Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy.

by Bob Goff

Living on purpose is like a horse wearing blinders.

Be honest. From time to time we all find ourselves in dangerous places when we think we are safe. Distraction is what leads us into this kind of minefield.

Rather than making decisions consistent with who God says we are, we might be acting like the person someone else wants us to be.

A thousand such unnoticed distractions are getting in the way of your joy and preventing you from living with the kind of focused purpose that will produce the life you are longing for.

Sometimes we are so busy looking up and looking forward trying to figure out the next moves in our lives—or looking backward at all the places we have been—that we don’t look down and figure out where we actually are.

In truth, we are all trying to build the airplane while flying it—figuring it out as we go.

When this happens, one of the first casualties is our joy.

evil wants to distract us from expressing our gifts and doing what we are meant to do.

Honestly, it seems like evil has been doing a pretty good job of keeping us out of the fight and entangled in the ropes of distraction.

Just decide right now that you are going to lean into the rich, meaningful, beautiful, oftentimes painful life God has already given you.

The fact is, we don’t need more information; we need more examples.

Stay close to a few people who understand how to resist distraction and direct their energy toward their most lasting purposes, and some of this intentionality will rub off on you.

Are you willing to do what it takes to uncover the wonder that already surrounds your life?

Will you do the courageous work to identify what is distracting you from the better things?

And finally, are you willing to do the difficult and selfless work of releasing the beauty you discover into the lives of others ...

We need to block our view of the things that hardly matter at all, stop returning to the patterns that do not serve our larger objectives, start recognizing what is temporary and transitory, and instead focus intensely on the things that will last forever: our faith, our families, and our purposes.

Facts can be helpful, but rarely are they soulful.

Because when you and I are laser-focused and clearheaded, I promise we will find our purpose every time. Find your purpose, and you will experience more joy. The math is simple.

The way to beat distraction is to become captivated by something much bigger and much better, such as purpose and joy.

Take care of your heart and grow your mind, and you will live a life loaded with legacy.

Would you do it? Would you be willing to risk dying in order for your life to be more lasting? Would you risk everything for the chance to live your life more fully?

Here is my simple suggestion: Decide in advance that you will do whatever it takes to get your heart right, and then do it—even if it will kill all previous versions of you.

Figure out what makes your heart skip a beat with joy and what makes it miss a beat with dysfunction and distraction.

In the end, we’re all looking through a keyhole at eternity as we try to figure out our lives today.

Don’t be distracted by how different you are from everyone else. Our hearts were meant to beat together, not the same.

It’s a childlike faith—not a childish one—Jesus said would do the trick.

What amount of additional information do you need before you will trust God to fix your heart?

What I’m saying is: It’s not easy to be your heart, so take care of it, okay? Do this with your faith and also your relationships. Take care of them. Keep track of the stress you have subjected yourself to, and for Pete’s sake, take care of your one amazing and irreplaceable body.

After this procedure, the doctor said the best thing I could do for my heart is to not stress it out.

For the last several years, I’ve been telling myself that I want to be the guy who’s available.

We will be known for our opinions but remembered for the love we gave to everyone around us.

If I have my head down over a project and can’t be bothered to shift focus, I’ll miss a good chance to show love and grace to the person next to me—and that’s not the life I want to live.

If you don’t take the time to capture and process your interior world, you will miss the opportunity to discover something bigger and more beautiful in your heart.

Many of the people who have brought a great deal of understanding and beauty to the world were notetakers.

If you’ll do the work, taking note of ideas and truths and thoughts that matter to you, you will put yourself in places to impact people in deep and inexplicable ways you couldn’t have imagined.

Write down all of the lessons you learned from each day. A life without reflection is like a vapor.

The trick is to write down what you learn on the adventure so it doesn’t go missing later.

The clarity of purpose, undistracted energy, selfless love, and unselfish pursuits you bring to the world will be your legacy. Everything else will look like a distraction by comparison.

The cure for insecurity is being completely present in the expression of your purpose.

We all have pockets. It’s what we put in them or keep in them that can become distractions. Regrets, resentment, hurts, and misunderstandings are all things that can become huge distractions.

Shame keeps us behind the walls we have constructed to keep everybody out. So do envy and bitterness and judgmental people. Most of pride’s prisoners think they are the guards. What we need is the kind of jailbreak an accepting community can offer. Find one and experience the kind of freedom and focus you didn’t think was possible for you.

We expend so much energy trying to feel secure and hide any sense we are afraid.

Sadly, we can spend our entire lives constructing a façade of security and safety, when inside we are just scared people in need of a friend.

If you want to dazzle God, don’t ignore, dismiss, or deny your insecurities, and don’t overlook other people’s odd behaviors as the groans of insecurities make their way to the surface.

We are not the average of the five most insecure people who have opinions about us; we’re the product of the several most focused and undistracted people we successfully imitate.

This is where most of us live—detached, distracted, and frantic but trying to look like we’re not.

People who live with purpose are willing to be sewn back together; they’re willing to admit they’re separated in the first place, and they’re willing to have some safe friends get involved to help put them back together.

Come home to yourself. Get reacquainted with your true self, which is the you everyone sees plus the shadow they don’t. Give yourself a pep talk about how it’s okay to be exactly who you are.

The people I enjoy the most aren’t looking to me for validation; they have already arrived there for themselves knowing they are not p...

Don’t let the darkness of your circumstances or the surprises you encounter distract you from your destination.