Today's Business Lessons
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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