Distracted

Maybe being distracted isn’t all bad.

Distracted? I am all of the time, but I have also learned over the last few weeks that this is when I get some of my best ideas.

Now, I don’t mean losing focus entirely, but slightly losing focus brings some things into view.

Think of being followed by a black cat at night. You know something is behind you, but the cat always stops when you go to look, and then when you continue, so does the cat, but only when you are not directly looking at it.

Lately, I have been reading Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act, and it has shed light on this phenomenon. It reads as follows:

We might hold a problem to be solved lightly in the back of our consciousness instead of the front of our mind. This way, we can remain present with it over time while engaging in a simple, unrelated task. Examples include driving, walking, swimming, showering, washing dishes, dancing, or performing any activity we can accomplish on autopilot. Rick Rubin, The Creative Act.

Knowing this, I realized that while I am wrapping skids at work, it is quite easy for me to process other ideas.

Likewise, a recent story was that while I was playing Mario Cart in an online lobby of good players, I was not doing well. When all of a sudden I got a phone…