Distraction or Concentration?

Today I was sitting in my auto while my wife was in the grocery store picking up some items we needed during this lockdown.  We sometimes go into the store together, but now we limit our exposures by only having one of us get "exposed"! 

In The Parking Lot

So I am sitting in my auto, waiting for my wife to return.  I know it's going to take a bit of time, so I break out what every other person would do.  I get my phone out.  Now after a few unsuccessful attempts on calling people (Where are they?  After all we are all on lockdown...) I decide to do some Sudoku.  I call up the game and start play.

Then Something Unusual Happened.

I looked up and everything had changed.  The shopping carts in the collection queues were gone.  The cars around me were all different.  What happened?

Then it hit me.  It was the intense focus on the game.  Time had gone by and I was completely unaware of it.  Was it distraction? Or was it concentration?

Distraction or Concentration?

I know that you really can't multitask.  I have written about that myth before.  And I know that we can get so wrapped up on one thing that it crowds out all other thoughts.  That is what just happened to me.   

Then I thought...

How many people are completely focused on this COVID pandemic that they are unable to think about anything else?   Yes there is a COVID related crisis for now, but it's temporary.  Maybe a few months or longer, but in time we will readjust to the new normal that we will settle into. 

 After this crisis is over, there will be a new normal. Things will be different.  We will all need to adapt. And that adaption may result in positive benefits to us ... or negative ones.  What we do now, leading up to that point, will impact that outcome.  Positive? Or Negative?

Choices Will Need To Be Made

We will have choices to make that will impact our futures.  Those choices may make dramatic differences in our futures.  Those choices will need serious consideration and contemplation. But how can we do that when we are distracted by the constant drone of the COVID pandemic?  

Just like that Sudoku game, the constant media fixation on COVID is distracting us.  It is keeping us from preparing for the future.  It is robbing us of independent thought.  

It's time to change.  It's time to watch a bit of the objective, not sensationalized news, then TURN IT OFF. When we do that we will have the ability to focus with concentration on what is really important, the choices we make now for our future.  Your future. Your family's future. Your career future.  

We can only focus on ONE thing at a time. It should be what we CONCENTRATE on by choice, not distracted by what is around us.

It's time to learn to CONCENTRATE and avoid distraction.