What distracts you from the bigger picture?
Well, to answer this question, we first need to have an established bigger picture.
But say that you have one. You do know what you should focus on.
If this is the case, can you tell us what distracts you from materializing your ambitious goal?
This can be something easily identifiable as a lack of money, time, support, or, for example, insufficient knowledge on a particular topic.
However, it could be something more complicated. Something like:
- Bad habits.
- Bad company.
- Insufficient drive.
- Inclination to consume things related to your goals instead of doing actual work.
- The tendency to randomly switch across all of your social media accounts, desperately looking for validation every time you feel a glimpse of despair.
The first group of obstacles, if you are serious about what you want to do, can be handled promptly. You can save money, make time, or identify the topic you need to get good at.
The second, however, is a bit more complicated.
Each year, quite a few people enter the disciplined practice of writing down their goals. Few, however, can proudly state that they have achieved what they wanted to achieve.
It's one thing to want to change, it's quite another to proactively do stuff that leads to change when there is a portal of fun activities that's just a click away.
Generally speaking, I found that the main thing that distracts a modern man from his dream state is his unrestrained emotional cravings.
I can know what I want. I can craft a plan on how to get what I want. But when I sit on my bottom to start executing, I can drown in the endless stream of pleasurable activities on my smartphone, simply because I'm emotionally weak - drawn to the quick fixes of dopamine and distracted by the constant lure of instant gratification. My mind craves the path of least resistance, seduced by the illusion of satisfaction in every swipe, tap, and notification.
It’s easier to chase fleeting moments of pleasure than to confront the discomfort of real work, real progress, and real fulfillment. In these moments, I am a slave to the shallow, a victim of my own craving for the easy over the meaningful.
Is there a way out?
Is there a way to tame the echos of distractions that seduce us?
There is. Nurturing your ability to think critically and make decisions based on reason rather than emotion. This rational approach helps us see through the superficial appeal of distractions, enabling us to stay focused on what truly matters in our lives.
Yet, it's not that simple.
While in our current age we have achieved all sorts of technological wonders. This rapid progression is also the reason we're crippled by inaction.
Tomorrow, I'll expand a bit on that topic. I'm going to share with you the worst thing about living in the 21st century.
Worth reflecting on:
What's your number 1 challenge when it comes to reaching your desired goal?
The current world sounds great. Easily consumable advice on how to become the next big famous person is sitting on standby - just waiting for you to hit search.
Yet, despite this ocean of knowledge, we remain stuck. While some people might think that lack of information is their biggest obstacle, others can say the opposite: the sheer volume of available information is what dooms our progress.
What's your take on this?
Worth reading:
From my desk:
- Plato’s Allegory of The Cave [Summary]: "Once you understand the allegory of the cave, you start to see it everywhere. In fact, in many ways, this old story gets repeated daily in our own lives even today."
From around the web:
- Energy makes time: "They had assumed, wrongly, that there wasn’t enough time in the day to do their art, because they assumed that every thing we do costs time... By doing their art, a whole lot of time suddenly returned. Their art didn’t need more time; their time needed their art."
Worth thinking about:
"As long as we do not have it, the object of our desire seems greater than anything else; as soon as we enjoy it, we long for something different with an equal craving."
― Lucretius Cams
The main thing that hinders my progress is this ongoing pressure to consume stuff. In our post-information age, where content is freely available, I feel like I have to constantly soak up resources to get closer to my goals.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the opposite is actually true: it feels way better to pick a topic that's worth mastering, then spend a large chunk of time studying this particular topic/question while neglecting everything else.
Of course, this is easier said than done. The brain craves novelty, and it will do all it can to make the irrational seem rational.
I'll share more on this topic tomorrow.
Regards,
