwindles and we gradually forget about our new goals.
Living on purpose is a lifestyle, not merely a checklist of goals and priorities.
Living on purpose requires daily reflection, prioritizing, and choosing that which lines up most closely with what is important to us.
{If you’re not sure what your priorities are (or should be) you can access my free resource Life On Purpose: A Guide to Intentionally Cultivating your Life by clicking HERE }
Partner with God
Often we commit to doing things that sound good to us or seem like the thing to do because they’re good things. But in some cases (maybe a lot of cases) what we’re doing “for God” might only be our own ideas and not something He has asked us to do. After reflecting on our priorities, the next step should be honestly asking ourselves why they’re important, and making sure they are the things God wants us to be focusing on in this season.
Living a life on purpose will be far more impactful when we partner with God to plan our days, and frankly, each of our moments. He will guide us when we earnestly seek Him. It may be tempting to think we can schedule our days just fine on our own, but by submitting our tasks and plans to Him we will gain far more clarity about what is truly important.
Define current non-negotiables and plan them into your days
After reflecting on your priorities and asking for God’s guidance you should have a little more clarity on what is really important to you, and more importantly, to Him, and how you should be focusing your attention. Write down your top priorities and plan them into your days.
If our focus is not clearly defined, it’s much easier to let distractions sweep us off course.
Once you’ve established your top-of-the-list, non-negotiable priorities (these are things that you know God wants you to be focusing on the most), other things can be filled in around them. Seasons change, and as they do, your list may also evolve with priorities being added or subtracted depending on the seasons of life.
Consider becoming an early bird
It isn’t always fun to rise early, but those early morning hours are usually where solitude can be found most easily and distractions are lowest. When seeking God, it’s easiest to hear His still small voice in the quiet moments before the bustle of the day begins. The first moments of a new day are a wonderful time to reflect, connect with God, and start the day on purpose.
These sacred morning moments have become a favorite part of my days. It’s at this time that I hear God most clearly. When I let other things get in the way and choose to skip my focused morning hour, my day feels scattered. In addition to using this time to read The Word, pray, and seek God’s direction for the day, dedicating a few minutes to a top-priority item helps set the momentum for my day. Writing is one of my non-negotiables. I’ve found spending even a few extra minutes jotting ideas down before the rest of the day gets started helps keep that priority going strong.
Reduce
In reality, the solution for living on purpose is usually found through subtraction before addition. We simply were never intended to handle the number of distractions, options, and busyness that are thrown our way. Living on purpose may mean letting go of distractions that are stealing our focus.
Along with busyness, technology is another of the biggest distractions we face in our modern society. With so many options available, there is always some form of technology competing for our attention. Radio, podcasts, television, Netflix, and social media are always within reach, tempting us to give in to mindless entertainment.
Yes, there are many benefits to be found through technology as long as we’re using it on purpose as the tool that it can be instead of letting it mindlessly control our attention.
I have found that social media, especially, is the antithesis of a focused life.
Just a ‘few minutes’ here and there add up to a lot of wasted time! The high use of screens has truly inhibited our ability to focus on one thing for an extended time. It has also had a very negative impact on real face-to-face relationships.
If we want to live on purpose, reducing the amount of time we spend on technology is key.
If the distraction of technology has become a trap for you, finding an accountability partner to help gain control back in this area might be necessary.
At the very least, we should be mindful of the time spent on things that aren’t truly moving us toward our deeper priorities. If this means only allowing ourselves a certain window of time to spend with technology, then we should intentionally plan that window into our days and stick to it.
Reduce Stuff
Have you ever stopped to consider how much of our time and attention is taken up by stuff?
We spend hours working to have enough money to acquire more possessions. We then spend a ridiculous amount of time taking care of those belongings. ‘Stuff’ literally takes up hours of our time. Cleaning, sorting, organizing, and acquiring easily distract us from more meaningful pursuits. How much extra time do you think you might gain if you didn’t have so much stuff? Probably more than you realize. This one can be a tricky one for a lot of people, but the process of letting go of things is ultimately so freeing. Living with less ‘stuff’ not only frees up monetary resources and time but emotional/mental space as well!
Choosing to be intentional about future purchases and paring down current belongings is often a great place to start on the journey of living on purpose.
The process of intentionally letting go of belongings can help us to think through why we choose to consume what we do. Are we using ‘stuff’ to fill a void or to help us feel accepted and important? Are we impulse buying to feel good at the current moment? Do we hang on to things from our pasts when we should be letting go to make room for the future? It’s enlightening and often painful, but the benefits are well worth the process, as daunting as it may feel!
Schedule downtime
Living on purpose doesn’t mean we need to remove the distractions of television, social media, and unproductive busyness only to replace them with a plate full of ‘purposeful’ things. We need to keep our non-negotiables as our main focus. In doing so, we should also schedule a time to rest, recharge, hear from God, and make sure we’re allowing Him to refresh our spirits. We need to rest as we live on purpose so we don’t burn out. Once we’ve eliminated the “fluff” it can be easy to swing in the other direction, adding too many good things and neglecting the best. It’s important to maintain balance by scheduling days of rest. We all need “whitespace” in our schedules to allow for the unexpected and spontaneous.
The Main Focus
Living on purpose and avoiding distractions is a lifestyle of making intentional choices every day. If this list overwhelms you, just start small. Make one change until it sticks, and then add the next one. It’s a process!
And if you remember nothing else, please remember this:
What we focus on grows. If you intentionally focus more and more on loving God and loving others over yourself, the mindless distractions will begin to fade away and what is most important will grow if you invest your time focusing on what truly matters. Likewise, if you let distractions steal your focus, you will inevitably be swept down a path you didn’t intend to be on.
Accountability Connection:
What’s your biggest distraction? How about something you’d like to make room for as a non-negotiable? Tell me about it in the comments…
