What Feeling Are You Distracting Yourself From?

"What feeling am I distracting myself from?"

This simple question has helped me drastically improve my creative output.

In my early 20s, I lived my life in a whirlpool of distractions. Hell, I can still remember one weekday morning when I sat on my couch, chugging the warm dregs of a Miller High Life before crushing the can between my palms.

#BreakfastOfChampions.

Don't worry––I had good reason to celebrate: after an all-night (and all-morning) effort, I’d finally won the Super Bowl in Madden ’07.

Surprise, surprise, I didn't have a job at the time. Instead, I spent my days watching TV and playing video games, and I spent my evenings watching porn, drinking alone, and getting sucked into Reddit rabbit holes.

Eventually, I realized I had a distraction problem.

But instead of unearthing the underlying issue that led to my lab-rat life of low-level dopamine chases, I created clever mind-hacks to curb my distractions.

I put time limits on my web browser.

I got rid of my PlayStation (which is a huge sacrifice for a Super Bowl champion btw).

And eventually I completely disconnected the internet in my home. Yeah, man. I was that hardcore about it.

Take a wild guess how well those hacks worked...

Each new trick was my savior for about two weeks. Then, one-by-one, they failed me, just like my Minnesota Vikings franchise failed me season after season in Madden '07.

What I didn't realize was that each mind-hack was nothing more than another distraction from the real problem.

So what was the real problem?

There was no answer. And there still is no answer. What I'm distracting myself from changes every time.

I go on Instagram because I don't want to think about my mom dying.

I open NFL.com because I don't know the next sentence of my novel.

I watch porn because I don't want to face my loneliness.

No "one-size-fits-all" solution works because there is no uniform size of uncomfortable feelings I distract myself from. Hell, maybe I'm not even hiding from something big––I just need a moment to chill the eff out.

Either way, fighting against distraction doesn't work. It's like fighting against the current of a rushing river.

The only thing that works is surrendering to the current, and asking myself "Why?" as I do.

If I notice myself mindlessly opening NFL.com, I don't stop. I just ask, "What feeling am I distracting myself from?" and the answer usually comes immediately.

Then, once I realize what I'm hiding from, it's easier to turn and face it head-on. Not easy––just easier.

So I ask:

What feeling are you distracting yourself from?

[Painting from: https://www.behance.net/whlindsay]