Determined To Succeed

Sorry this blog is going to sound a bit scattered and cluttered. It’s just how I’m feeling today.

Back when I worked in the movie promotion “biz” I used to have piles on my desk at work because I never used to have much of a filing system. I used to place all my documents, etc. in one central stack (or a couple of stacks because one could easily topple) as my way of “knowing where everything is.” It was a scattered, distracted way of doing things, and this coming from a guy who always wanted (and still does want) to be successful. I always told myself “Oh, I’ll get to that later.” And the piles kept growing and me more distracted with them.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? What does that have to do with weight loss? Why tell you about that? Because I am so freaking distracted lately! I hate to say it but I am. Man! It’s like I have life ADD. For example, I could be throwing laundry in the washer but then I see a movie on TV and I start watching. Or I get started on something and then – poof – something grabs my attention on the internet. I could want to go workout but then I get sucked into the virtual world of which I spoke the other day.

And slowly I see my piles of stuff coming back – half-finished stacks of laundry or filed receipts or dust bunnies that need to be swept away. I feel like an old AM radio on which you just quite can’t get the station. The announcers are talking but the reception is all fuzzy with static.

Why do I have life ADD? Well, some of it is personal (I’ve been feeling distracted with thoughts of my mom, especially with Mother’s Day approaching followed closely by the one year anniversary of her death from pancreatic cancer) and some of it is professional (just trying to keep up with things I need to do and people I need to see to keep moving forward with this website and my writing).

I know I talk about the “Star Wars” movies a lot but there really is a quote in them for everything. In “The Empire Strikes Back” (which I can’t freaking believe is 30 years old already) Yoda is training Luke who has many questions because he’s anxious, young and very distracted. Yoda, in speaking about Luke, says “Always has this one looked away, to the future. Never his mind on where he was. Hmmm. What he was doing.”

Yoda’s right.

Sometimes distractions can be good – very good really – like planning trips and vacations to see family, or reconnecting with people to let them know you still care (even if it is 3 o’clock in the morning) or getting inspiration to write a weight loss blog even though you start the morning in a sleepy fog. It’s just the other distractions that are bad and those are what can keep you from your weight loss goal. This is what leads to me stress eating, binging and eating crap that’s no good for me. So today I will continue to be good with my eating (I am well on track to lose that pound by tomorrow) and stay focused.

It is easy to be lost. Lately I know exactly how that feels. But it’s OK. At the end of it all, underneath all those piles of goo that need to be filed is your focus, your goal. And you will get there.

Someone wise once said to me “ya know. If you clean off your desk and file things away you’d have more space to work.” And that is very true, even to this day. I need to focus on one thing at a time.

After all, these piles of crap won’t clear themselves away. Will they?