S2:E2 How to Eliminate Distractions
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Jeremy: What if the biggest thing holding you back isn't what you need to do but what you need to stop doing? Let's cut through the noise and clear your path to purpose. Coming up on this episode. Let's go.
What's good? What's good? It's the Jeremy Haselwood Show. What's good, what's good? Let's get ready to go. Welcome to the Jeremy Haselwood Show. Plug in. Turn it up. Let's go. Hey, hey. Welcome to the Jeremy Haselwood Show.
Welcome to today's episode where we will be talking all about eliminating distractions. Before we get started, make sure you tap, click, or smash the follow or subscribe button so that you'll be notified when each new episode drops. This is season two, where you're learning all about life transformation and personal development.[00:01:00]
Each season of my show covers a different topic. My goal is to spark curiosity, build community, inspire action. And deepen our understanding of the world around us. Before we begin this episode, I recognize that my first season I talked all about digital fundraising and this one is all about life transformation.
So you may be wondering why am I talking about life transformation? You may know that I have a book out. If you follow me online, you already know I have a couple of books out, but if you're brand new to this, Let me tell you a little bit about why this work, especially life transformation work is so important to me, my book, Finding Your EDGE: How to Unlock Your Talent & Purpose is based on real life experiences that I had
I share anecdotes and stories from when I dabbled in the music industry to leaving home in Oklahoma when I was 20 years old to follow a dream, pursue the music while I was working in corporate America. Being laid off from corporate America, leaving the music industry and just really feeling lost and trying to figure out where do I go next?
What do I do? [00:02:00] I like to say that I followed my dream and found my purpose. I followed this dream of music and creative and arts, and it put me in a position and it set up the life that I have right now, which is. Running a digital marketing consultancy and also doing speaking workshops and putting content out there to really help to inspire and motivate people who just need a little extra push in life.
so this season, I refer to my book a lot, finding your edge, because I'm discussing a lot of those frameworks that I created when I went through this process. Trying to rediscover myself and really understand who I was, what made me tick and recognizing that the life that I was living was not the life I felt like I was supposed to be living.
I felt like there was something more. I felt stuck. Even just working a job nine to five looking at this office building that I would walk to each day and just feeling this kind of disgust like my stomach sink because I knew I didn't like the job, but I knew I was supposed to be doing something different with my life.
So throughout [00:03:00] this season and really throughout this journey of podcasting, I'll throw in some stories here and there of what my journey was like. And you may be able to relate to some of it as you go on your journey. So if you are in a period of your life where you are stuck or you're trying to figure out how to level up or get to that next phase of life or even understand better who you are and what your purpose is, this is going to be a great season for you to go back and listen to.
today I do want to focus on Eliminating distractions. And I want to give you a distraction scenario that came from my life back in my twenties, when I moved to Atlanta I was going hard in the music industry, like I was going to school, I was finishing up college. I was also working full time, nine to five job.
And my roommate and I we had a rap group as many of you all know So we had a little studio in our apartment actually the entry closet to our apartment we had Removed everything from there and we stapled on like egg crates So we actually made that our vocal booth, but all that to say life was busy for about [00:04:00] three to five years I was sleeping four hours of sleep per night and that was just what life was pursuing a dream, but also The reality of finishing school and also working a nine to five because you need money in order to survive and also to help fuel your dreams, if you will.
So there come a time period in the same vein of distraction where I used to love playing video games. I wasn't like a video game nerd per se, and shout out to the video nerds. That is not a knock. I respect it. People make a good living off of it. That was never going to be my path. However, I was like a huge fan of the college football games by EA Sports.
That was my Achilles heel. I didn't play a ton of other video games. I played some, but I didn't play a lot, because I wasn't really that great at them. My friends and my family members, they were always great at video games. I was always like the worst one. But that college football game, man, there was something about it.
So I would play that game, I'd come home from work and even though I want to create, I want to make things in the studio because that's why I moved to Atlanta. I left my [00:05:00] home, everything I knew and was pursuing this dream. And so I would play one game and those games take almost an hour to play.
If you play like a real full game of it. So you play one game and you go in saying, I'm just going to play once you finish up that game. Then you get that little hit of, I don't know if it's dopamine or whatever it is in the brain that. gives you just that spark where you're like, you know what? I'm going to play another game.
