Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy.

by Bob Goff

The mistakes we make aren’t outtakes to edit from our lives; they are bookmarks for the places where we learn the most about our lives.

“Experience is the thing we gain the moment after we needed it.”

Don’t let surprising and unexpected outcomes rob you of the chance to gain experience and wisdom.

Everything you need is much closer to home than you think.

“All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage. Just twenty seconds of embarrassing bravery and it will change everything.”

I realized that sometimes you need to stop chasing the horse and go back to the barn. What have you been chasing? Are you pursuing acceptance? Popularity? A relationship? How about a dream job or career? Have you been running across the fields of your life looking for permission or validation or approval? What if you were to stop running after things you are never going to catch and just return to the basics of your life: your faith, family, purpose, joy, and your most authentic life?

In other words, go back to the barn and give up chasing the things you aren’t going to catch or that aren’t worth corralling anyway.

Going back to the barn doesn’t mean you lack ambition, nor does it mean you are bailing on things that are important to you. It just means you’re becoming...

Imagine what would be possible if you tapped the brakes in your exhausting life, regrouped, caught your breath, and returned to the basics—because this is where all the g...

The problem is, we don’t use what we already have to get what we really need. We complicate our lives and distract ourselves with things we don’t need or want.

We are all chasing something, and some of us are spending a weird amount of time running from things.

If you want to go deeper in your faith, perhaps you’ll need a little risk too.

To live a life of immense purpose you have to stop chasing what’s simply available. Instead, head back to whatever sanctuary you have—a family, a home, a friendship, a treehouse, whatever—and set aside everything else vying for your attention.

An unexamined life is a fog of distraction that obscures our whole identity; only the brutally honest are willing to see a newer, better, bigger picture.

My question is this: What are you filling your brain with? Are you carrying around several pounds of distractions and made-up stories in your head?

“Be careful what you learn for that is what you will know.”

If you only learn half-truths you can only live half a life. To live fully you need the whole truth about who you are because only truth will make you clear-eyed about where you’re going.

Understanding how we’re wired will help us avoid distraction and find joy and purpose in our lives.

Be honest with yourself. Some of the stories we hold on to are holding us back.

If we want to eliminate some of the distractions in our lives, we need to figure out what or who is chasing us into the shallows.

Your heart and mind are an ocean of endless possibility and promise.

If people are uncomfortable because of your boldness, you’re on the right track.

There’s a theory called Occam’s razor. There’s a lot to it, but in essence it says this: The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Don’t be too hard on each other. Things aren’t always the way they appear or even what they sound like.

You are going to be misunderstood, and you will misunderstand some things. It’s just that simple.

get more comfortable with people just not “getting us” and stop getting distracted when this occurs?

Get comfortable with the notion that some people will be puzzled by what you say and do. Rather than being distracted by this, just admit it, understand it, and grow through it. Stop sweating it, regretting it, looking over your shoulder, replaying old conversations in your mind, and hoping for a different outcome.

Don’t get punked by these challenges; understand the nature and inevitability of misunderstanding, and you will gut all the power it has over you.

What if you tap the brakes on all the distractions and finish the work you’ve been given rather than worrying about how everyone feels about what you’re doing?

If finishing the work God gave you rubs somebody wrong, you’ll probably be dropped from a couple of email groups or be uninvited from a gathering or two. Big deal. Let these disappointments roll off like water off a duck’s back. You don’t need thicker skin; you need more awareness and perspective and an unwavering sense of purpose.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying we should aim for being misunderstood, but maybe, just maybe, we could stop obsess...

I realized in that moment I had spent two thousand dollars fixing a twenty-five-cent problem. When an unreasonable amount of attention is given to a distraction, it can become an obsession.

We can obsess over all kinds of things. Sports, people’s opinions about us, politics, even air fresheners. Here are my questions to you: What are you obsessing over? Is it a relationship? An opportunity? A job? A failure? Whatever it is, these obsessions are not doing you any favors.

Just like you will miss a couple of things along the way and not get them right, you’re going to be misunderstood. Deal with it, own it, embrace it, hug it. Don’t be distracted by it.

Don’t get distracted when someone else connects with God in a way that wouldn’t have any sway with you.

Keep your eyes on your own paper.

Sadly, some of us have become so distracted trying to straighten everybody else out that we have swerved off the road.

We can distract ourselves thinking that we’re giving people needed advice on how to live their lives without actually adding anything to their lives.

You are going to be misunderstood. You will mess up more than a couple of things and get still more wrong. It’s not going to happen once in a while. It will happen constantly. So figure out in advance what you’ll do when it happens next, and oh my gosh (I couldn’t resist), the freedom you gain will be worth it.

The work you do is not a way to prove your worth; it is proof that God already sees you as worthwhile.

Here’s my point. Many of us become distracted trying to look important.

He was important because he was known and loved by God. You are too. He reflected his importance in the way he honored and respected the people who worked for him with a quiet, confident humility and the way he made time for wayward travelers like me.

It’s been said that there are two kinds of people: humble people and those about to be. Be humble and you won’t be distracted trying to look important.

The subtle twist that happens with work, though, compared to our other daily activities, is that it’s easy to conflate what we do with who we are. In other words, we equate our work with our worth and identity. This is where things can get tricky and dangerous and confusing.

Here’s a different question I think is worth asking: How much are you relying on your job for your identity? Is your work your calling card, the thing you’re proud to talk about at dinner parties? Maybe your work is the expression of dutifully following other people’s expectations.

The point is this: What we do matters less than what we are working toward, who we’re working for, and why we are doing it.

God wants us to view our work as a way to honor Him, get closer to Him, and reflect Him in how we live.

It doesn’t matter what the work is; it matters who we become in the process of doing our work, and the goal is to look and act more like Jesus while we do it.

It’s not wrong to plan or commit, but the truth is, most of us are just guessing what the next hour will hold.

Now I’m trying to do things that last. It’s a subtle difference but an important one.