Enemies of progress – Distraction, Deception ,Dislocation
I have found the enemies of progress in my life have used three consistent tools – distraction, deception, and dislocation.
Have you ever found when listening out for some important information, a distracting and irritating sound cutting out your focus on receiving that bit of information?
Have you ever found yourself not only being distracted from a higher priority activity but being led to resolve a lower priority issue? That’s deception.
Have you ever found yourself forgetting about the higher priority activity when resolving a lower priority activity, only to remember it when your window of opportunity has closed? That’s dislocation.
We see these at play in football (my American friends would say -soccer) matches. Effective strikers feigning a body movement to throw defenders out of position to have a clear shot at goal.
With mental illness, life’s stresses distract me from my focus. For many years I found that my writing reflected lack of focus. Zoe always commented with exasperation about how I made notes. When I was fortunate enough to make them, I must add! She had got me into the discipline of taking notes. Once she gave me a number of treasured books from Christian authors to feedback on what I took from them. Amazingly, my handwriting was nowhere the neat copy of type I had from childhood.
My purpose and priorities regularly became thwarted with mental illness. By the time I was half way through the day, I often forgot what I had purposed to do at the start of the day. It’s no surprise my priorities were never firm in my consciousness.
Finally I often found myself dislocated from my proper place in the scheme of things. I was hardly in the right place to effect the changes I wanted in life. When I was fortunate enough to be with the right people it was hardly at the right time to achieve my set goals. I would take breaks from work to plan activities. When I found myself in the presence of those that could help with them it was never at the right time.
Over the years, I was effective at helping groups that I was in to get things done. However, I was always challenged to get my own plans off the ground with the right people.
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