The Super Power of 2024? Being “In-distractable”
I hope you’re having a lovely first week of the year. Only 51 more to go LOL.
In the past weeks, I spent a lot of time reflecting and asking myself what and how I want to experience this year, 2024. Personally I still have some decisions to make, but if you asked me what I’d want with certainty, the answer is crystal clear: to have the super power of in-distractability.
Superpower? Ok, it might not necessarily be a superpower, but it certainly is a super-POWERFUL — skill, quality and ability to develop.
If you feel that 2023 was a rather distracting year and want see real changes in your 2024, like having more energy, feel stronger and why not making it your best, most productive year ever, then keep on reading. As this month I share with you the five key F.O.C.U.S. steps that I have taken from my own, personal experience as well as the great book In-distractable by Nir Eyal, on how to control your attention and gain a competitive advantage, in work, in life, and of course, in your health, fitness and wellbeing.
Enjoy your reading
So how do you become in-distractable in 2024? In this day and age, we live in a distracting world that constantly seeks our precious attention, energy, time and unfortunately if you don’t plan your day, someone else will. Without knowing what it is you want to do with your time, everything is a potential distraction. So to help you make time for the things that really matter, follow the five key F.O.C.U.S. steps below:
Find your your triggers:
As always everything begins with awareness. When you find yourself about to become distracted, find the internal trigger that is prompting you to do so. For me is a couple of apps that I am contemplating deleting and only accessing via my computer.
Write these down to help you link behaviours with their internal triggers. The better you become at noticing the thoughts and feelings that precede certain behaviours, the better you will become at managing them over time.
Opt for empowering affirmations to become in-distractable:
Stop telling yourself you are a person with a “short attention span” or an “addictive personality” and instead tell yourself, “I am in-distractable” or “I am 100% focus.”
Empower yourself to respond (not react) more healthily to whatever distractions get in your way.
Clarify your values before your goals:
Values are the attributes of the person you want to become. Examples of values might include being a loving parent, seeking wisdom, taking care of your physical and mental fitness, or being a generous friend or contributor to society.
Only you can decide which values are important to you. Also to simplify this process use a scale from 1 to 10 to determine your level of importance of each one.
Use your time wisely:
Time-box your schedules. It means deciding what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it. Example: If health (value) is 10 out of 10 in importance, decide that for 30 minutes p/day (that’s 2% of you day, by the way!) you will dedicate your undisturbed attention to improve it. Absolutely nothing can stop you.
The goal is to create a template for how to spend your time productively each day, based on what you value the most and eliminating all white space in your calendar.
Stop distraction with pacts:
This technique involves making a “pre-commitment” — removing a future choice — in order to overcome distraction. Pre-commitments are decisions we cement well in advance of the temptations we know might come.
As such, this step should only be taken after we have followed the other five steps. One of my personal pre-commitment paths for anything that I set my mind to accomplish this year is: No goal, no chocolate policy.
Last but not least, the BONUS step to becoming in-distractable is to reward yourself if only you successfully did what you said you were going to do within your pre committed time frame.
Basically… Celebrate your wins!
Conclusions
By now it’s understood that becoming in-distractable is not a superpower even though it may feel like. It’s a skill set that is developed following the five key F.O.C.U.S. steps described above.
#1 Find your your triggers
#2 Opt for empowering affirmations
#3 Clarify your values before your goals
#4 Use your time wisely
#5 Stop distraction with pacts
# BONUS Reward yourself.
All powerful points that can truly reshape your life and its quality.
I conclude by sharing this realisation and that is that there are two types of people in the world:
Those who allow their attention and their lives to be manipulated by others and everything else, and those who proudly are in-distractable. When you become in-distractable, you feel better, think better, perform better, and potentially even inspire others to do the same.
Which one do you choose to be in 2024?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. As always feel free to share this article with whoever you believe might benefit from reading these concepts.
Remember, sharing is caring…
PS: If you’re looking for help becoming “in-distractable”, raise your bar this year, and live your best, healthiest life, check out my other blogs or consider getting in touch to find out how my expertise can support you.
As always dedicated to your success and health!
