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Living In A Sports Crazy World

I know I’m going to sound a bit crazy for saying this.  But the sports obsession in the USA and the world for that matter is out of control!

Sometimes the excesses in sports remind me of a sort of strange fundamentalist, religious fervor?  I’ve always felt that there are more than 3 major religions in this world.  And watching 50,000-85,000 people crowd a soccer stadium during world cup is evidence to me that the alters towards our gods come in all shapes and sizes.  And as we heap the minutes, hours, and days of our time upon the fire as willing sacrifices to the exorbitantly inflated salaries of competing athletes, it has to say something about us …right?

Admittedly, I’m a fairly casual sports fan. This doesn’t mean I don’t have other alters of my own. So relax.

Growing up I played basketball, soccer, cricket, chase-the-girls-around-school, and many other sports for fun.  I still remember running suicides during varsity basketball practice, and having epic fantasies of my 5′ 9”(ok, 5′ 8″ ish) frame easily dunking a basketball(It happened once or twice   And yes, I loved watching Michael Jordan sail over the heads of his opponents time and time again, while simultaneously breathing a new hope into the wide eyed faces of a generation.

Yes, I too could be like Mike.

I also recognize the benefits of discipline, lessons of perseverance, or simply a much needed outlet for relaxation or good spirited comradery over a shared jug of one’s favorite beverage.  Yes.  We all need a moment.

But watching the world collectively command the sun to stand still as we waited with baited breath for Lebron James’ Decision was..was…(I mean I still watched it for research purposes) but it was… a bit ridiculous.

And do some lives suck that bad that folks have to resort to burning jerseys to show their devotion?{Old news I know…but still…}

I’m just saying…As long as we have the same intensity when it comes to our lives, and affairs then I’m cool. It’s just when the culture of I-don’t-think-I-have-a-ton-going-on-in-my-life meets dedicating huge chunks of my life and facebook/twitter wall to living vicariously through sweaty mutltimillionaires, that I take issue…AND while I’m at it, lets stop going nuts over Superbowl commercials.  I beg of you.  They’re freaking commercials! (exhaling)…

All I’m advocating is that we paint our faces, and blow some annoying vuvuzelas for the things that are of equal value, or arguably of infinite value: Our lives.

Let us draw real inspiration from the sports giants of our world, but refuse the role of perpetual spectator.

Let us go nuts about discovering our passion, and pursuing our dreams.  Let us organize keg/tea parties for our greatest feats of creativity, displays of strength, and existential dexterity.  Where we become the most valuable players in the ultimate game of discovering truth for ourselves.

Let us get some collective lives. By maintaining a balance that prioritizes whats most valuable in life above other things.  We’re worth more…

Now I’m going to go find a jersey of mine to burn…(Go Lakers)

What do you think?

Pause: Remembering moments from the greatest basketball player of all times:

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Just How It Feels(Sometimes)

I heard a commercial the other day for a drug called cymbalta.  It claimed that if you were feeling grief, guilt, or pain, that you might be a candidate for this drug.  I don’t know about you, but depression commercials make me angry.  But that’s another story.  The commercial had me thinking.

The last few weeks I have been a little more quiet on explore truth, not because I’m clinically depressed, or because I haven’t been thinking about the question of God, or grappling with what and how I believe what I claim to believe.  BUT, I have been working through some recent health concerns that have gotten me down a bit.

And to make things more interesting, the last doctor I visited recently suggested a depression medication because he couldn’t seem to find the answer for the cause of some back pain issues I’ve been having.

I’ve always been relatively healthy, so this is new territory for me.  Going into detail on my particular health issues isn’t the particular focus of this post. However, learning how to respond to the inevitable curve balls, health and otherwise, that life can throw your way, is something worth looking at.

So what have I learned?

I’ve learned first hand that the our health care system has serious flaws.

Not only does not having insurance magnify issues of a marginalized class of people in this country, but a system skewed towards reacting to health symptoms, as opposed to being motivated towards preventative, and more holistic cures, is also vexing.

I am no expert on the nuances of what is right or wrong with America’s health care system, but my recent visits to the doctors office have also bred there fair share of frustration at how little care some doctors express in, well, caring.

