It’ll Keep Traveling

There’s a short in my brain, some sort of internal focus resistance circuit.  The ability to concentrate on a task is within me…but it hides behind rampant curiosity.  I’ve managed to keep a job and family without much trouble but not without some effort, and the problem is all in my head.

The latest reason is this article.  Operating best cyclically, on duty (working or studying) for 10 or 15 minutes and then distracted for 5 or 10 minutes, I’m efficient.  Presently, I need to write this article.  Also, I want to look up some information on an online business.  The perfect combination…if my mind cooperates.

But I’m really curious about what it takes to start an online business so what have I spent the last hour and a half doing? Researching online business startups…and Moe Norman’s golf swing…and Facebooking…and whatever pranced across my brain as I perused the electronic superhighway.

This proclivity wasn’t an issue in school for a couple of reasons.  First, distractions, or the lack of, there wasn’t really anything else to do but what was right in front of me.  We didn’t have texting, web-surfing, or anything electronic to distract us.  If your hands were in your crotch and your fingers were moving rapidly you were going to be medicated and placed in a special class.

The other reason was consequences.  If I was off topic I didn’t get redirected, a time-out or detention; I got busted.  A wooden paddle across a chubby bottom focused attention and elevated motivation.  Of course, society’s become too sophisticated for such a primitive form of discipline…that served mankind brilliantly for millennia.  So carry on with your time-outs, countdown-to-obedience and second/third/fourth chances because life also offers those to adults…in the form of firings, incarceration and divorces.

Access to information is ruthless on my internal urge for instant answers.  In days of old hastily satisfying whimsical curiosities wasn’t normally possible.  If I wanted an answer I had to jump through hoops.  It might involve digging through encyclopedias; we had an orange set missing the ‘R-Si’ edition (consequently, I know nothing about the Renaissance, Rasputin or San Diego).  Or it might mean talking to an adult or making a phone call.  Normally not wanting an answer that bad, I went on with whatever task my wandering mind had tried to evade.  Like easy women, easy answers are awesome…until you realize what you’ve lost in their pursuit. 

With a quick search on the miracle of modern technology I keep in my pocket (a smart phone) I can download an online retail business plan, look at a video of Moe Norman’s very unusual swing (the guy was a golf savant) and discover my cousin’s 9-year-old daughter, Saffy won ‘Best of Show Stand-Up Comedian’ at the Mason Bar last week.

But if I gave in to all my whims with the ease I give in to curiosity I’d be half dead from diabetes, with rooms full of useless eBay items and a wife that carried an electric cattle prod around the house.  I don’t know what causes my mind to go on its day trips, but all indications are it’ll keep traveling.