The Happiness of the Undistracted by Bob Jones

 

“Living on purpose is like a horse wearing blinders.” Bob Goff

 

“We won’t be distracted by comparison if we’re living on purpose.” Bob Goff

 

Hands up if you are struggling with any of the following:

 

Procrastination

Anxiety

Self-esteem

Forgetfulness

Creativity

Focus

 

You are not alone.

 

Ask yourself, “Am I easily distracted?” If you answer “No” then you are more distracted than you understand. That is me. The reality is that when I am consuming more than I am creating my consumption leaves me feeling bloated with a diminished appetite to create. Life gets blurred between the physical and the digital.

 

Did you know some sidewalks in China have cell phone lanes? Now before you get distracted and venture off to Google if the absurd is true, stay focused on what you are reading. (It is true.)

 

Tempted

I am tempted to pay attention to the last text, message, or e-mail I received. The trivial and the crucial occupy the same plane when I fall prey to that temptation.

 

In 2022 we suffer from thinning attention spans and diminished capacity for deep thinking and creativity. Each of us possess a finite store of attention to pay to ideas and to people. Whether we’re trying to keep up with an excessive number of information sources or hundreds of Facebook “friends,” we’ve got only so much attention to spread around. When we keep up with so many ties, our ties can’t help but get thinner.

 

Have you noticed that as we become increasingly distracted, we have to work harder to catch ourselves in the acts of distraction? It takes a great level of awareness to notice our distraction.

 

Bob Goff, in his latest book, Undistracted, writes, "A thousand unnoticed distractions are preventing you from living with the kind of focused purpose that will produce the life you are longing for."

 

Here’s a few thoughts on finding happiness by facing the frenzy of distractions.

 

Keeping Distractions at Bay

 

1. Become aware of why you fall prey to distraction.

There is an attention economy at work. Businesses pay good money to distract you towards what they are selling.

In social media the likes, comments, and connection requests trigger delightful hits of chemical stimulants in our brains.

Distractions are addictive.

Fear of missing out is the fourth horseman of the distraction apocalypse.

 

Awareness acts like God’s nudge towards securing my identity, worth, and fulfillment through my purpose.

 

2. We need periods of uninterrupted time to feel creative. Dedicate focused amounts of time to write with no digital distractions. I turn off email and silence my phone. 50-minutes is my sweet spot but if I am able, I will write longer.

 

3. Give God and your work your undistracted best. I optimize my most energized hours. The optimal time for me to create is between 6am and 8:30am with less between 8:30am and 1:00pm.  I start my days before 6am, by reading a scheduled portion of the Bible, journal and pray. That process is a daily reminder of why I exist and who I serve.

 

4. On a larger scale than just writing, become captivated by something much bigger and much better. My self-esteem comes from God’s estimate of me. My peace of mind comes from working and living out God’s purpose. Likewise, happiness is a by-product of choices I make to put God first.

 

Bob Goff offers a friendly reminder to be attentive to the ultimate goal for our lives as Christ followers, “It doesn’t matter what the work is; it is who we become in the process of doing our work that does, and the goal is to look and act more like Jesus while we do it.”

 

We don't need more facts to find the purpose and kindness and unselfishness we long for. We need a firmly seated faith, a few good friends and a couple of trustworthy reminders.

 

I know you can dedicate August as a month of becoming aware of distractions and freeing yourself for the creativity that makes you happy.

 

 

I write to grow hope, inspire people to be real, forge an authentic faith in Jesus, and discover their life purpose.

Please follow my writing at REVwords.com

I would love to hear from you.

How Writers Cafe Was Born - Joylene M. Bailey

In late 2012 I was becoming desperate for like-minded people. We had been living in Edmonton for 5 years, and I was missing my writer’s group in Saskatchewan. I started thinking that surely there must be other writers out there who felt the same way I did. Maybe I should start a group of my own.

But then all the scary thoughts started plowing through my mind:

- I can’t lead a group! What do I know about writing?

- I need them; they don’t need me.

- Do I really want one more commitment in my already busy life?

- Is there a set protocol for writers groups? I don’t even know what I’m doing.

- Will anybody show up? If I build it, will they come?

But the insistent thought Maybe I should start a group wouldn’t go away. It kept popping its happy head up through all of the negative noise. Gradually I came to realize that this wasn’t just a thought I had come up with on my own. God had put it there. He was nudging me to start a group.

I prayed and prayed, asking God to show me if this idea was really from Him.

LORD, please give me a sign that this is Your idea.

January 2013, just before my husband and I left for a 2 week holiday, a mass email came out to all InScribe members in the Edmonton area: there are no Christian writers groups in Edmonton. Would anyone be willing to start one?

There was my sign.

Still, I hesitated.

We went on our holiday, where that email was never far from my mind. I continued to pray for direction and courage. And I started to get excited.

When we got home I replied to the email. The response was that there had been one other who had shown interest in starting a group. I was given her email address.

We met for coffee. In our conversation we realized that we each had different visions for a group and decided to each start one – meeting at different times of the month and in different parts of the city - and see how that went. We both set our start dates for May.

From March to May our groups were advertised through InScribe’s different venues: website, FellowScript, listserv. I also contacted a couple of writer acquaintances I knew.

When May 8 rolled around I was nervous.

Five strangers showed up, and it was obvious from the start that these people were as anxious as I was to be around other writers. We immediately clicked. I saw that all of my hesitancy and nervousness had been unnecessary. Hadn’t I believed that God had nudged me to start this group? I should have been confident that He would bring the people He wanted and that it would be a safe place from the start.

We met again in June and before we broke for the summer we had decided on a name, based on what people were looking for in a writing group:

Community

Accountability

Feedback

Encouragement

And Writers CAFÉ was born.

In September a few more people joined.  Over the years, others have come along. Some tested the waters for a short time and didn’t stay, but the core people have been around from the beginning. At present we have 10 committed members who come every month. One of our members travels 2 hours, one way, to be with us. 

We range from beginning writer to published author; cover genres from children’s books to poetry, fiction, non-fiction, script writing, and blogs. Each writer is on her own writing journey. Each voice is unique. But we all come together in unity and mutual respect.

I discovered I really didn’t need to worry about leading. I host and facilitate but we all learn from each other. We have become a sisterhood, and the trust we have established is of inestimable worth.   

God is present. It is His group, after all. Together He is molding us and making us into the writers He wants us to be so that we will use our gifts in our unique ways to make Him known.

I love Writers Café, individually and as a group. I have ventured places in my writing that I never would have dared without their encouragement. And their prayers have moved mountains in personal lives.

God is doing marvelous things in and through Writers Café, and it wouldn't have happened this way if I hadn’t been obedient to God’s nudge.