Wear Your 3D Glasses: 3 Ways to Eliminate Distractions for a Purposeful Life

You want the devil screaming in disdain whenever your feet swing out of bed and touch the ground.

The problem: your days will throw every type of distraction at you.

There will be hurdles to leap, puzzles to solve, and conversations to navigate.

If you are not wearing the proper lenses, you will not see the entire image. How you see will affect how you think and what you do.

Wear your 3D Glasses to eliminate distraction.

Direction will help you focus on the right things.

Discipline will keep you on the path where others veer off.

Development is what you will gain on the journey.

There must be synergy between the three, and you must face every day equipped with your three Ds out in front of you.

The moment you face trouble without the three Ds filtering your sight is when you do not see the full image and will make a bad decision that does not align with what you want.

Direction: If you don't know where you are going, you'll never know how to get there.

We live about 2 hours from Disney World, the most magical place on earth. Imagine I load the family in the car, hit the highway, and hope my gut, grit, and desire will get me there.

No map. No GPS. No general direction. I'm hoping to find it along the way.

You likely wouldn't want to be in that car with me. That's because we prefer to avoid aimlessly roaming. We have precious time, and we want to reach our destination.

In life, where are you headed? Because if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. You will spend your life drifting.

One relationship to another.
One job to another.
One productivity journal to another.
One ideology to another.

You don't even need an exact destination in mind. If someone told me to go north on the highway toward Disney, I'd be much closer than if I merely trusted my gut.

Today, a general direction without a direct path might be best.

Go for a walk to jumpstart your health goals.
Open your Bible for 10 minutes before bed.
Take your spouse out on a date.

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Most people need to understand that passion is the result of action, not the cause of it.

Discipline - you have to do things others do not have the courage to do.

For too many, the word discipline is a scary word. They imagine screaming drill sergeant and guys in white shirts doing pushups while being blasted with a firehose.

Okay, that's just me.

Discipline should not be done out of fear but out of respect and choice. Discipline requires a reason to determine your best options despite your desire to do something else.

Two of the world's greatest heroes and exemplars of discipline, Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, wrote about their experience as Navy SEALS. In the book Extreme Ownership, Jocko writes,

'Discipline starts every day when the first alarm goes off in the morning. . . .The moment the alarm goes off is the first test; it sets the tone for the rest of the day. The test is not a complex one: when the alarm goes off, do you get out of bed, or do you lie there in comfort and fall back to sleep? If you have the discipline to get out of bed, you win—you pass the test. If you are mentally weak for that moment and you let that weakness keep you in bed, you fail. Though it seems small, that weakness translates to more significant decisions. But if you exercise discipline, that too translates to more substantial elements of your life.'

Discipline will give you the rules to live your life effectively and efficiently.

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If you want to live a more successful life than others, you must do things unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.

Discipline recognizes small sufferings today lead to a better life tomorrow. The habits and daily disciplines you create will eventually add up and determine who you become.

Development: We are all on a journey, but only some of us are becoming better.

Development is an ongoing process that begins when we're children. We observe everything our parents do and mimic their actions. Our teachers enlighten us with micro-revelations that become substantial knowledge over time. Even our peers have something to teach us about trial and error and how to function as fellow social animals.

As we age, many grow sluggish in their desire to develop, often stunting growth.

The greatest thing you can do for yourself is learn about yourself. You have a specific mode of operation, a default setting embedded deep.

What are you curious about?
What motivates you to do hard things?
Are you more optimistic or pessimistic?
How do you recharge your social battery?
Biggest fears?
Regrets?

These answers provide a platform for your development.

Great things are, by their very nature, unique and unconventional. Therefore, to achieve them, we must go against the herd mentality. And to do that is scary.

Embrace embarrassment. Feeling foolish is part of the path to achieving something important, something meaningful. The more a major life decision scares you, the more you need to be doing it.