All of this has further solidified my desire to become more educated on the measures I, and individuals like myself can take when it comes to understanding their own health, and become their own health experts as it pertains to growing in the area of illness prevention.

I’ve also learned that just because you prefer the walls of your room to close in around you, or wish that the escape of a nights sleep could last just a few hours longer, doesn’t mean that ones dreams, hopes, and purposes go away.

In fact, for me, my recent bout with these shadows of uncertainty, anxiety, and discomfort, have served me with moments of even deeper reflection.  All of which have begun to focus my attention on one of life’s underestimated skills:

Learning how to exercise the power of choice to keep moving forward despite the negative stimuli that life exerts on you.

I am learning that a lot can happen in the space between the things that happen to you, and how you respond to them.  Better understanding this space, separates the life long victim from the overcomer.  Maybe even a life of depression from a season of despair.

I also have been reminded of the importance of not taking the good times for granted. For some reason that has motivated a renewed interest in intentionally remembering all of the good, and awe inspiring things that surround me everyday.

Without pretending to know the depths and plight of true depression, I know that life touches everyone with moments of pain or sadness.  Aren’t we all trying to make it through? Aren’t we all trying to have more moments of laughter and joy despite inevitable pain and uncertainty?  Don’t we all experience those moments when the sounds of music are just warmer, or a kind word of encouragment goes farther than the giver could have ever intended?

I think thats why we draw strength from those who have survived great adversity and continued on.  We desire to know how they did it, and if we could ever manage to do the same.  Something in us refuses to just sit around, waiting to die…

We are all in the same fraternal order.  Initiated at birth, and traveling through life’s highs and lows, towards that point of infinite possibilities.

And when the sun is shining, and all is well in our lives, it sometimes blinds one to an ever present truth.  The truth that people all around us may be going through a private moment of depression, pain, or moments of despair.  This is something I’ve been reminded of.

So I have chosen to share/blog through these dull moments with you, in the hopes you can draw something from them, and that you will dare to return your secrets of survival with me, and those around you.  We all are, or will need them one day, or season, when we least expect them.

What ways do you survive your dark moments? Does your spirituality play a role?  How does your current view of life and all its meaning help in these times?

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Exploring Authenticity & Spiritual Marketing with Tony Teegarden Part #2

Part #2 of my conversation with Tony Teegarden(Part #1 here). In this half of our conversation we explored the subjects of authenticity, a cubicle nation, his views on Spiritual Marketing(a term I am new too), and more…

Again, due to a technical issues, some parts are a bit jumpy.

Exploring Clarity, Congruency & Creativity with Tony Teegarden – Part #2 from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

• 0:15 – Defining Authenticity
• 3:03 – Projecting our greatness unto other people
• 4:36 – Tony shares his view on “Spiritual Marketing”
• 8:18 – Tony shares future projects (blogging as a business, & personal coaching)

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Exploring Clarity, Congruency & Creativity with Tony Teegarden

Developing in all aspects of our lives is something that most of us desire, but achieve with varying degrees of success or effectiveness.

Tony Teegarden has helped me grow, particularly in the areas of gaining clarity on my career goals, and developing some important entrepreneurial skills.  I was fortunate to sit down with him(via skype) and catch up on where he is now in his life, and as usual, he dropped a few gems worth careful consideration.

The video is a bit choppy at times, but still very watchable.  Here’s part #1 of our interview.  Hope you enjoy:

Exploring Clarity, Congruency & Creativity with Tony Teegarden from Veron Graham on Vimeo.

Summary of Interview:

• 0:50 – Philosophy on work
• 5:00 – Creativity & congruency as core values
• 7:00 – Gaining Clarity & Advise for those making transition from work to work that connects to core values
• 9:35 – What he’s learned as entrepreneur/solopreneur -
• 10:30 – Getting clear on what kind of life you really want to live?
• 11:30 – Rethinking the Time & Money ratio. Do you have a life?
• 12:59 – Authenticity & life as a blogger

Part #2 of our converssation: Here

What are some things you value regarding your work or career?

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Dogs, Nails, & Secrets To Your Personal Revolution

This blog post is about pain. A lot of pain, but not enough.  It is the kind of pain that will inevitably save you, by inspiring you to your better self.  Transformation.  Sometimes it seems that without these red hot moments of inconvenience, we would go on, simply existing, and forgetting our true condition.

