For the last month I have been writing about distractions, and frankly I thought I would be done long before now. And I wanted to be done by now, because I have other things I want to write about! But there are yet more distractions and they are keeping me on this subject.
Stage or cycle of life can be a huge distraction and keep you from both your best self and your best work. I am closer to 60 years old than I am 50 years old and it is easy to see the shift in how people view me and my advanced years. Finished. Over. Done. Out to pasture. Retirement fodder.
Yet I am stronger than I have ever been. I am very healthy. Weigh the least I have ever weighed. Doing some of my best work ever. How the young people at the store see me and how I see myself is violently different. Some of my favorite Leadership thought-leaders wrote the bulk of their best work when they were even older than me. Why do you think I am writing this stuff every day? I am practicing!
However, there are specialized distractions that come with each decade, and in the getting-older-decades, they have more than their fair share. When you are in your 20’s you are distracted by the overwhelm of possibilities and fear of making a major mistake. In the your 30’s you are distracted by establishing yourself, starting a family, and the growing burdens of responsibilities, etc etc right on through when you get to your 50’s. The greatest distraction so far in this decade has been the shear number of death’s that we have had to face. Parent’s, uncles, aunties, cousins, siblings, and friends. Today would be a perfect example of this distraction - planning to go to the funeral home this afternoon to see a neighbor who passed away, and then stopping off to see an uncle who has days to live.
Stay focused, and use this dark and painful distraction and disruption of life as fuel to make every day matter and be your best self. Its not easy, but it is really important.
Stage or cycle of life can be a huge distraction and keep you from both your best self and your best work. I am closer to 60 years old than I am 50 years old and it is easy to see the shift in how people view me and my advanced years. Finished. Over. Done. Out to pasture. Retirement fodder.
Yet I am stronger than I have ever been. I am very healthy. Weigh the least I have ever weighed. Doing some of my best work ever. How the young people at the store see me and how I see myself is violently different. Some of my favorite Leadership thought-leaders wrote the bulk of their best work when they were even older than me. Why do you think I am writing this stuff every day? I am practicing!
However, there are specialized distractions that come with each decade, and in the getting-older-decades, they have more than their fair share. When you are in your 20’s you are distracted by the overwhelm of possibilities and fear of making a major mistake. In the your 30’s you are distracted by establishing yourself, starting a family, and the growing burdens of responsibilities, etc etc right on through when you get to your 50’s. The greatest distraction so far in this decade has been the shear number of death’s that we have had to face. Parent’s, uncles, aunties, cousins, siblings, and friends. Today would be a perfect example of this distraction - planning to go to the funeral home this afternoon to see a neighbor who passed away, and then stopping off to see an uncle who has days to live.
Stay focused, and use this dark and painful distraction and disruption of life as fuel to make every day matter and be your best self. Its not easy, but it is really important.
