Chronic Distraction versus Chronic Empowerment

The title chronic distraction vs chronic empowerment is a mouthful. Luckily I do these posts voice to text, with my phone automatically translating my words. Then I get distracted somewhere through the voice translation to laugh at how it thought I said one thing, but was a completely different Word. There is no flow yet for me getting these posts down, it’s pretty much just journaling and talking to somebody. But the iPhone does a pretty good job at translating my words, but I still have to be tied to this device. It’s not like I’m sitting here talking to someone freely, who would understand what I mean.

At the gym every morning, I’ve learned where my flow exists best. It exists best in a state where I am not distracted. My headphones are on, actually earbuds, and I am lost in my reps and sets, and on cardio whether it’s on foot or by hand.

When I am on the elliptical, there are a sea of televisions in a row right in front of me.(An example of distraction just happened when I said a sea of televisions and it thought that I said the letterc. Now I have to go back and edit that quickly before I forget. I’ll figure it out.)

I was listening once again to one of my favorite books, mind hacking by Sir John Hargrove. (By the way sir John Hargrove just became a surgeon Hargrove. Damn auto text)

I am re-listening to chapter 3 currently which talks about being chronically distracted. Realization came to me that I’ve got my program figured out at the gym, but not a way to be a chronic distraction. The only way that I’ve been able to beat it is to just keep my focus on the ceiling above. But when I am doing cardio, I need to really focus on be in the zone.

So this morning I decided to refine my cardio efforts by just focusing on my breath and focusing on a point in front of me, if I’m not standing I can close my eyes and really focus. I was able to close my eyes for a little bit on the Cybex trainer, in a standing position but my balance is a little off so rather than fall and be a danger to someone, or myself, I think I’ll keep my eyes open when I’m standing on a cardio machine.

It is very tempting to look up to these televisions when you are on the elliptical or any other cardio machine, but in the morning there is a lot of local news which has a riot that occurred at a Soccer game in Indonesia which left 165 people dead in a stampede. Heartbreaking. Do I need this now? Could I find out about this later? there is never a shortage of news. And bad news especially. It sells more advertising.

I kept forcing myself to look down and look at some space on the machine. I even focused on the blinking dot that showed at what point I was on in the course and tried to breathe with that cadence.

Wait what’s that that Valerie Bertinelli is cooking on the Food Network. It looks delicious. Squirrel. 

Another distraction.

Time to look down. Before I knew it I had finished 40 minutes on three different cardio machines. Then I was able to go and retrieve the water that I forgot with my pre-workout powder in it that is supposed to give me energy for my work out. It seems like I’m always getting distracted by something in my car and leave my water. So after the 40 minutes of cardio, I checked in the locker I put my jacket, it’s getting colder out there, no water. It’s definitely in the car. That would’ve sucked if I went out to the car to see if it was in there and I left it in the locker. I have even left my water on top of all of the lockers. I don’t think that’s so much destruction it’s just a bad workflow. I’ll figure that out too.

Being challenged with my mobility, it makes it a little harder for me to walk from the gym to the car, it also takes me time to walk from machine to machine at the gym. I need to use up every bit of my energy for getting stronger every day. Being chronically distracted stops me from doing that. Distraction is my enemy.

The last time I read or listened to this book a little over a month ago, I deleted all of my emails which were over 11,000, unsubscribe from things so I didn’t have the digital flutter distracting me. It’s my mind that I have to clear out, not just my closets and like braces. It’s also the things that you have in your face every day that distract your mind, not necessarily making it harder for you to get somewhere, just harder to get something done that you really need to get done.

Take a look at what gets you distracted during the day. How many notifications do you have turned on on your phone? How many times do you pick up your phone to look at more social media?  Is your life any better for it? Mine isn’t.

After revisiting this book again, I am reminded of tactics I need to employ every day like being mentally aware of every time I see a squirrel. At the gym there are a whole lot of squirrels looking down at you on big colorful TV screens. Not to mention the squirrels at the gym who are your friends and people that motivate you every day, but you have to figure out how to minimize the distraction. And when you have a chance, let people know of your intentions so nobody thinks that you’re putting them off.

By the way, the best way for me to get these posts out is in my car either on the way to the gym or at the tail end when I didn’t have a chance to do it before. I didn’t even have the key in the car yet. With that I need to start up this car and head on my way Feeling just a little more chronically empowered!