undistracted: a note on staying tapping in to where you are.
Happy first day of March, everyone! It’s a very exciting day in the book world — Bob Goff’s newest book Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy. is out today! 📔🚀 I couldn’t be more honored or delighted to be part of the launch team for this book because Bob’s words continue to be quite transformative in my life.
If you’ve read any of his other books, you know they leave you better than when they found you. Undistracted is no different. Full of great stories, lessons and honest candor backed with biblical truth, this book gently yet deliberately encourages you to let go of what distracts you in order to live the life you already have permission to live!
It emboldens you to dive in, be available, emancipate whatever holds you back from living your purpose (people, places, things, thoughts, etc), to have a keen eye to discern what’s true and meant to last and to fully dive deep into the goodness + grace offered to you. Filled to the brim with so many great quotes, thought-provoking questions and actionable takeaways coupled with his signature whimsy, light and heart for God and for people, this book is the perfect antidote to being distracted and reminds you to hone in on who you uniquely are in the midst of 100 things that may be pulling you in different directions.
I’ll share with you five of my favorite quotes from the book to wet your whistle and hopefully motivate you to read it, too.
“Here’s a truth you can take to the bank no matter how long you live: The clarity of purpose, undistracted energy, selfless love, and unselfish pursuits you bring to the world will be your legacy. Everything else will look like a distraction by comparison. Distraction robs us of the ability to both live in the moment and discern what lasts.”
“So, where do you start? Well, there are as many starting points as you have excuses. First, have the difficult talk with yourself you’ve been deferring. You might need to break up with your past. I know it will be awkward to make the needed changes, but make them anyway. Declare yourself completely free from the distractions and habits and activities that have become familiar but are no longer serving you. Make room for a couple of new routines that lead to who you are becoming, then replace all the earlier habits you adopted that obscured the path. Did you know the Declaration of Independence is only thirty-six sentences long? If a ragtag patchwork of colonies broke up with England in thirty-six sentences, you can break up with your distractions in a dozen. Do you need a sentence about negative self-talk? Write it down. Put that nonsense on notice because you’re quitting it entirely. Declare “it’s not me, it’s you. I’m out.” What about shame or people-pleasing? Kick them to the curb. What about asking for permission to do the things you already have permission to do? You will only be as free as you actually believe you are. Write your “Declaration Against Distraction” and then buckle up. You have just created the space for an abundance of joy and purpose to come flooding into your life.”
“The problem for you is probably the same problem I have all the time. We are so distracted by the things happening around us that we overlook what God could be doing within us. The fix is both easy and hard. We need to connect the dots from what we have heard about our faith to what we actually do with our faith. This confusion doesn’t come from a bad place necessarily, and I find myself mixing them up all the time. Here’s why. Somewhere along the way, we probably got distracted by everything that competes for our attention. We need to realign, refine, and reconnect with the greater purposes for our lives rather than be distracted by the lesser ones. We need to swivel our heads to look for opportunities right in front of us rather than fixating on the ones behind us.”
“You have permission to pursue your beautiful ideas and interests. You have permission to go deeper in your relationships with God and with the fallible people He made. You have permission to quit the career you are merely capable of and trade it in for the one you have been hoping for. You have permission to be twice as real as you have been, and you definitely have my express permission to invent the next version of a cake pop and send me a case or two. Don’t get distracted by the safety of the familiar or by the scripts and expectations everyone else has for your life. Friends, parents, pastors, and spouses all mean well. But if you want to dazzle God, stop thinking you need a different ticket than the one you’ve already got. Stop waiting for someone to say you have permission to pursue your ideas or your beautiful and lasting ambitions. Go live fully. Heaven can’t wait to see what you’ll do when you show up each day with your all-access pass. Your existence—your one beautiful and brief life—is the only ticket you need. It’s right there in your hand already.”
“Once you decide what you want the future to look like, make a couple of moves like your life is actually yours to live—because it is. Quit the job, call the friend, make the apology, launch the dream, take the shot. We don’t need to hedge our bets against disappointment by keeping our expectations low. This wide, deceptive, and potholed off-ramp isn’t worth taking, and it won’t get you anywhere worthwhile. Assume instead that God is going to do inexplicably, wildly, unfathomably more than you could have ever seen or imagined. If that doesn’t make you feel a little happy and joyful, you need a sundae.” 🍨
So good. You can buy Undistracted on Amazon by clicking here and/or download a free chapter here!
And if you haven’t already — be sure to add 2 of his other books to your 2022 Reading List (both of which were on my list of top reads of 2021!):
Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World
Everybody Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People
Lastly, if you enjoy listening to podcasts — Bob has a great podcast called Dream Big, and he has two great episodes on Living Undistracted and Becoming Undistracted that I think you’ll enjoy and can listen to right here: 👇🏻
I hope you feel motivated to take inventory of any of the things that are distracting you and keeping you from the best version of you. Not only that, I hope you also find the courage to create your own ‘Declaration Against Distraction’ and re-calibrate if you need to so you can do the things that matter and tap into the joy that’s already yours. I am confident this book and those podcast episodes can be great tools in your toolbox to help you dial back, dive in, draw near and do the things you’re called to. I promise I’ll be working to do the same! 🎈
