Shut the Door: Distraction and Motivation
These days, I think more and more people are struggling to get out of bed in the morning. I get the sense that, if “snooze” hadn’t been reduced to a small conglomeration of pixels on our phones, that button would be looking considerably more well-used. I have the suspicion that we’re all simply more tired.
This should come as no shock. Our daily environment is essentially rigged to make us as exhausted and unmotivated as possible, even if we may be sold the idea that it is just the opposite. In our mania for convenience, we have, in a myriad of ways, stunted ourselves. This is not to cast aspersions against the general pursuit of efficiency, as it is much of what fuels human ingenuity. What I would argue, however, is that the dividing lines between efficiency, convenience, and laziness can be somewhat blurry, especially in the present moment.
Most of us struggle to accumulate what medical experts consider the minimum number of steps per day (about 3,000) needed to maintain long-term mobility and baseline fitness. Saddled with these increasingly archaic contraptions called “bodies” to transport our brains, we find ourselves, in this age of economy of movement, entering designated buildings where we pantomime the bygone activities which once sustained us. In an era where one can have nearly every biological need met without ever leaving the house, it should be expected there would exist a crisis of motivation.
Perhaps a crisis of “motivation” is not the most precise way to describe this phenomenon. I think people are rife with things they want to accomplish in life. All of us probably maintain lists of places we want to see before we die; experiences we wish to have shared with our friends; treasures we can say that we passed down to our children. Of all the reasons that could be cited for this paralysis which I witness, I would place the blame on severe oversaturation. Put more bluntly, the noise which comes at us from every conceivable angle.
I was fed an advertisement on social media not long ago which gave me hope, and it genuinely stood out to me.
The ad sought to remind people there once existed a time when we didn’t have to work to find silence. It continued, revealing this time was not that long ago, and that we could collectively possess at least a measure of that easily found silence again; that is, if our culture begins to value silence to the same degree we now value, say, privacy and personal space.
And, honestly, it wouldn’t be that difficult.
The grand task of blocking out the noise in our lives consists of many smaller, more manageable ones. Each time we cross the threshold into our houses or apartments, a choice is presented to us. We may either aid and abet the constant assault on our minds, senses, and souls by immediately re-engaging with the world through internet enabled devices, or we may choose to truly shut the door behind us and re-engage with what is most real: God and silence.
Even though this silence may not always be literal, we should cultivate an inner silence that remains, at all times, impervious to the disturbances of the outside world. The best way to do this is prayer; we must, in a sense, be praying constantly to keep up our spiritual defenses, our spiritual sound proofing. And if we find ourselves struggling with direction, unsure of where to go next, we must pray all the more.
If all of us made it a point to spend less time saturated with the noise of the world, I truly believe that most of the distractions which take up so much of our time would begin to fall away and, maybe, we’d see the path in front of us more clearly.
Walker Price is an award-winning columnist for the North Texas Catholic and a lifelong resident of the Fort Worth area; he attended St. Andrew Catholic School and Nolan Catholic High School. He has a passion for reading, writing, and nature. Find more of his columns for the North Texas Catholic here.