I’m Hearing Voices

No, not the schizophrenia kind

These are the ones we all hear, every waking moment:

Hold up, gotta put the laundry away.

Don’t forget to pick up that thing, when you pass the supermarket on the way home.

I promised Jake we’d grab a coffee and catch up, but my schedule is crazy and he hasn’t called me back, yet.

(And just now for me at home: “Did you put the wash in the dryer? Does it smell OK? And can you bring the puppy ball bin over to this side of the fence?” Sometimes the voices come from outside our own heads.)

Many times, the voices are legit. When they come from your spouse, absolutely.

But they can also distract us from getting down to business. Particularly when they consume all our mental bandwidth.

Reality check: distractions never stop

I don’t think it’s possible, or healthy, to aspire to a distraction-free brain.

Not only are we “imperfect” biological systems, we are extraordinarily complex. The layer of brain function we call conscious thought is the uppermost onion skin atop emotion, instinct, and years of conscious and subconscious memory. Plus we’re social beings, with ties to our family members, friends, and work associates.

We deal with our stuff, and we incorporate the stuff of others.

Still, we have goals

Having a goal gives a direction, and that’s generally a good thing — way better than being completely clueless. Even if you’re content to Just Be, you still have a goal: staying in the moment and not getting ensnared in the clamor of worldly life.

If you have a goal, you have a path.

You weigh X, and your goal may be X-minus-20. The path is losing the 20 pounds.

There are choices that support that path, like reducing your portion sizes, eliminating ultraprocessed foods, and doubling down on sleep and stress reduction.

Nearly everything else detracts from that path. Putting the towels away, stopping by the supermarket, chasing down an appointment… if those things take the place of the key components of your path, arriving at your goal becomes unlikely.

It’s not that neatness, supply staples, or socializing are unimportant. In themselves they are critical parts of a healthy lifestyle.

It’s just that we are talking about health and fitness. And these kinds of goals aren’t one-offs, that you can achieve with a quick side action between your daily chores.

The path to health and fitness goals nearly always demands consistency. Walking every day, getting 8 hours of sleep every night, avoiding ultraprocessed foods at every turn, going to the gym or workout class 3+ times a week every week.

(It can sound exhausting, but that’s a mental construct. More on reframing that in another post; for now, consistency is a description, not a marker of a burden.)

Status check: Where are you?

When, not if, you hear the voices calling you to all the myriad things your life demands, what kind of mental space are you in?

Are you lurching from task to task, trying to catch up on your mental checklist? Then your goal items are just more things to do, competing with the usual endless list of life tasks. And endless infinity is likely to win out.

Or are you on your path, having decided that the goal is important and that you are making it happen?

Then the coffee with Jake and the folded towels, important as they are, flow around your non-negotiables.