Distraction is not defeated in a few fell blows, but by many small, habitual ones. Therefore, I will not promise to provide you in a thousand words a magical sword that can slay the Dread Dragon Distraction in three or four simple hacks. I have discovered no such sword and do not believe one exists. But you can defeat your distractions.
How to Defeat Your Distractions
What makes me any authority on how to defeat your distractions in the first place? Not my expertise in focus, but my expertise in being distracted. If my observations and self-assessments are accurate, I’m on the “above average” side of the distractible spectrum. I know this struggle from the inside and fight it daily.
Expecting to fight it daily is a necessary mindset if the fight is to be won. Distraction is not a simple foe; it must be fought on numerous fronts. Victory is achieved not by one glorious coup d’état of resolve, but by the slow insurgency of developing distraction-reducing habits.
The Speed of God
However, this likely requires an expectation recalibration on our part. We children of the high-tech/information age, and grandchildren of the manufacturing and industrial ages, find it increasingly hard to appreciate the speed of God. We have learned to value efficiencies in quickness, quantity and cost. Produce something desirable fast, scalable and cheap, and the outcome will be success. We’ve also learned to value disposability and devalue durability.
But when God builds things, he often takes a long time (at least from our perspective) to do it. And what he builds, he builds to endure. Consider how he designed us. We require roughly nine months from conception to the point where we can survive outside the womb. Then we require roughly two additional decades before we acquire sufficient developmental maturity, knowledge and skills to live independently from our parents.
And how are our developmental maturity, knowledge and skills acquired during those two decades? Through rigorous repetition. Muscle and information memory are developed and sustained through the arduous process of daily, habitual practice.
The Slow, Everyday Miracle
Now, we know that God at times employs miraculous power to bring about instantaneous change in people’s lives. Deliverances and gifts of healings are very real aspects of the kingdom of God in this age. The Bible even commands us to earnestly desire them and seek them (1 Corinthians 12:31). I believe if we desired them and sought them more, they would occur more often.
