Distractions and entertainment

The week was heavy. I had to do a lot of travel. Doing a Monday to Friday radio segment all these years is no easy task. Sometimes, I’m so inspired I can churn out days’ worth of materials. But sometimes, I just sit behind my iMac and stare at my keyboard while waiting for something to come out.

Somebody said writing is so easy. All you need to do is stare at a piece of paper and wait until droplets of blood appear on your forehead. This is called a “writer’s block.” Over the years, I’ve learned to deal with writer’s block. I don’t wait for inspiration to come. I just bang away on the keyboard until I find inspiration. But then again there are times when I have deadlines to meet, and I look at my table knowing full well that I have to sit behind it and produce something, but I’d notice that my closet needs a lot of rearranging, so I’ll go and fix that first. Then I’d see my smart phone, see that I’ve received few text messages, and read and even reply to some of them. Then I’d remember I posted something inspiring on my Facebook pages, and I haven’t checked them for the longest time – like 30 minutes! So I go and check. Guess what happens? A very good half an hour has already passed, and I haven’t even started writing anything yet. This is called procrastination.

Procrastination is deeper than just being distracted. We get distracted and we procrastinate because we try to avoid the immediate pain of discipline. This immediate pain of discipline involves the most important or main task. We avoid it and escape it by distracting ourselves with activities that entertain us. We’re not lazy, we reason. In fact, we’re being busy and productive. But we do only the things we like to do, activities that entertain us and bring us away from the main thing that is painful to do.

Entertainment is DISTRACTION while doing the main thing is ENGAGEMENT. And most of the time, we’d rather be entertained than engaged!

There’s a terrible consequence to this. When we repetitively avoid doing what’s important, we master the art of escaping responsibilities. And in the process, we miss out on learning and stretching ourselves. Meanwhile, all our useless activities simply make us dumb and dumber.

Here’s a quick and useful idea to keep ourselves from procrastinating: THE MAIN THING IS TO MAKE THE MAIN THING THE MAIN THING!

Muster the courage and the discipline to go through the immediate pain of working on the important task. Do the chores, work on the homework and assignments, and, as in my case, prepare the lessons, write an article and work on a few pages of the book. Take a break every 90 minutes, and then continue the work until it’s done. True success requires going through the pain of discipline, and avoiding this is a certainty of going through the pain of regrets.

Whatsoever we sow, we shall reap, and there’s no escaping this.

Don’t be distracted, be disciplined. Don’t seek entertainment, seek engagement. These are ideas that would lead you to your long-term success goals and make your dreams come true.

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