Be Unstoppable: How to Leverage Your Distractions to Work for You
Ahh, vacation. We start thinking about it as soon as we book it.
A lot of people go on vacation to escape from their lives, to distract themselves. Instead of seeking or being trapped by distractions, what if you had the superpower to consciously overcome them? What would happen? You’d become unstoppable.
What is a distraction?
A distraction is anything that prevents you from giving your full attention to something or someone. Distractions can be thought of as rapids on a river. Those rapids can get in your way unless you know how to move with them. Instead of the distraction rapids tossing and turning you, make use of the following mental kayaks to turn the rapids into your superpowers and propel yourself swiftly and easily through life.
Rapid 1: Brain Tense Distraction
Your Kayak: The Power of Now
A Brain Tense distraction is when you are stuck in past- or future-based thinking – the past “brain” tense or the future “brain” tense.
Your kayak to navigate this rapid is the power of now. Here’s what to do: stop what you’re doing and breathe in for five seconds so your belly sticks out, and then breathe out for seven seconds.
Why five and seven seconds? When you exhale slower than you inhale, you signal your brain to send messages to your nervous system to take a break.
Start with one inhale and exhale and work your way up to 10. When your nervous system gets a break, you get to be in the present brain tense. It’s up to you how many breaks you choose to give your nervous system. If your nervous system is working hard, cut it some slack.
Rapid 2: Thought-State Distraction
Your Kayak: The Power of Choice
Thought-state distraction means you’re either avoiding thinking about something, or you just can’t seem to get something out of your head. Your brain is very efficient whether you want it to be or not. Part of this efficiency is thinking similar thoughts.
When you experience this rapid of distraction, your “kayak” is to choose to replace an existing thought with a new thought. If you’re experiencing a similar thought or feeling, ask yourself what other ways are there to think or feel about this? That’s the power of choice.
Rapid 3: All That Dinging Distraction
Your Kayak: The Power of Owning Your Time
This distraction works like this. Imagine you’re working on something when suddenly your phone or another device dings, rings or buzzes. You’re jolted out of what you were working on and check what all that dinging was about. This is called an “All That Dinging” distraction.
Congratulations! You have successfully trained yourself like a dog. It dings, you look. It dings, you look. It dings, you get annoyed. It dings, you look. All that dinging takes away your focus and losing focus means losing time.
Time is irreplaceable. How do you want to spend your time? Take your time back for yourself. Own it by setting aside blocks of time with “ding-free” hours. Then compare your workflow and see which hour was more productive.
Rapid 4: Tail-Chasing Distraction
Your Kayak: The Power of Language
Do you ever get so busy that you feel too busy to tell everyone how busy you are?
Just as you cross something off your list, five more things appear in its place! This “tail-chasing” distraction causes you to feel like you’re spinning in circles, chasing your metaphoric tail. It is exhausting.
Your kayak for navigating this rapid of distraction is the power of language. When you “have to” do something, the words are filled with heaviness, which can make you dread having to do it.
When you trade your language from “have to” to “get to,” the heaviness and dread disappear. The words “get to” are filled with lightness, which feels like a choice.
Try switching your language for a day and observe what happens. Each time you say to yourself, or anyone else, “I have to ____,” replace it immediately with “I get to” and see what shifts for you.
Rapid 5: The “Now Serving Who” Distraction
Your Kayak: The Power of You
The “Now Serving Who” distraction is about leaving little, if any, time for yourself because it feels more important to be of service to others.
Your “kayak” for this rapid is the power of you. Take a moment to remind yourself that you are your own person – check your driver’s license if you need proof. I promise you it is intact at all times. Go ahead and check your driver’s license, your identity is right on the front.
Then consider the roles you take on. Your roles change throughout the day. Here’s a few to get you started:
- Your role as a coach.
- Your role as a business person.
- Your role as a sibling.
- Your role as a parent.
You get the idea. What’s missing from this list? Hint: your role to yourself.
Take a moment, consider your role to yourself and what opportunities are available for you to serve you. When you own your role to yourself, how you show up in the world shifts.
Copyright 2020 Lulu Waters
Lulu Waters
Lulu Waters is a Leadership Coach, author, and host of the "Coach Lulu" podcast. Her love in life is thinking about thinking, also called metacognition. Lulu is on a mission to make metacognition a worldwide phenomenon. She has reached 15 countries and counting. Join Lulu on her journey because together, our capacity, our bandwidth, and our purpose all expand and rise. You may reach Lulu on LinkedIn or at coachlulu.com.
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