“Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short.”
– Adam Hochschild
The first week of January is when many people start their New Year with new goals to eat better and/or eat less. Conventional wisdom tells us that if our goal is to lose weight one key component to success will be to focus on taking in less calories. Resisting high calorie and high fat foods helps reach the goal of weight loss. But what if our goal isn’t to lose weight? What if our goal is to start listening to our calling? We may need to go on a “distraction diet”.
The 10 questions below are meant to help you assess your current level of focus. It will also help you identify energy drains or distractions that may be impeding your progress against goals. As you answer each question make sure to remind yourself that the answer will only be known by you (unless you choose to tell someone). Being honest with yourself will help you identify the things you want more of and the things you want less of. You may also want things to stay just as they are. They are only “distractions” if you’d rather be focused elsewhere.
Are you distracted?
- How focused am I on my purpose?
- Laser focused: I spend almost all my free time thinking about my purpose and working on specific goals.
- Locked and loaded: I spend a significant amount of my free time thinking about my purpose and working on specific goals.
- In pursuit: I think about my purpose frequently and occasionally find time to set and work on specific goals.
- All thoughts, no action: I think about my purpose occasionally but am rarely able to set goals or take steps toward them.
- Fully distracted: I can barely find any time to think about my purpose and have no goals to act upon.
- Do I want to be more focused on my purpose than I currently am?
- Do I have enough mental energy to think about my purpose?
- If less distracted, could I make enough time in my life to plan goals?
- If less distracted, could I make enough time in my life to act upon my goals?
- Are there relationships in my life that use up time/energy I’d rather spend on my goals?
- Are there leisure activities in my life that use up time/energy I’d rather spend on my goals?
- How much time a day would I like to use for taking in information (news, social media, reading online articles, etc.)?
- What percentage of the information that I take in daily can be used towards my goals?
- How much do I want to increase the daily time I allocate towards information gathering and action items related to my goals?