You have things going on—work to do, a life to live. What you probably don’t have time for is distraction. I’m not talking about physical distraction of people or things, although those are very real and must be addressed. I’m talking about something more insidious, and therefore easy to miss. I’m talking about mental or emotional distraction: things that come up that are irritating you at some level, and draw your focus to them, and away from more productive thoughts and therefore activities.
I just got off a 15-hour flight to Hong Kong. The flight was fine, the taxi ride from the airport was fine, but come on. After that long a flight, you’re ready to get out of things that move and get somewhere on solid ground near a bed. Now, when I get into a taxi in a foreign city, I always find out if the driver is familiar with my destination. At home, if the driver gets lost, I pull out my smartphone and access my GPS. Love that about my phone, until it comes to leaving the country. No Verizon off of home soil, so if the driver doesn’t know the hotel, I can’t help him get there. This driver said he knew where he was going. And he mostly did, until the end. Due to one-way streets and certain street markings, he had trouble getting me to the hotel. He had to circle a few blocks (in traffic- so this is now taking awhile). After he’d done this a couple of times, the distraction began for me—thoughts like “This is taking way too long, he should know the way, what a waste of time….” Notice the negative spin distraction like this typically takes. Next, he volunteered to let me off a little ways away from the hotel, in the dark, in a back alley. I’m not sure what caused him to think that would be appealing. My distraction (irritation, now distracting me by steering me away from productive thoughts) increased—“You have to be kidding,” I was now in sarcasm mode in my head. I urged him to try again, and he finally got fairly near the hotel. I got out of the taxi with my luggage and prepared to drag it a ways, over curbs, with the distraction at full tilt—“What a bother,” “I’m way too tired for this,” “That guy seriously needs to know his city better….” These thoughts don’t sound like a big deal, yet in my experience, they add up.
You can either be someone who lets things get to you all of the time, some of the time, or not much of the time if at all. It’s really obvious when someone fits the first category—they’re hard to be around. Everything’s negative. Most of us would probably put ourselves in the second category—but why? It distracts you and saps your energy with its negative spin. The people in the third category will get the most done, because they’re not wasting emotional or mental effort on the small stuff.
There’s a simple shortcut through mental or emotional distraction. If you’re a 15th Century English Mystic (Julian of Norwich), it’s “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” If you’re more contemporary, it may be, “It’s all good.”
When I got out of the taxi, with my negative mental state, I was face-to-face with a florist shop. I wouldn’t have seen the shop at all if the driver hadn’t had his directional issues, as it's situated in the opposite direction I will go each morning this week for work. And the floor-to-ceiling window was filled, just filled, with my favorite flower—the white orchid. Lots and lots of them, cascading. It overwhelmingly felt like a personal welcome for me. I stood there on the sidewalk and drank it in, actually glad the driver had dropped me a ways beyond the hotel, delay and all. And I was struck with the reminder of how important it is to consistently join Julian and her pals—people throughout the ages who have said not only “I’m not going to sweat the small stuff,” but “The thing that’s bugging me right now may ultimately be a gift.”
This week, keep your mind open. If something is irritating you, it’s distracting you. Don’t let it. Trust that there’s a white orchid somewhere, somehow in it for you, let go of the distracting thoughts, focus on what you’re working on, and move forward.
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