“Not only are bloggers suckers for the remarkable, so are the people who read blogs.” - Seth Godin

Distracted Cliff Jumping

A couple of weeks ago I issued a challenge to all of you regarding choosing to live life intentionally. Have you ever cliff-jumped? It’s fun, exhilarating, and scary, but it is always a 3,2,1 jump experience. The rush that comes at that moment you leave the security of solid ground and become airborne is euphoric. It is also the perfect analogy for what I challenged each of you to do. I am taking that challenge quite seriously and decided on a couple of targets to begin doing. The first thing that I will be doing in the next couple of weeks is taking a couple of classes. I have always wanted to do this, but for several reasons, I have not. This doesn’t sound monumental, but a few things I have in queue definitely are, at least to me. This intentional living thing is not for the faint of heart. I love the idea of ticking things off my list, but I also have a bit of anxiety that I deal with on occasion. Choosing to put myself into uncomfortable situations has highlighted my control freak tendency, even though I know how little I truly control. I like order. Doing new things can be fun, but it can also be a little chaotic. It also typically involves meeting new people. I don’t usually mind this, but that anxiety thing gets in my way. It actually drives me to distraction. And that brings me to our topic today. What distracts you?

The term distraction has a bad rap, but not all distraction is bad. Are you finding yourself distracted by the list I gave you? Are you distracted by the possibilities? Those are good distractions because they open your heart to see bigger things than you have in front of you right now. When you are grieving your relationship and you feel incomplete, it can be difficult to see a bigger and brighter world of opportunity. But when you allow yourself to think in terms of being curious, it feels less daunting somehow. Curiosity is the key to this intentional living practice. If you can open up to curiosity, you begin to line up opportunities to find things that bring you joy. For example, think about when you were in school (high school or college). Electives were always so much more fun than required classes, correct? The reason is curiosity. Taking a class in something that interests you is much easier than being told you must complete this course. But, back to distraction. This week I want you to intentionally notice when you find yourself distracted. Feel into it and decide if it is productive distraction that is fueling your creativity and offering you a tingle of excitement or if it is unproductive and draining your energy. Examples of unproductive distraction are mean thoughts about yourself, rehashing the last disagreement you had with your ex or doom scrolling to confirm some sad thoughts you have had. That is draining and hurtful. We aren’t doing that any longer. We are allowing productive distraction to grow our curiosity, to decide what we want to experience by a pre-determined date, and to get excited about life again. Believe me, you may not feel like it right now, but feelings aren’t facts. It can happen for you. You just have to practice a bit. 

So for this week, I want you slow down a little and notice how you are feeling. Really notice. It won’t always be pleasant and that is perfectly ok. Just roll with it and keep feeling into it. If a thought crosses your mind and you even slightly wonder about learning something new, doing something different, or experiencing something for the first time, act on that impulse. Schedule the class, buy the ticket or offer to volunteer. Baby steps lead to great strides and sometimes there are even very pleasant surprises in the process. That is all I have for this week, but know I am a bit distracted, quietly, happily and creatively distracted. That is what I want for all of you. Get distracted, find something that gives you butterflies and 3…2…1 JUMP!

And in case you think you are in this thing alone, you are not, so find something that brings you joy and do more of that!