Choose – Part One

Lately the noise is my head has become deafening. Here, there and everywhere I feel bombarded with choice. With things I could be doing, heck, would be doing if only I could work out what I should be doing.
I have been pondering this for over a week now. Tuning in to just how distracted I am. Noticing how hard I find it to concentrate without wondering what else I could be learning. Or reading. Or eating. Or using. Observing how very often I close one book on my Kindle and open another just because I can. How my business gets more scattered by the day as I try to follow this daily litany of the must be done’s touted by those seeking to sell me their opinion. Taking a long hard look at how I am personally filtering and consuming the information and choices I am offered (#dementedby) on a daily basis and how very short my attention span has become as a result.
Much of my own issue comes down to that darn old, irresistible lover of mine: Facebook. Up until a few days ago I was in more groups than I cared to count and I was losing my mind trying to absorb the advice of one guru after another, watching videos of no consequence whatsoever and finding myself stopping what I was doing to watch somebody on Facebook Live tell me something I already know. Because here’s the thing, I already know much of what is eating up my time as urgency demands I hire up the sound on my phone and LISTEN NOW!
I don’t want to LISTEN NOW. I want to GET THINGS DONE. But because I seem to have absorbed a thousand voices telling me I am not doing what I should be doing and that my thinking on all scores couldn’t be dafter, I’m all of a blather and doing very little at all because frankly, despite knowing exactly what will help me get the results I want (more blog readers, a thinner bum, financial security), I feel utterly overwhelmed and worse, somewhat diminished by those who will insist its their way or the highway.
So for a while I switched off. I sat in the bosom of my family and let the noise reside. I took the Groups app off my phone. Kept the laptop switched off. Listened to my own voice. To what I have recently become so very resistant to hearing. And then I took the kind of action that can be summed up in one word: CHOOSE.
I CHOSE to read one book at a time, which meant removing all the other books on my Kindle carousel.
I CHOSE one entrepreneur facebook group, one homemaking group, one professional support group, one lifestyle group, one spiritual group, and one local community group and CHOSE to become an active member of each.
I CHOSE one blog from each of the above genres and one email newsletter.
I CHOSE one diet (and heavens knows I need it!).
I CHOSE one membership group to be a part of and resolved to work through all it has to offer me monthly.
I CHOSE one system within which to run my business.
I CHOSE one cosmetic brand, one vitamin and mineral brand, and one supermarket.
and finally
I CHOSE ME instead of being so very available to other voices and opinions.
I feel both peaceful and focused. I feel like a part of the communities I have chosen. I feel like I am learning from the books I read. Soothed by the novel on my bedside. I am working through all the resources in my professional membership group and I feel purposeful. I am eating with less dithering. I am more organised. And above all else my brain is quieter.
,This then is about getting very particular about the choices you make and reducing them to the bare minimum so that you can truly extract their value without distraction. It is about deciding what you need and identifying the one product or resource that will help and then COMMITTING to it wholeheartedly. It is about becoming a member of one community and sharing yourself so you can reap the rewards of being of service. It is about being elegant in your choices. Less distracted by shiny object syndrome and more determined to refine who you are.
As always, it is about creating a life less ordinary.