Distractions are opulent in this day and age. How can anyone escape it? If it’s not one thing it’s ten others. Information floods our respective spaces, most particularly our minds and we find ourselves drained of the energy we’d otherwise use for all those supposed goals we dream and speak about exhaustively. Time becomes a cruel reminder as we look up from the haze of confusion we’ve entered upon, only to see another minute, hour, day, week has lapsed sans a hint of progress toward our ambitions. A sunken feeling in the pit of our souls and a mighty weight hovers about our minds reminding us of the cost of shallow choices, and more so our very mortality.

Habits are remarkable things. For better or worse, they have a possessive affect on those who practice them and are not easily undone. Even more intriguing is how with ease we take to unconscious activities, due to the company we keep or more so the unchecked behavior we permit of ourselves under the deceptive notion that, it’s just a taste…”

I believe there is a why to all things. However reluctantly, I have been forced to admit that the time consumed chasing my own peculiar and non-beneficial habits is in fact a means of avoiding the work of advancing me. I’m dodging God. I’m ducking that which I know to be necessary. Why? It’s just hard! That’s why distraction is so very easy to embrace. Much like that succulent treat you just had to have despite the fact that you weren’t even hungry. One more bite, one last sip becomes a daily ritual you can’t shake and not long after you’re saddled with the weight of squandered time, skills, talents, and gifts; and as we all know, that which is left unused soon begins to atrophy or worse, decay into oblivion, all in the name of one last sip.

Focus and soundness of mind, diligence to that end is in fact the genesis and bedrock of success. Always has and always will be.The battle is within. Stewardship of self is a long suffering course and it has levels. We never ever arrive. The highly effective and successful know this to be so. They’re not special, they just employ consistent and effective habits that buoy their efforts. They are in fact narrow-minded in their perception of who and what they are and what it is they are designed to do. They have actually conditioned themselves to endure the cost to the point where it is in fact a habit. For the average person in this age of information overload, it is no strange thing that idleness has become normalized. For the path to the wide and winding road is paved with distractions and many are those who travel therein.

There is nothing – no thought, act, word, or person(s) that is without influence upon our consciousness. Therefore, do all you can to be mindful of yourself and this precious gift we are all endowed with, time. There are no idle thoughts or deeds, as they all have the potential of becoming habits. Be valiant in the face of your particular distractions and remind yourself of the cost of succumbing to them.