Addicted to distraction

Question. Are you able to sit still and focus on one single task for a significant period of time? (More than 40 minutes.)

Or do you find yourself checking email or social media messages every few minutes or so?

We are addicted to distraction. Our world is a noisy mess of messages from a dozen or so sources, all competing for attention.

What then do we attend to?

Do we attend to the activities that nourish us at a deeper level? Do we focus on our meaningful work, our creativity, our relationships, our well-being? Or do we constantly flit like a hummingbird from distraction to distraction?

Our addiction to distraction disallows any form of depth. A deep connection with another, with our work, with our team, requires complete listening and attention.

We cannot even go a mile driving our car without the addictive urge to fiddle with our phones.

Any form of addiction simply means that the addiction has more power over you than you have over it. Or, in plain English, your phone, or your iPad, or your computer…has more power over you than you have over it. Or Twitter, or Facebook, or Instagram has more power over you. How does that feel, to be disempowered by a phone or a software program?

I can’t imagine how excited you would be to read your epitaph…He seemed like a nice enough bloke, but we never really talked, except through Facebook. He was always on Facebook. Missed a whole lot of living but had a huge Facebook following.

Is this the life you want? Never actually creating any form of art through your work?

Take back your power, put down your phone. Create something that matters. Have a really meaningful conversation with someone close.

And if you can’t, perhaps your addiction to distraction is trying to warn you that you don’t really like your life…maybe it’s time to take a risk and do something else.

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