Distractions are everywhere — the news on all day, the ads, the flyers filling the mailbox. It’s relentless, and I can’t turn it off; the best I can do is step away from it now and then.
Then there is the distraction I create for myself.
There’s a pile of mail on my kitchen table. It’s been there for weeks. Flyers, catalogs, envelopes I meant to open — all of it sitting there, getting taller, while I walk past it every single day.
Four weeks ago, I lost a piece of mail in a pile like that one. It was from my auto insurance company. I didn’t see it, didn’t open it, didn’t think about it — until the day I found out my insurance had been canceled. To keep my vehicle registration from being canceled too, I had to pay a $600 fine to the department of motor vehicles.
Six hundred dollars. Because of a pile of paper on a table.
But there’s another kind of distraction, and it’s more insidious because it’s personal. And it’s one I can actually do something about.
If I walked around my home with a notepad and wrote down everything I saw that needed to be addressed, the list would be overwhelming. The pile of mail on the table. The basket of clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away. The patio furniture that needs to come inside before winter. The dishes on the kitchen counter. The hamburger wrappers on the back floor of my car. The broken hinge on the cabinet door. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
I see these things every time I walk past them. I cannot unsee them. And clutter at home becomes clutter in my mind.
I need to clear these distractions so my mind is open for new opportunities. The way to do it is one thing at a time — not by scattering my energy trying to fix everything at once.
This week I started with the laundry basket. Every morning I was rummaging through it just to get dressed, and it took too long and started the day wrong. So I folded it all and put it away. One thing, done — and the morning felt different.
The pile of mail is gone too. I can’t afford another incident like that one — and the place just looks better without all of it sitting around.
Bring in the furniture. Fix the hinge. Clean out the car. Because once I start, momentum will build. And a clear path is the first step toward becoming the person I was meant to be.
What is left undone in your life? What is distracting you? When will you take action to clear your path?
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