I’m not a lover of running, but I have to admit when I go, I seem to come up with several ideas and business concepts that I want to share.

As I was running today, something stopped me in my tracks. It was bright and shiny and caught my eye. Initially I thought I had found treasure, a ring or pendant, something valuable. I kind of got excited on what had caught my attention. As I stooped down expectantly to take a closer look, disappointment set in as I saw that it was just a piece of shiny foil. What a letdown. My mind had already figured that as it was in my neighborhood, I could post it locally and be the hero of some lost heirloom and if nobody collected it, I could keep the treasure.

Isn’t it interesting how our mind can jump across so many pathways and come up with anticipation? As I continued to run, I realized just how much time had been wasted looking at the bright shiny object and how it has lengthened my time to complete this particular mile, which in turn lengthened my average running time mile, just by stopping for maybe a minute.

The thing is, we do this every single day. We are distracted by bright shiny objects that land on our path and distract us or worse yet, take us down a completely different path and away from what we are looking to achieve. Sometimes we are aware of those bright shiny objects when we are present and think about what we want to focus on, and sometimes they are disguised in the form of someone else’s agenda.

What are your bright shiny objects?

Name 3 activities, people or circumstances that distract you:

1.

2.

3.

I’ll be the first to share that I get distracted by the TV, someone offering up a challenge (which I have got better at walking away from), and my good friend Google, who teaches me so many things when my mind gets curious.
Time is a precious resource, and although the bright shiny object this time was just a distraction for a brief moment, it still was a moment which then had a knock-on effect. If we combine all our brief moments throughout the day, the accumulation does mount up to be significant over time.

How can we become aware of what we spend your time on?

The easiest way is to do a little time and motion study. You may already have a good idea where the time goes, but track it and validate your suspicions. You might be in for a surprise that something else is silently and destructively causing more damage. 

Although running is a means to an end in keeping fit, it’s also a great example of an efficient exercise to getting results. What results are you looking for and is it taking more or less time than you thought it would to complete?

Don’t let external circumstances dictate you. This comes back to good ol’ planning and knowing what is important to you. Focus on what your goal is.