We may not all be aware that we do this, but most of us are distracted by the shiny object syndrome.  We want something new and exciting and the proliferation of electronic devices and noise has only decreased our attention span and focus.  This issue applies to both our personal life and to business owners.  I am going to cover how it affects both and ways to at least partially mitigate shiny object syndrome.  Part of the solution is just being aware that it exists.

Personal Life

Most of the distractions in our personal lives comes from digital noise.  It distracts us  from accomplishing what you are hoping to accomplish, whether that is spending time with your family, achieving personal goals, or the like.  Such distractions and lack of accomplishing what you hope to accomplish limits your personal growth and life experiences.  Do we  really need to be notified for every email you receive in real time, check Facebook every 30 minutes, or get distracted by texts nonstop?  Probably not, so we  can turn off automatic email update (or at least notifications), remove Social Media apps from our phones, and get texts under control.  Such an approach can be referred to as pruning.  You remove something from your life and, like with a plant, pruning allows other areas to grow.  From my experience I have become a better father as I have pruned my digital noise.  That isn't to say that I don't face challenges but I did recently go on a 6 day vacation without checking email or Social media once.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it but I have grown as a person from the experience.  I know some people that have implemented digital free days during the weekend and they say it has been wonderful.

Business Owners

Business owners also face similar (if not more) noise in their business world then they do in their personal life.  In addition, many of us read up or go to conferences and learn about the next new and exciting thing.  We come with new ideas, but never fully implement them before the next new idea comes along.  How do you avoid this on the business end?  It requires focus and a strategic plan that we are committed to.  Ask yourself the following questions:

·         If we have something new to consider, does it really align with that plan or does it require a change to our overall plan? 

·         How hard will it be to implement and what is the risk/reward for the scenario? 

·         Am I constantly jumping from one new idea to the next.