And it became like this addiction. I don't know if I would say it was a clinical addiction, but it was something where you play one game and you're finished and you only had plans to play one game, but now it's I'm gonna play another one you all you play the second one let's run it back playing the third one the next thing you know you've spent like four or five hours of your day for me I should say four or five hours of my day playing video games and that was not what my intent was I just wanted to have this kind of decompression let me play a video game and be done with it and start picking up Music or whatever I was going to do that evening but it became something where that became a pattern and I didn't really [00:06:00] like what that was doing in my life.
I enjoy the video game, but it was keeping me from my purpose, I know in your life if you're pursuing something, there's going to be distractions. There are going to be these things in your life that take you away from what your purpose is, so the goal for today's. Podcast episode is to identify those distractions and let's put together an action plan to help get better with those What I ended up doing was removing the playstation from the house So cutting the cord like if it's not here, then I won't play it and that's exactly what happened I removed it I didn't go buy another one I never look back.
I have zero regrets about it. I missed the game sometimes, but I also you have to know what your vices are. And it's if that's not going to be good for me, I have to physically remove that from me. So let's talk about distractions. Mine happened to be gaming. But for you, it could be something else.
Some common distractions could be gaming, could be social media, could be food. It could be toxic relationships. It could be [00:07:00] entertainment, whatever those, Distractions are in your life. You want to think about what those are, and we're going to walk through that a little bit here in a moment, but think about this.
A distraction is something that delays your path to purpose. We're all here for a reason. If you're listening to this, you are alive. You, your blood is pumping, your breath is coming in and out of your lungs. So you are here for a reason. when we are distracted, we are not able to fulfill our purpose or delay us being able to fulfill our purpose while we're here.
So here's what I want you to do. I want you to make a list of your distractions, literally break out the pen and pad. And what you'll find is this season is different from last season. Last season, certainly.
Taking notes would be helpful if you're involved with digital fundraising and nonprofits. This one with personal development, this is certainly one that pairs well with my book because my book, I have reflecting questions or reflective questions at the end of each chapter. And you really get out of my book, what you put into it.
It's the same with this season of the podcast. I'm going to ask you questions, [00:08:00] have you make lists and do all that kind of stuff this season. So when you're listening to it, put notes in your phone, whatever the case may be. Go back, rewind, you can pause it right now if you need to make that list, but make a list of the things in your life that distract you.
Now, if you really want to go a step further, this is for the hardcore people, you can go extreme and you can literally journal your day, one day at a time, for the period of one week. And what that would look like is every 15 to 30 minutes.
M-Track 2X2: You know,
Jeremy: While you're awake, of course, you're going to write down everything that you do.
And I mean everything, like driving your car, brushing your teeth, commuting to work, social media, cooking, spending time with your kids or spouse, doing homework, whatever that looks like. You're going to write this down every 15 or 30 minutes. 15 is very extreme. 30 minutes. Might be more doable for you, but what you'll find when you reflect back after this week, you are going to have a clear picture of how you spend your [00:09:00] time.
Now, I know that may sound overwhelming And if it, if that's too overwhelming, like that's okay. Don't pressure yourself too much to do this. The easier thing for you may be just to write down a list of the distractions. And the reason that I want you to write that down is because you are now aware of them.
If you actually take a moment to think, because sometimes we're so distracted, we can't even think about what our distractions are, because we're in that distraction. Write down your distractions. This allows you to actually have a view, be aware of what those distractions are. Okay if you do that journal, and you make that list, and you actually see a week worth of things that you've done, now you can say, oh, okay, I've spent a lot of time doing this.
Is that a necessary action that I should be doing? Is this a good way that I can spend my time? And what you'll find is there are things that may not be distractions. Maybe you're spending a lot of time on necessary areas of your life and that's okay. What are the pockets of time that are caught up in distraction?
And then the next thing that you want to do, whether [00:10:00] you make a list or you keep this journal for a week, is you have to make some tough choices. And this, my friend, is where you begin choosing your path of purpose. So the actionable steps that you would take. Is removing the distraction altogether, cutting the cord, like I did with video games, I recognize that this was something taking me further away from my purpose.
So I just removed it, and that's shown up in other areas of my life here and there. When I see something that is causing my focus to be taken away, I remove it. I've done that with apps on my phone. There have been apps where I'm like, gosh, I spent a lot of time on this app.
I'm just going to remove it. What you'll find. And if you've done this, When you remove those distractions altogether, you miss them a little bit at first, but fast forward a few days, and you really don't miss it. You fill that time up with something else. You just want to make sure that something else that you fill your time up with is something of value.
Another step outside of just totally removing it, is to schedule your distractions. my [00:11:00] goal is to eliminate distractions, but I'm not saying you have to be perfect with this. I want you to have grace for yourself while you're on this journey. So if you're not able to totally eliminate a distraction, schedule your distraction.