You’ve heard the story about the dog and the nail right? Well, either way, I’m about to tell a rough paraphrased version of it to you.

Ok, gather around boys and girls…

A man had been driving through the country on an old dusty road and was looking for somewhere to rest and stretch his legs.  He had been driving for some hours and had not passed any places where he could rest and recharge.

As the sun started its decent into the afternoon the man saw in the distance a small farmhouse.  As he drove closer he could see an old farmer sitting on a chair looking out into his fields.

The man, who was in need of a break decided he would pull up to the farm and see if he could rest a while.  The man pulled up on the roadside and walked up the well worn driveway.  When he approached the old farmer he asked if he could sit next to him and rest a while.  The farmer looked up with a piece of straw in his mouth, smiled and nodded at the man.

As the man walked to take his seat next to the old farmer he noticed an old working dog lying beside the farmers legs.

Giving the dog a quick pat the man sat himself on the next chair and closed his eyes to give them a well deserved rest.

As time went by the man noticed that the dog sitting next to the farmer would suddenly howl and yelp in great pain then suddenly stop.

The dog did this 3 to 4 times in the hour he had been sitting there and finally the man looked over at the old farmer and asked, ‘why does your dog howl and yelp every now and then?’

The farmer looked down at the dog, shook his head and looked up at the man, the old farmer replied, “you see son this old dog here is lying on a nail, but its only hurts enough to yelp about”.

The man looked at the dog and wondered to himself how many things in his life hurt only enough to complain about, but not enough to do something about.

I’ve been that dog.  And there are a list of reasons/excuses for being that dog:

• Laziness/Lack of motivation:  Sometimes we just lack the needed work ethic.

• Distractions: Becoming distracted by short term desires, and denying what I truly wanted.  (i.e Doing work I wasn’t supposed to be doing)

• Confusion:  Not being crystal clear on what I’m supposed to be doing.  Spending my time engaged in activities that do not align with my core values.  Anyone remember what reason Tiger Woods gave for his indiscretions? (Going against your core values, losing site of them…)

  Going against your core values and losing site of them sound bite Tiger Woods sound bites

  

  I think everything we do should spring from our core values…

• Poor Health:  Sometimes laziness, or any of the aforementioned reasons can simply be a attributed to a lack of water, or your wanna be tendencies towards insomnia.  Health is important.  It matters, and is the foundation that our physical minds, bodies, and souls are able to interact, and function at their best.

Now picture me in pain, with all of the above reasons and excuses, careening into a gas station, my gas needle below E, and my car sputtering to a stop at pump 3.

Now picture me again, groveling around the bottom of the car floor, between the seat cracks, just to scrounge up $1.88 cents in change, in order to get enough gas to make it home.

Imagine a long line behind you at the gas station, while the teller, who, mind you, is making pennies(no disrespect intended), slowly counts your money onto the counter as if to suggest you may be pulling some practical joke when you pour a handful of change unto the counter.  I think to myself: No, “bruh”, I’m broke as hell, and I need to get my car home.

Then in a loud voice, he almost yells:

“$1.88 cents on pump 3″

I mutter thank you, and run out of the store. (haha…man that was embarrassing…but wonderful at the same time)

Sometimes you need to be dead broke, for a financial change to really take its hold.  I know that, and other similar experiences have helped me firm up my commitment to self employment, and to doing work that matters.

As a society, many of us are feeling the pain of a much needed economic pinch right now.  Many of us were doing better years ago, or getting by just enough to do anything about the “nails” in our lives.

Sometimes you need to feel the sting of under-appreciation at a job that isn’t structured to maximize or inspire your true potential.  Or get the dreadful tap on your shoulder from your boss, inviting you to one of those “special meetings.”  You know the ones where they bring you your cubicle belongings, and politely ask you never to return.  Now you begin to think about finding work you actually love.  Or starting that small business or non profit organization.

Maybe we can only move when the need for change slaps us across the face. Its a sweet sort of pain, isn’t it?  It slows you down, and after the desperation recedes, you can face yourself.  You can look at the fears, or the excuses you have been making,  You are now motivated and inspired to confront those paper dragons, and toothless lions.  Those shadowy, pseudo giants, that have been keeping you from doing the big thing(s), and being so much more.

