Indistractable

Seneca was writing more than two thousand years ago, his words are just as applicable today.

You can’t call something a distraction unless you know what it is distracting you from. Planning ahead is the only way to know the difference between traction and distraction.

Our most precious asset—our time—is unguarded, just waiting to be stolen. If we don’t plan our days, someone else will.

The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote, “People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time, they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.”

In part one, we learned ways to cope with the internal triggers that can drive us to distraction and how to reduce the sources of discomfort; if we don’t control our impulse to escape uncomfortable feelings, we’ll always look for quick fixes to soothe our pain.

Practice self-compassion. Talk to yourself the way you’d talk to a friend. People who are more self-compassionate are more resilient.

What we say to ourselves matters. Labeling yourself as having poor self-control is self-defeating.

Thankfully, you don’t have to believe everything you think; you are only powerless if you think you are.

Self-compassion makes people more resilient to letdowns by breaking the vicious cycle of stress that often accompanies failure.

People who did not see willpower as a finite resource did not show signs of ego depletion.