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While having a casual conversation with my wife about deciding on what we want for our marriage and lives, something quite unrelated just hit me as the discussion progressed. This scripture:
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.
1 Corinthians 10:23 (NIV)
was immediately brought to light in my mind and it made a whole lot more sense to me. I realized that many people, like myself, indeed go about with the mindset of I can do anything. While there is nothing wrong with having that mindset, stretching yourself over a number of to-dos at the same time can be very exhausting.
As my focus is to help you reach your goals and become successful and wealthy, let me break it down in this way for you. Say you have a plan to get to point X. Now, there is a straight path from where you are to that point. If you go straight, you will get there in 1 hour. You are determined to get to point X and as fast as you can so you start your journey.
This scenario is simple enough and anybody can make it to point X if they want. However, not everybody makes it in time and some people don’t make it at all. The reason for this is simple. Many people who want to get to the place, point X, we are talking about fail to balance the distractions on the path.
What do I mean? Distractions are distractions only if you let them. There is really nothing good or bad about what many people call distractions. There is a place for everything in life. The difference between the person who gets to point X in exactly an hour, the one who gets there after more than an hour and the one who never arrives is how they manage their distractions.
In life, entertainment is not good or bad. Sleep is not good or bad. Playing games, partying, hanging out with friends for long hours, DJing, painting, taking time off from work, dancing, and strolling are not good or bad. Think of anything in your life others have called a distraction—you’ll realize after careful thought that they are not necessarily good or bad. Distractions are good as long as they are helping you reach your goal. They become a problem when they are holding you back.
If my point X is to be a doctor and I spend my time playing games when an exam I am not ready for is ahead, then playing games becomes a bad thing for me. On the flip-side, if I decide to study hard but get tired and then get into playing games for a while to refresh and get back to studying, then playing games becomes a good thing for me. Did you see what just happened with the two scenarios there?
Good, you caught that!
I will conclude with this. A distraction is only a distraction if it is not serving a purpose you assign to it. Now, go out there and make good of the distractions in your life!