It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisons about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny. (Anthony Robbins)

In a blog post in December, My Learning Journey, I talked about my last year’s word being “learning”, and I committed to “focus” in 2011. But it’s been kind of hard to focus because I keep getting distracted with learning!

Enough Distractions Already!

I can’t catch a breath without more email flooding my inbox. Much of it catches my interest with special offers to investigate, upcoming webinars and teleseminars to listen to, and blog post comments to read and respond to.

And then I check my RSS feed and scan all the blogs I’m subscribed to, and there’s so much good stuff to read there and comment on.

Not far behind is Twitter, with new followers to check out – I like to scan their recent tweets and visit my followers’ websites to see what they’re up to.

And I can’t forget my personal Facebook account where I exchange ongoing inane comments with my friends and family about who’s snow pile is higher, theirs or mine. So far, I’m winning, living out in the country and all. And I have the pictures to prove it!

And wouldn’t you know, WordPress.com just had to introduce a 2011 postaday and postaweek challenge to cheer on motivated bloggers and to motivate unmotivated bloggers. Of course, gearing up to be focused this year, I signed up. They send topic prompts every day to inspire us, but I haven’t quite kept up my end of things even though I only committed to post once a week. (I plead on the grounds of a medical condition that I not be held accountable for my lack of accountability. Seriously though!)

Of course, there’s also the rest of my life…. but we won’t go there. It’s hard enough to shame myself in the online world about online distractions. I don’t need to expose the chaos in my face-to-face existence too.

Back on Track

But I’m getting back on track again today.

I watched a YouTube video with John Assaraf – Stop Letting Distractions Get You Down – where he asks, “What distractions are you letting get in your way?” All I could say to myself was, “Everything!” (hoping Assaraf couldn’t hear me through the YouTube screen).

Then I reread a blog post by Chris Brogan from late December 2010 – Distractions Are Yours to Manage – and revisited my comments on his post.

Chris, when I look at the list of 5 distractions you’ve tackled, your solutions seem so obvious – definitely not rocket science – so why do so many people find this such a helpful post?

I guess it’s partly because repetition is key to learning. And because you’ve captured key challenges so many of us face in the digital (and F-2-F) world. And because you’ve planted seeds of possible change and this time of year is a time to think about change.

But maybe more than all that it’s because you’ve make it clear that we are responsible for making that change happen ourselves. Yes, your words, “you decide.., you decide… you decide” liberate all of us from making excuses and awaken us to realize that we are ultimately responsible for our own actions. And that is a very good thing!

“Focus” is my theme for 2011. This post and the subsequent comments helped cement that for me. Have a scary and liberating year!

Excuses Don’t Fly and Neither Can I

Not to be humble or anything but I think that was a pretty insightful comment I made (well, other than telling Chris that his post wasn’t rocket science).  Wow, was that really me? Just reading my words (and, of course, Chris’ post too) reminded me that I am responsible for my actions.

So focus or not focus, use my time wisely or waste it, pursue higher priorities or lower priorities, it’s all up to me. Excuses don’t fly and neither can I!

But what if I stopped making excuses? Is it possible that I really could fly – in my personal and professional life? Isn’t that how all the high achievers make it in this world? No excuses! No distractions! Just focus!

So what excuses are holding you down from focusing this year? What are you going to do about it so you can fly too?  You decide! (I write….)

Tags: Anthony Robbins, Blogging, Chris Brogan, Distractions, focus, I write, John Assaraf, John Von Achen, PostaWeek2011, The Daily Post at WordPress

This entry was posted on January 18, 2011 at 10:30 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Professional Growth by Bonnie 22 Comments