A rare glimpse behind the scenes of my daily email machine:

Most of my writing takes place at my kitchen table early in the morning before I cycle into the office.  

All I have for company is a few chirping birds and my silky smooth coffee.

Sometimes the sky is pitch black when I start writing.  And as I write and the words flow from my head through my fingers and onto the screen, the sun starts to peek out from the horizon until the whole skyline is bathed in light.

Idyllic indeed.

And this suits me down to the ground.  I work best when conditions are calm and peaceful.

But it’s not always like this.

On Monday mornings at about 6am, a dustbin lorry appears on the street below with a shrieking BEEEEEEEP which is so jarring that it’s like someone’s set off a smoke alarm at a meditation retreat.

Sometimes I’ll be perched at my laptop on a Saturday evening while Casa Grundy’s floorboards reverberate to the thumping beats of my neighbour’s less than musical speakers.

And other times I might catch a quick 20 minutes’ writing while Lauren polishes off the latest episode of Love Island.  And because Casa Grundy is – how shall I say this? – rather snug and cosy, the TV is a few short paces from the kitchen table which means as I write, I can’t help but catch fragments about who’s pied who, who’s got the ick and which real-life Ken is winding up which real-life Barbie.

Here’s the funny thing about all this:

I’ve noticed that some distractions are easy for me to filter out and the words just keep coming as I type, whereas other distractions are so intrusive that it’s almost impossible to keep writing and I might as well just resign myself to the fact it ain’t happening & crack on with my day.

This got me wondering…

Why are some distractions so distracting but others are like water off a duck’s back?

I know the source of the distraction doesn’t matter.  Some days the dustbin lorry throws me off and on other days it doesn’t.

It’s also not the volume of the hubbub which counts.  I’ve noticed I can tune out the loud & quiet distractions to different degrees on different days.

And it’s not the familiarity of the distraction either.  Sometimes a new distraction (like drilling outside my window – happened last week) will throw me off my email game and other times I’m still in the zone.

Same for how nearby the noise is, the type of noise or the length of time it goes on for.  None of these are the through-line.

But after kicking it about, I’ve come to see that there IS a common thread running through the distractions which deflect my attention.

That thread?

The most distracting distractions are the ones I have a lot of thinking about.

They’re the distractions where I go “this shouldn’t be happening right now”, “don’t they know I’m trying to write an email?” or “I need silence!  This is so unfair!!”.

In other words:

I’m not being distracted by the distractions.  I’m being distracted by my thoughts.

It’s been cool to notice this.

There’s not much I can do about dustbin lorries, ear-splitting beats or Love Island. 

But my thoughts are my jurisdiction.

The more I see about thoughts, their purpose, how they work, where they come from and where they go to, the more possibilities open up, the more alive I feel and the more peace, calm & happiness I find.

It’s almost like there’s a direct correlation between understanding the role of thought and living a fulfilling life.

Thing is, the nature of thought isn’t a place many people look.  And no wonder.  Our own thoughts distract us before we even get started!

But they don’t have to. 

If you’d like to find more peace, calm and happiness for yourself, here’s a worthwhile distraction:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

 - Tom