Here is an excerpt from my book, SEVEN STEPS TO INNER POWER, where I discuss DISTRACTIONS:
Engaging your body and mind to act as one takes determination and concentration. For instance, say you have set a goal of winning a marathon race. Your mind says, “This is an important priority. I want to win. I want to use all my spare time building up my speed and endurance every day.” If you nevertheless insist on eating improperly, partying all night long, skipping workouts “just this one time,” accepting invitations to do things that distract you and exhaust your time and energy, and on and on, is your body at one with your mind? How likely are you to succeed under those circumstances? Clearly, if winning a marathon race is a high priority for you, if you truly want to win, you will have to take control of your body and make all your physical activity conform to your goal. Your body and mind must be working together as one.
Say you are in college and have met someone you’re interested in dating. Just thinking of her makes your heart beat faster. You say, “I can’t wait to take this girl out.” Meanwhile, you have an exam coming up and you need to study. You sit down, you look at your books, and you read over your notes for hours. Yet all this time your mind is thinking, “I can’t wait to convince her to let me take her out. We’ll have such a great time…” Your mind is somewhere else.
The next day, you take your exam and are surprised that you performed so poorly. “Wow,” you say to yourself. “I studied so hard, but I didn’t know the answers. What happened?” What happened is that you didn’t bring your body and mind together ot act as one. Your mind and your actions were on two different tracks. Your mind wasn’t supporting your goals and wasn’t aligned with your physical actions.
Here’s another example. Say you are the best salesperson at your company. You understand your product, the market, and your potential customers thoroughly and you know your presentation inside and out. But what happens when your fiancé tells you that he or she wants to break off your engagement and want to be with your best friend instead? Your mind becomes blurred, you can’t remember important details, and your performance drops to your lowest levels ever. Why? You are divided. Your body and mind are not working together as one. Of course, it’s natural to be upset when something like that happens, but if you don’t get a handle on it and keep your obsessive mind from fixating on this for months on end, that huge distraction will drag down every other part of your life.
