OtherThanThat

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There’s something deliciously marvelous about being distracted – it can be a fun new project, the promise of a vacation somewhere fabulous or of course that skin tingling sensation of a powerful personal connection. As someone who’s pretty much always busy – I’ve been told my resting state vibrates somewhere comfortably around Mach 2 – the very act of being still and present can be a challenge. It’s something on which I constantly focus – endeavoring to still my mind and my body to allow more creativity to flow, not to mention let myself rest. A consistent meditation practice and regular exercise definitely help.

What I’ve found in the last year or so, which is no surprise considering that’s the time period during which I’ve been building The Hydrant Club, is that even when I’m solidly set in my meditation type stillness, when I allow the enormity of the to do list to get to me it’s all too easy to get distracted … by anything.

Just the other day a friend called to say that he wasn’t able to join me to go see a show we’d planned to see together. He felt terrible. The tickets were purchased and we’d had the plans in place for a couple of weeks. But he’s in the middle of a super intense school program and just couldn’t extract himself enough from the work he had to do to justify an evening out. As I listened to the piano-wire tautness of his voice, the rapid-fire staccato recitation of the things he had to get done … I saw myself. And as is so often the case when it is far easier to proffer advice than take it oneself, I found myself telling him that he should not focus on the entirety of the thing, but rather make a list, focus on the next thing on the list, get it done and then move to the next. It was that whole, how do you eat an elephant thing.

The key is that in those moments when you find your mind drifting to those things that you really have no business thinking about, that’s the time to pull the list back out, refocus your attention and get down to business.

So I guess that means I should end this blog post now and get back to work…