Maybe you have this toxic friend that you have a lot of history with and they're just not good for you. They're not good for your soul, but you have some kind of tie with them where you're like, ah, I just don't want to cut them off forever. And I understand that. You don't have to cut them off forever, but you schedule the time and the amount effort and attention that you're going to pay to that.
And again, it's the same with other distractions in your life. If it's video games, schedule from this time to this time. That's when I'm going to play games, or whatever the case may be. Schedule your distractions would be a second way that you can reduce that. A third way that you can help to eliminate distractions is to say no to others.
you may be in a position where you don't want to say no to people because you don't want to let people down and you end up doing things that are a distraction to you. You end up taking on obligations or [00:12:00] attending things or having to devote your time because you weren't able to say no. So I'm asking you to get that courage and think about how If you say yes to whatever others are asking you to do, is this going to help you move closer towards your purpose or is it going to take you further away from it?
Now that's not to say that you can't say yes sometimes, but in general you want to move a little bit different. You want to be able to say no to others. The next tip, and this can be harder, which is saying no to yourself. And this is harder because you don't necessarily have anyone to keep you accountable unless you have an accountability partner and you're like, Hey, absolutely do not let me do this, but you can talk yourself into things.
being able to say no to yourself is a special gift that you have to have in order to really move forward in life with your purpose. There are all these things that are trying to take away your time and you just have to play defense. It's like soccer or hockey. When that puck is coming at the net, you're having to constantly [00:13:00] shoot it away. Say no rejection, distraction.
No. Because there's so many distractions out there like we are literally drowning in a sea of distraction that we never agreed to dive into. think about that. This distraction is suffocating you, it's pulling you down. Let me tell you a little bit about how I manage distractions and it's following some of the tips that I've shared with you.
I put everything on my calendar. Now in the evenings, I don't schedule as much. Usually if we're talking about my work day, every single thing is scheduled.
If I'm pursuing an activity outside of work or a goal outside of work, I'll also schedule that. I honor my time. I honor what's on my schedule. I communicate with others.
M-Track 2X2: you know,
Jeremy: I might communicate with my wife. Hey, I'm working on this night and this night just so other people know because if you have people around you that Support you and want to see you succeed they're going to honor that, Sometimes there's other obligations and you can't always do that But just as a rule of thumb you want to communicate if you have people in your life that don't honor that It does make it a little tricky.
I don't have the advice [00:14:00] on this episode, how to deal with that. Other than just trying to be very transparent in your communication, express the personal development journey that you're on and see if you can get those people around you to buy into that. But being able to schedule those things on my calendar, that's really what works for me.
When I buckle down and I really need to focus I add the time to my calendar. I also say no to things. The advice that I'm sharing with you, I had to learn that myself, being able to say no to friends, to meetings, to potential opportunities that don't align with my purpose. And the more that you're on this journey you gain this clarity where it's easier to say no, because when information is brought to you, you are able to filter and discern okay, is this good for me?
Yes. Is this taking me further away from my purpose? No, I'm not going to do this There's always exceptions to the rule. I want to try to get you in that mode where the way that you operate in general is coming from a stance of protecting your time, having those boundaries and maintaining that focus.
Now, one thing to note, I still do things that are [00:15:00] distracting. Like I'll still watch TV. I might still play games on my phone. I spend time with my family. So you can still do all these things. Not all of these things are distractions. Sometimes you need to disconnect and you need that little break for your mental health and you need a little bit of downtime.
And there's nothing wrong with that. If you're doing that, like that's okay. Don't beat yourself up. It's all a balance. So make sure that you're balancing this distraction. You're taking care of yourself mentally, physically, but you're also moving and making progress towards your let me put my challenge out for this episode.
I want you to identify one major distraction in your life and commit to reducing it or eliminating it for a week. Okay? And then each episode of season two, I'm also going to have reflective questions. This coincides with how the format of my book is. At the end of each chapter, I have reflective questions.
So this week's questions Are number one. What are the biggest distractions keeping you from your [00:16:00] goals and you can pause this. I'll leave a little bit of time in between. You can pause it and write it down or you can just come back and re-listen into the episode. The second question. How can you make one small change to minimize those distractions this week?
And the third question. How What is the first thing you'll do with the extra focus that you gain in the extra time that you gain? those are your three reflective questions for this week. Thank you for tuning into the Jeremy Hayswood show. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to follow or subscribe.
So you're always up to date when the latest episode drops until next time, keep following your dreams to find your purpose.
