A distracted Life

When preparing for international travel, before I pack the passport and cash it is now customary for me to I pack my phone chargers. My phone must not run out of power. The airlines now have USB ports on the back of the seats in front so that means there must be an I phone charging cord for the I phone and I pod in the hand luggage. The complimentary plugs are neatly packed in both suitcases and hand luggage and if making a stopover in any of those two pin plug countries the necessary adaptors are packed.

The aim of all this fuss to ensure that one is distracted in the present from mainly trivial notifications and that future distractions are catered for by why of a well powered up phone. I can’t even remember the last time I listened to the safety announcement before take -off.

Diverting attention from meaningful activity is what distraction is all about and it has its pleasures.

Throw away, the work to be done

Let the music play on

Unfortunately everyone has work to be done whether it is known yet or not. It is a good thing that the essentials for sustaining life on the planet have been taken out of man’s hands. Breathing, the heart beating and the need to reproduce the next generation just happens automatically, no matter the state of distraction. All three can be achieved even in sleep or in drunken stupor.

For other things we need to manage our distractions and that is no easy task for the agents of distraction get better every year. The gossip gets more salacious and the cars and planes all look sleeker that they did twelve short months ago. A resolve of granite is required to even have a small consistent hobby that you do in the evenings.

I recall the dirty looks I have received when I had the audacity to mention I have never watched Scandal or Game of thrones. I also know all so well the urge to take him by the left leg and throw him down the stairs when I meet people who say they did not watch Pogba et al win the World Cup.

Someone once brought out a phone and it was not a very ‘smart’ one. Calls and texts only was what it said on the tin and it did just that. I wondered how the sad phone owner planned to get distracted. It is true; distracted people look on focused people with a great deal of pity.

They don’t know how to enjoy life

Being focussed is not very fashionable in today’s world to the extent that great achievers dumb down the effort they put in their endeavours. Perhaps they have books to sell to wishful dreamers and they dare not alienate the fans who think they can achieve great things by reading the book of a man who was too busy grinding to have time to read books.

As we get older we surely need to focus on our life’s work. If it is baking for instance it is better to inhabit a world of flour and get the attention distracted from one cake to another. The solution has to be to know one’s life work and make sure all the distractions one is exposed to come from people who inhabit the universe of our own aspirations.

Since the personal phone is now the centre of the universe, rather than fight off the concept, it might be a good idea to learn for this mobile phone addiction that aids mind wandering and the attention deficit that tags along with that.

Focus over the course of a life is the sole preserve of people who pursue what they perceive to be a worthy life goal. It does not matter how much time is spent daily on a goal attainment for over a long period the mind set becomes set in stone. Consistency is crucial to achieving big things.

Those with worthy goals treat their lives like a smart phone. They are in a state of permanently being ‘charged up’ about their goals and would do anything within their powers not to let their dreams run out of batteries.  

When preparing for international travel before the passport or cash is packed, they pack the elements that would fire their dreams. That audio tape or that inspirational book is packed into their hand luggage as the ‘dead time’ spent in the departure lounges of airports and during flights can be a good opportunity for positive content acquisition. Inflight entertainment that does not keep the dreams and aspirations charged are ignored, for watching people live out their ambitions can sometimes be like watching someone else charge their phone longingly while your own batteries go from weak to zero. The responsibility is ours to keep our dream alive, and to ‘break the rules’ if need be. If there is no power supply for your charging cords, carry your own pre-charged power bank!

I once saw a guy agonise about the cracked screen of his phone which he had just dropped. (He was being particularly rude to be at the time so his small accident was a welcomed distraction). He cradled his phone lovingly and you just knew he would have called an ambulance if there was a free smart phone emergency repair service on the NHS. Unfortunately his body did not receive much love from him. Little sleep to ‘recharge his batteries’, toxic downloads to clog up his memory and slow down all operations and he was marinating his mind in alcohol like those people who think their smart phones can withstand boiling water and actually test out their hypothesis.

Man smart but woman smarter

At least the ladies put the kids before the phone. The kids always get fed, watered, cleaned then put to bed before the manicured nails start to negotiate the touch screen.