Let’s make it happen

• Have you felt the nails of being under-appreciated at your job?

• Have you felt the self loathing accompanied with wanting to live healthier, but totally feeling under-motivated?

• Has the reality of your finite nature touched you in the form of the loss of a close family member or relative?

Let the pain work…

Feature picture: skelter

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The Conspiracy Against Silence

Silence can be like a clean white page, before the blur of words.  Or like the darkness.  It really isn’t a thing, but the absence of something.  For darkness, that thing is light.  For silence, it is noise.  The echoes of sound tightly trapped inside the walls of your mind.  The ones you can’t seem to get away from.

It seems to me that noise is a sort of addiction.  Like I’m driving in the car, and my hand automatically flicks the radio on.  I don’t want to hear anything, what I really want to do is figure out where I’m going….in life.

I want to get the things done on the list.

I want to relax and organize the thoughts swarming inside.

I want to regain control.  But I feel like there’s something on the radio that I’m missing.  Something to help me pass the time.  So I channel surf.  Through the stations of noise.  And if I can’t find what I’m not looking for, there’s the T.V, or the internet, or the mall.  It’s almost like society has agreed that silence is boring, or wrong.  Like staying in on a Saturday night is such a socially dwarfed activity.

If life was so valuable, wouldn’t we want to slow it down?  Where are we going in such a hurry?  Why are we so eager to fill it with the things that seem so meaningless?

So it’s beginning to make sense why it’s so difficult sometimes to just sit down and write.  Or why I find it hard to leave the beach after staring at the horizon for awhile. Trying to take in the unfathomable radiance.

We live in a world with noise.  But without filters, or a means to establish silent zones, we will drive ourselves mad.  Becoming swept away in the momentum of societies assumed rule of perpetual motion.

How do you break away from the noise in your life?  What is your quiet place?

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Crack Is One Helluva Drug, But What About Facebook?

I hope I’m not being insensitive to the grave circumstances surrounding substance abuse, nor am I overly fond of the picture I used above this post.  But the parallels between addictive behavior in general and those found associated with online media, particularly Facebook and Twitter, do share some similarities.

So if you were wondering where you stood on the question of your addiction to your favorite social media community, here are some clues I came up with that may shed a little light on where you might stand.  These scenarios may or may not suggest examples of my online habits in any way.

1. If you’ve found yourself on Facebook , Twitter, or some online site, but originally got on your computer to do something else, and now have forgotten what exactly that other thing was…The crack may be trying to get you…
2. If you’ve found yourself in a room full of family or friends, and their were at least two to three computers open, a BlackBerry or iPhone, and conversations are all taking place over the top of your laptops or phones…The crack is about to get you….
3. If you’ve been making a promise each week for the past year, that you will cut down on your Twitter or Facebook use, and you haven’t..well…the crack may just have about got you…
4. If you reach over in bed and lovingly caress your laptop in the night, because you dosed of, with it almost burning a hole in your chest…well..that’s just sad…(ok, I’ll admit to this one…guilty as charged)
5. If your index fingers are slightly calloused due to excessive mouse tracking on your laptops mouse pad, or if your wrist and fingers involuntarily begin making clicking motions in public, and you try to pretend like you’re just pointing at something…well..that’s just strange…
6. If you hesitate to open your Facebook chat, because you know you just may be flooded with people just wanting to say hi, and you have stuff to do, but for some strange reason you open your chat anyway….hey it’s called loneliness, we all have to face it…but the crack is getting to you…
7. If you have more than 10 tabs open on your computer, (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, your email, a few sites you stumbled into, the thing you were actually intending to do when you came online) and you’re so disgusted with the info overload, that you start randomly shutting them all down, without checking to see if any of them were important…and then you realize you had an unfinished report or email that you have to retype…well…that was dumb,  but kudos..you are fighting the crack…this is a start.
8. If you’re version of a nightmare, is one where you aren’t able to find the favorite button for a YouTube video you like, so much that it wakes you up, and you go online in the real world?  Well…dang…what the hay?…
9. If people wonder why your hands are always perched between your legs, fumbling around with that all important text, status update, or one of the 100′s of thousands of apps available through your mobile device…well…be prepared for some misunderstandings.  I’m just saying…
10. If you get this warm cuddly feeling whenever you think of Facebook, and you’re actually ashamed and confused that you could be had in this way…well..join the club…that’s just the tension between truth and your current reality.  Make your way to the exit signs…
11. If the girls or guys online just seem so much easier to “Talk” to…haha…well…its time my friend…to make your way out into the sunshine.  Shave your face, or legs, and get back into physically close proximity to real human beings.  The crack has officially GOT you…I’m just saying.

