Can I practice even when everything sucks?

It’s easy to commit to a practice when things are going well.

The times I fail is when shit gets messy: being under-resourced, angry, sad, upset, distracted, bored, exhausted.

Practicing, building new habits and making change when it’s hard is the real jam. How do we show up when it’s tough?

I’m writing this morning’s Thought even though my mind is distracted. Even though my ideas are jumbled and not as clear as yesterday. Wake up, write post. That’s my practice. Everything else is just noise until this is done.

The single most important change I’ve made in my relationship to practice is to triple down when things are not great. I have compassion for myself and not wanting to lean in, and I tap into my resiliency knowing that this too is just a passing phase.

Maybe tomorrow it’ll be easy again and my thoughts won’t feel so forced. Maybe not. Regardless, I’ll still be here putting in the work.

Is it becoming more difficult to focus?

We have enough evidence to clearly and unequivocally say that we are more distracted as a society than ever before.

Unlimited streaming options, swiping options, social platforms, content creators, influencers, video games, educational content, workout videos, cooking videos, blogs, microblogs, doomscrolling, polarization, notifications about notifications, environmental catastrophes, economic crisis de jour. You name it, we’ve got it. And we’ve got it way more intense than ever before.

More distractions leads to increasing difficulty to focus.

But.

We have better tools than ever to build our focus muscle.

And therein lies the choice. There is no neutral when it comes to our ability to focus. Facebook and Netflix have armies of engineers hacking your brain. Your entropy is their gain.

If I accept that society is engaging in an all out battle for my attention, focus is rapidly becoming a super power and a game that I am committed to winning.

Can I move the needle every day despite the chaos?

A few weeks ago, I gave some advice to a dear friend who is starting a similar and yet very different position to something I have previously done. This advice had nothing to do with the incoming pandemic, but it seems even more relevant for all of us today.

When she sent me a text last week to let me know that she's thinking about that advice every day, I realized that it was exactly what I needed to be thinking about myself each day. Funny how it always seem to work out that way.

Here's the question I shared with her:

"What is the most important thing that you can be focused on to move the needle for the business each day?"

Everything else is going to be a distraction.

In her position, it is likely she'll have several people in the organization asking for her help on different projects and assignments. She should be hyper diligent about where she is spending her time. If something isn't tangibly moving the needle forward, it should be delegated, deferred or flat out rejected.

And here I am. Being consumed by the COVID19 news cycle. Trying my best to help my family and friends stay safe and make smart decisions. Doing what I can to boost my immune system while being locked down in "shelter in place" mode for the foreseeable future. And that advice just hit me square in the face.

I will be asking myself each morning: "What is the most important thing that I can be focused on to move the needle for the business each day?"

While moving the business forward is only part of the bigger overall picture right now, I still want my work time to be as laser focused as possible. Now more than ever.

What's been going on behind the scenes?

It's Sunday night, and I haven't written a post all week.

I haven't gone a week without at least two posts since I started writing again. And I also made a promise to myself that I wouldn't write if I had to force myself to do so. So it's been a lot of radio silence recently.

The short version of it is this:

I've been in the process of selling my apartment since the beginning of last summer. I had some major tenant issues, eviction, lockouts, court appearances and way too much wasted time and energy. I finally was able to get the squatters out, put the place on the market and it went under contract at the end of October with an expected close before Thanksgiving. More delays and headaches.

This past week the buyer finally had to walk from the deal due to their inability to secure a mortgage.

So it's back to square one on the selling front.

It's been a long process. I'm doing my best to remain open to the gift and what this experience is here to show me. I'm also ready to put this all past me so I can focus my full attention on that things that matter most.

Now that the initial scramble of this past week is behind me, I believe I'll be back to writing more frequently without having to force anything or publish stuff just for the sake of checking the box. I miss you all and can't wait to be regularly writing again.