What are you attracted to that is distracting you from your best work, your better self, and even your freedom?

 While living in New York, right before sunset, I was arriving home, opened the garage, parked the car and before closing it, I heard something. I stayed quiet and heard it again. All of a sudden, there it was. A bird. A house sparrow that somehow made its way into the garage.

 I started walking toward it in such a way that, if trying to escape, it would go toward the big, open garage door … but it did not. Instead, it flew toward a closed window on the side of the garage that faces the street through which you could still see a glimpse of what was left of the daylight. The bird kept trying to fly through the glass not realizing that, just a few feet away, there was the path to freedom.

 Quietly, I walked toward the window to help direct the distressed sparrow to the garage door again. This time, it noticed something else that was shining … a light bulb in the laundry room on the opposite side. It flew toward it, circled it a couple of times and then flew to another shiny object, the chandelier in the dining room past the kitchen.

 My kids noticed the ordeal and joined my quest to help the sparrow. They opened the front double doors of the house to see if that would attract the bird, but instead, it flew 18 feet to the ceiling of the family room where there were several recessed lights … hmmm, more shiny objects? The bird went from light to light and then inside the guest room.

 We quickly went up the stairs to the room and finally were able to catch it. We came downstairs and out of the house. Almost ceremoniously, the bird was released … phewww!

 The little bird could not distinguish the difference between shiny objects and the path to freedom. On a couple of occasions, the opportunity to escape was just a few feet away, but the lure of the shiny attraction was so strong that, instead of pursuing freedom, it got deeper and further away from it and, had it not been for an outside influence, this sparrow would have remained hostage of its own instincts.

 In the same way, we as humans are attracted to shiny objects that distract us from becoming our best and from freeing ourselves from those things that hold us back. Contrary to the bird, however, we often DO see the door to freedom. We know what we should be doing and we are aware of what we should not be doing, but we allow the bright light of the instant gratification to blind us and to keep our true potential hostage.

 Passing the doors of freedom requires personal responsibility. It requires that you allow yourself to be comfortable being uncomfortable while you pursue the bigger light of a brighter future.

 What shiny objects are you attracted to which distract you from becoming your best self?

 When I ask this question in my seminars, I receive responses such as social media, sleeping late, watching TV, constant phone notifications, a new idea, the new tech gadget that just came out, playing Candy Crush, etc. Your distractions may or may not be similar, but either way, consider the following:

•  What is this attraction/distraction costing you?
• What don’t you have in your life right now that you would have otherwise?
• How do you feel about it?
• What can you do about it?
• What will you start doing about it now?

 To an extent, the bird did not have a choice … it was following its own instincts. The bird could not observe or critique its own behavior, but we are not little birds. We are the thinker behind our thoughts and the doer behind our actions.

 We don’t have to wait for an external force to motivate us. We don’t have to wait for illness to kick in. We don’t have to wait for financial difficulties. We don’t have to wait for our important relationships to be broken. We can choose now to cross the door and embrace freedom.

How far will you allow your wings to take you?