All goofing around aside…Let’s figure out a way to get a handle on whatever website continues to pimp our time.  On December 31st, 2009, I casually stumbled on a 1 week challenge sparked by John Mayer.  In essence, he challenged his “twitter followers” to a brain dump, or more clearly put, an information diet, or a fast from the social media sites that can take up a lot of our time.

I jumped in, and since January 1st, 2010 until January 8th,  2010, I, with trembling fingers, stayed clear from all that was eeeeevil online.  Ok, I don’t need a medal for this effort.  It was only a week right?  Hmmm…well, the point was well taken Mr. Mayer.  I along with millions of Americans, and the world for that matter, are still trying to figure out how to manage the time spent on various social media sites.

According to an article in the New York Times, a Nielsen study shows the average time spent on Facebook for the 25-35 age group to be just between 3-4 hours a day.  Where do you think  you stand?  And for those really wanting to push the envelop, and don’t think any of this relates to them, consider giving John Mayer’s wee experiment a try.  The proof is in the pudding or the break from it..right? (BTW, as if powdered Facebook wasn’t enough, now you can drink Facebook, check it out).

The week away from Facebook, and twitter wasn’t that tough for me, but it did make me better recognize the casual tendency to repeatedly check email, Twitter, Facebook, and the other often visited sites, to the detriment of actual work I was trying to do online, or my computer.  And that’s the issue, especially for those who spend a lot of time on a computer for work, school, or their business, and even more important for those like myself, who value building relationships and networking to further business goals.  The key is knowing where to manage the line between genuine networking, and relationship building, and wasting time.

Do your online habits, or mobile phone usage, interrupt your ability to get the things you really value done?

If any of this applies in anyway, and you are serious about reclaiming your time, and increasing your productivity in 2010, check out “RescueTime”. The video below gives a short demo into how it works(I am not affiliated with this service, nor do I get paid in any way to promote about it. In fact I haven’t even used it, but it sure looks like a good idea). It’s basically a software that “automagically” tracks which web sites & applications are actively used at your computer and provides charts of this data.  So far, without any cool time tracking software, I just have a gut feeling, that my productivity can always do with a little tweaking!

RescueTime Time Tracking Overview from Tony Wright on Vimeo.

Also check out:

Facebook Addiction Growing Issue

Psychologist Discusses Facebook Addiction

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New Years Resolutions or Pie In The Sky Fantasies?

So I happened across a video on Donald Millers blog that was pretty interesting.  Considering this is the time of year, where we make our list of promises, pledges, and commitments.  “This time will be different”, we say.  We line up at gym’s and hurriedly sign away the contracts, hoping that the forced commitment will force us to do what we know we need, and desperately desire to be done.
Donald Miller and Dr. Henry Cloud discuss why new years resolutions can be pie in the sky talk, and that there truly can only be one resolution that deals with this intrinsic issue.  The issue of maturity.  And that takes time.  However deeply we wish to lose the weight, or quit that bad habit cold turkey.  Change takes time.  We can wish for microwave speed results, but are we willing to commit, or better put, submit to the process?

Check it out.  I think they make some good points.  For the original blog post, visit Don’s blog.

New Years Resolutions – All Things Converge Podcast preview from All Things Converge Podcast on Vimeo.

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Sharpening My Focus – Part 2

Recently I shared some of the things in my life that were making it hard for me to focus on my goals. I decided that everything that wasn’t absolutely needed for the completion of what I truly wanted to achieve had to go.

Here’s what that has meant for me:

I’ve learned that making huge financial commitments can compete with other decisions that impact ones quality of life.  For me, I’ve always valued certain aspects of entrepreneurship.  Doing what you love, on your own terms, while making a positive difference in the world directly or indirectly, have all been ideals that I’ve been working towards.  However, huge financial commitments can also mean huge time commitments, making the realization of full-time entrepreneurship a challenge.

