In a favorite bookstore, in a favorite town in upstate New York, my eyes scanned a book display and got stuck on one particular cover. What I read hit me as profoundly true. It read, “Having creative focus in the age of distraction.”
I know that we can all agree that we are consumed with events surrounding us, often to the detriment of personal peace. We find ourselves leaping head on into situations that don’t even require our involvement, and yet we seem unable to break free. As a result, it is not only peace that is sacrificed, but joy itself has been replaced by dreadful misgivings about the future.
A friend commented that she found herself compelled to look at the news, in the early morning hours just to verify the status of particular topics she was following. What resulted was upsetting her to the point that her sleep was affected. The kind of scenario when our sleep is broken, and we are unable to find peace in rest. Happily this friend reports that she is now free from pursuing those distractions, as she resists the temptations to remain connected to news.
Distracting voices from just about anywhere can be what derail us from the creative license that once kept us sanely on track to personal achievement. Those influences work counter to our ability to produce. I recently read in a magazine an account of a man who is a prolific designer and how in order to accomplish what he does, it is absolutely vital that he unplug from any and all devices that might get in the way. He even goes so far as to say that when he is quietly remote, just he and his wife, his degree of creativity does not stop.
To me this kind of devotion to close the door on distractions is remarkable and noteworthy. It begs this question, “What could we really tap into if we consciously tuned out noise?” I think we would surprise ourselves with the quality of our focus if the stigma connected with silence was not something to run from, but what we ran to instead.
Daniel 12:4 NKJ "But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."