Distraction Confession

Distractions are EVERYWHERE.

It may look innocent. It may seem like nothing. It may just be a distraction ready to knock you off your path.

I am not a football fan. The games were tolerated in high school because there was no other place to go on a Friday night at game time. I never watched games outside of that – definitely not professional and rarely college. The one game I attended after graduation was the Senior Bowl but only because it was held in Mobile and I was attending the University of South Alabama and I was given a free ticket and a ride to the game.

There was a short stint of watching lots of football. My freelance writing journey waded me into the football stadium when I landed a gig writing articles about Auburn football. I got to know some of the players and followed those players.

It might be better to say that I was a football player fan than a football fan.

And yet, I watched the game tonight like I have watched the last several years. It was the second game I had watched all year in part because I kept forgetting about the games but mostly because I no longer wrote articles about Auburn football and I had lost track of who might now be playing.

There was the added pressure of EVERYONE watching the game – at least around where I live.

So I watched “the football” because that was what I was supposed to do (and it was not the first time that I got tangled up in something I didn’t even have an interest in because it was the expected thing to do).

And then I found myself engaged and caught up in it all. I started talking to the screen – because you know they can hear me. My nerves were raw.

Why?

I don’t even like the game and yet I sat there emotionally invested in an outcome that wouldn’t make a difference one way or the other in my day (or my life).

But I watched.

I pushed aside the schedule I know I need to stay on track on target for the BIG DREAM goals because I had to see the game as it happened.

Why?

I barely know all the rules of the game – a game that I am not all that fond of even when I know the players personally. I’d much rather watch basketball (although I also talk to the screen during those games).

It turns out that distractions, squirrels, or whatever you want to call those things that are keeping you from doing what you need to do and being what you need to be – those things come in all shapes and forms (even a National Championship Football game).

I know better. Despite what I know I didn’t just step into the distraction but I lept with all I had right into the middle.

I’m not saying that football is inherently bad. I’m not saying that television is inherently bad. I’m not saying that video games are inherently bad.

I am confessing that I let others drive me to do something that I wasn’t invested in and then I allowed my emotions to hold me there.

The world is full of these distractions. It is up to me to do better and to choose better if I want to live out the better that has been designed and purposed for me.

Be blessed,

How about you? What’s been your distraction?

Share your thoughts in the comments below. I look forward to hearing not only what may be the distraction but how you are facing down the distractions trying to get in your way.

Time to Find Your Focus

Let’s put your purpose under the microscope and hone the focus so that you can see it, pursue it, and live it out!