One decision in particular proved problematic.  I decided to buy my first home.  Well, the bank was more than happy to help me with this.  Although I was pretty excited, and grateful, this decision to take on a mortgage, and all the related fees that come with home ownership, immediately placed tension between some of the other goals I had set.

Now, we all have expenses, but how much income we need, can also be heavily influenced by how much we desire.  So for me, the choice of becoming a homeowner, made it hard to break away from an unsatisfying job.  And yes, we should all be thankful for any job, but I do not think a spirit of thankfulness, also demands a spirit of settling, or dissatisfaction.  And, although extremely grateful for employment, I also wasn’t happy.  I had to ask myself, what is more important to me at this point in my life.  Being grateful that I “just had a job” that paid the bills, but afforded me little time to focus on being my true self?  building a business that would eventually give me more time freedom, mobility, and the ability to spend more time volunteering in causes that I believed in.

So I decided to do two things:

• Quit my job. I had enough saved up, to buy me about a year or so without having to worry about going hungry, but I also realized I had to significantly reduce my expenses in order for this to work.
  

• Lower expenses. This led me to sell my house, and reduce other unnecessary expenses.

I mentioned that the internet/media and T.V also proved to distract me from what I really was trying to accomplish.  Here is what I had to do, and continue to implement in order to keep the main thing, the main thing.

Get rid of the T.V

I managed, by default to do this about 3 years ago, and it has made a world of difference.  When I moved into my home, there seemed to be a wiring issue with the cable, and it only worked in one room.  Before calling an electrician to fix the problem, I decided to use this as an opportunity to see how long I could go without watching TV.  Besides a movie here or there, and catching up on whats going on online, it’s been about 3 years since I’ve personally owned a T.V, and I can’t say I miss it.

Now if it sounds like I’m advocating that we all revert back to the stone age, and join a commune in the country somewhere, well, although that idea has crossed my mind, I am simply evaluating the myriad of things that threaten our dreams and goals, and determining if they are worth it.

Fixing the internet addiction

As proud as I may sound about getting over the TV addiction, the internet has almost replaced that past time.  If you’re anything like me, the internet represents at least 1-2 hours per day, if not more, of your disposable time(if any time can be considered disposable).  I started to try to self correct this time waster by scheduling when I’d check emails, facebook, twitter, and the list goes on.  The thing about habits, is that they die hard.  Having immediate access to anything you want online a few clicks away, proves to be a proposition too tempting to pass up most of the time.  And when you’re trying to actually get some work done, and accomplish the things that really matter to you, at some point enough becomes enough.  That’s when I heard about a simple software program while reading Nancy Rawlinson’s Blog.  The program is called Freedom, and what it does is simply block your internet use for the amount of time you specify.  If you’re serious about reclaiming your time, this may help.  And its free.

As 2009 wraps up, I guess you can say that I’m a bit more conscious of how I can continue to simplify my life, and get more stuff done.  What ways to you stay focused?

“When it’s time to die, let us not discover that we have never lived.” — Henry David Thoreau

“I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all encumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run. ”
— Henry David Thoreau

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Sharpening My Focus – Part 1

With the new year around the corner, and the continued reality of an economic pinch. It seems as good a time as any to take stock of my new found interest the minimalist lifestyle, or more commonly stated, the simple life. For the past year or two I’ve tried, from time to time, to post my ongoing attempts at gaining more focus around the things that matter most in life.

How important is clarity in a world vying for your attention? It seems that all that surrounds the modern life conspires for it fragmentation.  Increasing obligations, and mass marketing all threaten any attempts at a prolonged coherent thought, not to mention consistent action.

I awake in the morning with the goal of accomplishing certain things. And in all honesty, how successful my day is, already depends on how clearly defined these goals are.  If not, I don’t stand a fighting chance with so much vying for my attention.  If I am not zealously clear as to the days objectives, forget about it, its not going to get done.  Maybe you can relate?

And so goes the endless cycle of daily routine and failure. But what I sometimes wouldn’t consider is although I was good at writing down my goals, and reviewing them often, there also seemed to be things that would always frustrate the process.  Things that make you forget what you are trying to accomplish, and so easily seem to throw you of course.

