Distraction
“An addiction to distraction is the death of creative production.” - Robin Sharma
I have been tending to the garden of my mind lately.
After a summer spent fundraising on social media, it had been overrun by the weeds of distraction.
So I deleted Facebook and Instagram from my phone and immediately felt a sense of relief.
Emboldened, I next deleted the New York Times app and the temptation to visit the constantly triggering headlines. Thoreau said, “To a philosopher, all news is gossip.”
I even researched “dumbphones” and considered ditching my iPhone altogether.
Instead, I stripped my Home Screen down to the essentials: Text, Email, Phone, and Spotify. (I also kept the picture widget that brings me daily joy with images of my family over the years.)
That device, and the endless distractions on it, serves primarily to rob me of being present.
Distraction doesn’t just steal time, it robs us of our ability to create the reality we want to experience.
The Cost of Distraction
Most mornings over the past few months, I’ve reached for my phone before I get out of bed.
I start filling my head with news and, more often than I care to admit, social media.
Fuel from a full mental tank, drained right from the jump.
Instagram has been the worst offender.
Any time I open it, I might watch a funny video, then almost against my will, sit there scrolling through comedians, surfing clips, softball highlights, and, let’s be honest here, scantily clad women.
This isn’t a rant against social media, phones, etc…rather, a highlight of how easily our minds can get hijacked and hypnotized by meaningless content.
More to the point, what else might I be doing with this time?
Reclaiming Bandwidth
This morning was different.
I opened my eyes, and my first thoughts were of gratitude; my comfortable bed, my health, my family, a day of rest.
Then I stepped outside, took a deep breath of cool morning air and soaked in a couple minutes of sunlight, (which according to Andrew Huberman, helps regulate your sleep patterns.)
After I made coffee, I then spent a few minutes reading the news and a quick scroll through Facebook.
While I haven’t completely broken the spell, it’s a start.
Replacing with Intention
I recommend Jim Murphy’s Inner Excellence to anyone I coach or anyone curious about personal growth. He outlines four daily process goals to unlock extraordinary results:
Give my best (100% of what I have that day).
Be present.
Be grateful.
Focus on my routines and only what I can control.
Simple enough to understand. Exceedingly challenging to put into practice every day.
For me, the routine of the first few minutes of the day are critical. When I start intentionally, even for just a couple minutes, the effort compounds.
This week, I’m celebrating exactly zero minutes on Instagram videos. That micro-win gave me space to journal more. It clarified next steps in my coaching work I’d been thinking about all summer.
We underestimate the power of tiny victories. Those are the invisible building blocks that make the big ones possible.
It’s a fragile balance, and it’s easy to slip back into old habits.
But awareness is always the first step. Once you see how distraction steals from you, you can’t unsee it.
In anything we do in life, it’s our own minds that either create the cage of distraction, or act as the key to set us free.
#CoachKris
P.S. - Murphy’s book is one I will return to over and over for my own personal growth work. It’s as compete a blue print as I’ve found and incorporates literally everything I’ve learned . The book remained in obscurity for 16 years until Philadelphia Eagles star wide receiver AJ Brown was seen reading it on the sidelines of a playoff game last year. It sold 100k copies overnight. Life is wild.
