Tune Out the Noise.

Noise is an unpleasant sound that is undesired. ¹ Noise can also be anything that does not give us the desired sound signal. One must tune out the noise to listen to one’s intuition/gut. The naysayers are often the loudest. They will tell you with certainty why your goals are impossible and call you crazy. It can be tough, as most of the noise comes from people closest to us. Self-doubt will definitely creep in at some point, but you have to trust yourself and the universe. As American film director and screenwriter Steven Spielberg noted in his 2016 Harvard University Commencement Speech ² “Your Intuition Whispers,” I want to be clear that your intuition is different from your conscience. They work in tandem, but here’s the distinction: Your conscience shouts, ‘here’s what you should do,’ while your intuition whispers, ‘here’s what you could do.’ Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do. Nothing will define your character more than that.

And again, this is why it’s so important to listen to your internal whisper. It’s the same one that compelled Abraham Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the correct moral choices. In your defining moments, do not let your morals be swayed by convenience or expediency. Sticking to your character requires a lot of courage. And to be courageous, you’re going to need a lot of support.

Hyperfocus ³

You enter this mode by managing your attention deliberately and purposefully: by choosing one important object of attention, eliminating distractions that will inevitably arise as you work, and then focusing on just that one task. Hyperfocus is many things at once: it’s deliberate, undistracted, and quick to refocus, and it leads us to become completely immersed in our work. It also makes us immensely happy.

Hyperfocus means you’re less busy, because you’re permitting fewer objects into your attentional space.

When it comes to your most important tasks, the fewer things you pay attention to, the more productive you become. The most important aspect of hyperfocus is that only one productive or meaningful task consumes your attentional space.

To hyperfocus, you must:

Choose a productive or meaningful object of attention;
Eliminate as many external and internal distractions as you can;
Focus on that chosen object of attention; and
Continually draw your focus back to that one object of attention.

Traction vs Distraction ⁴

Imagine a line that represents the value of everything you do throughout your day. To the right, the actions are positive; to the left, they are negative. On the right side of the continuum is traction, which comes from the Latin trahere, meaning “to draw or pull.” We can think of traction as the actions that draw us toward what we want in life. On the left side is distraction, the opposite of traction. Derived from the same Latin root, the word means the “drawing away of the mind.” Distractions impede us from making progress toward the life we envision.

Whether prompted by internal or external triggers, the resulting action is either aligned with our broader intention (traction) or misaligned (distraction). Traction helps us accomplish goals; distraction leads us away from them.

Internal triggers cue us from within. When we feel our belly growl, we look for a snack. When we’re cold, we find a coat to warm up. And when we’re sad, lonely, or stressed, we might call a friend or loved one for support.
External triggers, on the other hand, are cues in our environment that tell us what to do next, like the pings, dings, and rings that prompt us to check our emails, open a news alert, or answer a phone call. External triggers can also take the form of other people, such as a coworker who stops by our desk. They can also be objects, like a television set whose mere presence urges us to turn it on.

All behaviors, whether they tend toward traction or distraction, are prompted by triggers, internal or external.

Narrow Your Choices ⁵

A life full of distractions is, at an individual level, diminished. When you are unable to pay sustained attention, you can’t achieve the things you want to achieve. You want to read a book, but you are pulled away by the pings and paranoias of social media. You want to spend a few uninterrupted hours with your child, but you keep anxiously checking your email to see if your boss is messaging you.

You want to set up a business, but your life dissolves instead into a blur of Facebook posts that only make you feel envious and anxious. Through no fault of your own, there never seems to be enough stillness—enough cool, clear space—for you to stop and think. “The you that exists in the present—right now—wants to pursue your deeper goals, and wants to be a better person. But you know you’re fallible and likely to crack in the face of temptation. So you bind the future version of you. You narrow your choices. You tie yourself to the mast.”

“People who can’t focus will be more drawn to simplistic authoritarian solutions—and less likely to see clearly when they fail. A world full of attention-deprived citizens alternating between Twitter and Snapchat will be a world of cascading crises where we can’t get a handle on any of them.”

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Burnout

Continuously undertaking too much inevitably leads to burning out. When we fail to balance obligation with self-care, we risk feeling drained and losing joy. Give yourself permission to rest. What if, rather than pushing yourself, you created some space and time to care for yourself the way you would for a loved one? What if you asked for help when you needed it? What if you said no from time to time in order to attend to your own needs?

Make sure you are listening to the needs of your mind and body before you reach exhaustion. Elevate the importance of self-care, even placing it in your calendar alongside tasks and responsibilities. Make time for the things you love, cuddle up with a good book or a hike in the woods. Take a nap in the sunlight, and allow yourself to restore and recharge through rest and play.

‘Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.’ – Anne Lamott

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – The Four Motivations

Vedic monks believe that there are four primal motivations: fear, desire, duty and love. The same positive action can be spurred on by less positive energy.

Fear – We are driven by anxiety or worry.
Desire: We want something.
Duty: A sense of duty driven by our values.
Love: Driven by Love.

In virtually everything we do, we can act from higher motivation, duty, and love or from the lower ones: fear or desire. If we are operating out of fear, we are not acting. Reacting, we are compelled by avoidance. When we act out of desire, trying to get something, we often want to satisfy our ego. Ultimately, we are always left chasing, and that satisfaction never truly comes.

Fear and desire are often tied to the outside world, external validation and others perceptions. Yet when we are galvanized by duty or love that’s rooted inside us, and when we move from that place, we are more likely to have a sense of meaning and purpose along with fulfilment and happiness.

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – The House Party

Emotions have the power to control us. This is true of big strong emotions, up comes the wave of anger, fear or exuberance. The essence of who you are is not sad, angry or impatience. Every emotion is a visitor, a house party guest who raids your fridge and passes out on your couch. Meditation teaches us a fresh way to approach these guests, instead of trying to get rid of them, we sit down and say “Hey, I see you’ve decided to eat all the condiments in my fridge – how intriguing.” Tell me a bit about yourself.

We get curious and patient and eventually learn to relate to our party guests in a whole new way. One of the telltale signs that an emotion is present is body sensations. Pendulation, we swing into emotion and let ourselves feel it, but if it gets too intense, we always have the option of swinging our intention away to something more neutral, like the feeling of our butt in a chair or warmth in our hand.

Podcast