As a result of this history, I started asking myself, what I could do to give the goals in my life a fighting chance.  And it just made sense, that if there were competing forces vying for attention, that those forces, needed to be deleted, or managed.  That’s when I began to realize that the information on productivity was endless.  At first the concept of simplifying your life wasn’t sexy, and in some ways, I guess it may never seem that way to a lot of folks.  Don’t expect any 30 seconds advertisements praising the virtues of only buying what you need. But as of late, the subject has been gaining a very practical sort of relevance in my life, and in the life of millions of people who are just plain tired and stressed out by overly complicated lives.

The further I’ve read on the topic, the more I began to see that by riding myself of distractions, and the barrage of incoming information and messages, the clearer I can think, and the more focused I can become on a single objective.

David Allen refers to these messages as open loops.  He defines what it means in his Getting Things Done book:

An Open Loop is anything pulling at your attention that doesn’t belong where it is, the way it is.

The Getting Things Done method is an intricate system of built around the premise that one needs to get as much stuff from outside of your head, so that you can focus on actually getting things done. I’ll admit, after reading the book, that it was very helpful, but at times, seemed overwhelming.  So here, I’ve just focused on some basic things that have begun this process for me.  I may tackle a more thorough review of the GTD book at a later time.

Here’s an unrelated video that I stumbled on that I think gives an example of what your life can turn into if you’re not aware of how easily it is to become overwhelmed with everything vying for your attention.

The “Stuff” that’s to blame

David Allen describes stuff as:

Anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step. [pg. 17]

Here are some of the “stuff” that I’ve identified as contributing to a more complicated existence for me. In a later post, I’ll share what I’ve actually done to manage or rid myself of some of these things.

Mess

This is a term generally referring to all the things around you or in your life, that don’t need to be there. They can be huge things, or all those little details.  A physically cluttered environment, or all those to do list, that keep rolling over into the next to-do list.  The more cluttered my environment, the more my brain seems to have to work.

Toxic Relationships

These are the people, that for whatever reason, are apart of your life, but for some reason, seem to repeatedly affect you in a negative way.  Where they are in their life, and where you are, may just not be congruent.

Television

Some call it the one eyed devil, and I’m not here to cast stones or preach, but here are some interesting statistics from the A.C. Nielsen Co. that really shook me up! These statistics really made me evaluate how I was spending my time.

According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube.

Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000. source

I did the math, and that comes out to about 55 TV messages per day alone. Messages all calling for some sort of action, or lobbying for storage place in an already desperately clustered brain.

Email

If you’re anything like me, you have a ton of messages all being delivered via various in boxes. Jumping on my laptop to check my email used to be a morning ritual.  And to be honest, I sometimes still struggle with this.  Why is this a such a big deal?  Well for me, it appears that how I begin my day, really effects how focused and successful the rest of it was.  And beginning your day bombarded by hundreds of unread email can be destabilizing.

Internet

In 2006 researchers from Ball State’s Center for Media Design (CMD) uncovered this:

The average person spends about nine hours a day using some type of media. source

The internet  is a beast when it comes to sucking ones time, or throwing me of course.  There’s an obvious benefit to networking, staying in touch with family and friends, and all the various constructive activities that keep us online(I’m not sure if this included Mafia Wars people.  .  However, for me, I’ve realized that the things I’ve usually set out to do, often get thrown of track by an urgent desire to post some ridiculously important facebook or twitter status update, or some imaginary email I’m expecting.

Phone

Now you don’t want to be stuck on the highway at 2am with car trouble, and without your cell phone(I’ll tell you that story another time).  But there are times where that little metallic object in your purse or pocket, can be the channel where people can reach into your life, and easily throw you of course.  A way to manage that access is vital.

Bills

Bills, Bills, Bills. I know, you don’t like me cussing up a storm like that.  Financial disorganization, or unneeded expenses can really put a lot of unneeded stress on the mind.  For me, the largest of which is my home mortgage.  I’ll explain why I call this an unnecessary expense next time, and what I’ve done, or am doing to manage these various open loop traps in my life.

Part 2 to come…

What messes with your focus, and what ways have helped you get back on track?  Trust me, I’m all ears.

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