Distracters

In my most recent posting, I explained the concept of the detractor as anything that stands in your way of manifesting your vision. I shared with you that the most daunting type of detractor for me was the distracter.

When I talk about the distracter I am referring to those things that temporarily knock me off course as I pursue my vision, my goals and my tasks. Telling you what my most powerful distracter is will explain very well what a distracter is. It might be yours, too. It’s the television. In twelve step programs they tell you that sobriety or being drug free occurs one day at a time. For me, a distracter keeps me from achieving my goals, one day at a time.

A distracter doesn’t knock me off the path. It’s too subtle for that. Instead it temporarily seduces me from my path. Instead of writing a blog entry, I sit down in front of the television and watch mixed martial arts on Spike, or flip over to HBO to see whether an action movie is playing. And it doesn’t matter if I have seen it before, I’ll watch it again!

Other common distracters are alcohol, illicit drug use, going to clubs, hanging out. You know your distracter better than anyone else (except maybe your significant other).

Distracters are generally more powerful when we are supposed to be doing a task that isn’t particularly exciting. Exciting tasks have motivating appeal of there own which is likely to overcome the lure of the distracter, but a boring task may not. Even though we know the task is important, in that it will move us closer to achieving a goal, it may not have a lot of inherent appeal. Consequently, we are more likely to be distracted from tasks that involve drudgery.

It’s important that you look carefully at yourself and figure out what your distracters are, if you don’t already know. Once you know what they are, distracters are not usually too difficult to overcome. The problem is, they must continually be overcome. It’s not a one time battle. The good news is losing a battle occasionally will not keep you from achieving your dreams. That's the key, making sure it only happens occasionally.