There is a massive war going on right now..the war I am describing is the war for your attention.

Yes, the world is fighting for your attention. Every day, the moment you turn on your phone or computer or TV, the battle begins. And that battle isn’t being fought against amateurs; you are waging war against some of the best and brightest minds in the world desperately trying to distract yours.

There is so much to do, so many things on the list, notifications constantly pinging us, advertising tempting you with the promise of a “great life” if you consume their product… We are constantly DISTRACTED!

If you are like me, you are more distracted than ever. If all the things going on in your life (work, family, Spiritual care, personal hobbies) aren’t enough, society has now added a layer of social and virtual distractions that are making you feel busier, more stressed and overwhelmed than ever.

And why do we feel the stress? Because we are spending our time on NUNI at the expense of the NUMI. We keep being distracted by Non-Urgent Non-Important things that keep us from the Non-Urgent Most-Important things!

A Course in Miracles tells us: “An untrained mind can accomplish nothing”.

And this is it. When we haven’t taken the time to strengthen the muscle of focus (training the mind) we will be going from thing to thing, never accomplishing the plan God has for us. Ego is the leader of distraction and temptation. And as lesson 71 tells us, ego has set up a plan in opposition to God’s plan. (Read full lesson here.)

Distractions are a huge reason why we haven’t stepped into our divine assignments, callings and passions.

There are two solutions to the problem of distractions:

1. Train the mind to focus
2. Fast from what is distracting you the most

Focus is a muscle, and it must be trained like you train your body to get fit at the gym. Fasting from the distraction is like detoxing from it so you can have time and space to connect to God and to your most authentic life.

Distractions keep you from living the life you are meant to. Hours a day are being spent on things that are neither important nor urgent. Whatever “shiny object” or fire that needs to be put out that pops up on your phone or computer screen usually has us spending our days in total reaction mode.

Sometimes we can even forget why or what we were looking for in the first place. And as a result, we just “can’t seem to find the time or energy to take action on our goals, step into what truly brings us joy and our passions,” because “I am so busy”. We are continually falling prey to the minefield of distractions.

Sometimes you have to remove something little in order to gain something big.

So here are some things to ponder on. Take a moment to answer these questions in your journal:

• What are your biggest distractions?
• How much time do those distractions really cost you?
• What can you be doing with your time that would really be a game-changer in your life if you could gain hours a day by not being distracted or overly busy with non-important things?

Hopefully answering these questions above has brought awareness as to how much of your time, attention and energy goes to things that have nothing to do with your calling and your vision.