#89. Distractions

Today’s world is filled with distractions of varied kinds. Not just that, every second there are more popping up to claim more of our mental real estate. Today, we dive deeper into this realm of distractions, and try to determine if they are truly as bad as we think they are.

People don’t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messed cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown.

– Chuck Palahniuk

One should always stay focussed on their goals and targets, which is perfectly true. However, as humans, we have the tendency to unconsciously extrapolate various facets of our lives. Now since we are constantly instructed to stay focussed, we translate that to staying focussed on every dominant thought pattern we are experiencing in our lives at the time.

Interestingly, our dominant thought patterns, to a varying degree, are determined by our personalities and external circumstances. Mind you, when I say personalities, I am including all forms of conditioning as well as other factors that shape it like events, achievements and ideas. (You can read more about my take on personalities and self-discovery in Definition).

Since all of us are unique individuals, we all have varying dominant thought patterns. Despite that, all of us share pretty much the same biological makeup and hence have one commonality. We all have the capability to maintain an unwavering focus on our problems. In the modern world, being happy might have its expiration, but being stressed about our problems doesn’t.

I’m sure a good chunk of us will relate to this. In the middle of the day, you’re enjoying a nice cup of coffee and then suddenly you’re thinking about the upcoming presentation which you have been preparing for tirelessly. Does this sound familiar? I bet it does. And interestingly, we have to consciously bring ourselves to focus on our goals, but our monkey mind just comes to and starts to focus on our problems almost automatically.

There is a reason for this, and I am sure most of us might know about it already. It is because of our fight or flight instinct. The fight or flight instinct is the reasons that we have the biological tendency to dwell on our problems, because that is what led to our survival as a species. Our ability to set goals apart from survival has developed solely because our fight or flight instinct made us create a safer world. This helped free up our mental faculties to be able to think about progress, rather than survival.

However, overcoming biology takes time, and consequently we are way more likely to lose focus from our goals and targets than we are to forget about our problems. And yet again, I’ll pull on relatability to prove this point.

Anyone ever set a New Year’s Resolution? I’m sure almost everyone will raise their hands.

Now, let me ask you another question. Anyone ever ACCOMPLISH their New Year’s Resolution? Yeah, the herd has thinned, hasn’t it? Don’t worry, my hand went down just like yours.

Now, why do we think we lose focus from our goals? I guess everyone came this far after reading the title, it is due to distractions. The world today is filled with them. It is an accomplishment today to finish a book, because there are countless more entertaining ways to fill our time. We have a wide variety of interactive media that allow us to engage all our senses.

What is fascinating is that these media distract us not only from our goals, but also the problems we have in life. And since thinking about our problems fills a good percentage of our days, and makes us to experience all sorts of good stuff like stress and anxiety, we feel it is better to dull our basic fight or flight instinct through these distractions.

So how do we decide to spend our time now? We could scroll. Or, maybe we go out for a drink. Or indulge in some amazingly decadent food, which may not necessarily be the best for our body. Now, that is something that has come to light a number of times in the past.

Now for anyone who knows me, I’m usually the devil’s advocate. And hence, today I will argue that we should get distracted.

Let me explain.

I am not in favour of continuously engaging in the distractions that we have at hand today. While they have the capability to consume all our senses, and also have the happy coincidence of obstructing our problems from invading our brains, they leave us with no room to identify solutions from them. Consequently, we end up procrastinating, and that does no one any favours.

In effect, what I am trying to say is

We should be mindful in choosing our distractions. Distractions consume us just as much as we consume them.

If you stuck around this far, thank you for your time. If you enjoyed this, share this with one friend of yours whom you think will benefit from reading this. Thanks for reading, and I will see you in the next one. 🙂