I’m a big fan of music variety when I drive. Today, I’ll probably listen to two podcasts and an assortment of mix CDs. My latest mix is a collection of some of my favorite songs from musicals (probably influenced by my absolute love of the new show GLEE). As I went through iTunes and selected songs, there was no doubt “Pinball Wizard” from The Who’s Tommy would make the list. It might well be my all time favorite song to close out an act.
While my computer burned the CD, I listened to “Pinball Wizard.” I’m not that good at pinball. Whenever I play, I’m just trying to keep up—spending more time reacting than utilizing any form of strategy.
The past week or so I realized that I had allowed my life recently to become a bit more like pinball. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between different business and personal projects, time on facebook, errands, and brainstorming—never quite giving full focus to anything, just a quick moment as I bounce off to the next task. Yes, I’ve been able to keep everything afloat right now, but I’m bound to “lose a turn” sometime soon. At one point this week, I realized I had spent 30 minutes popping back between the same 7 news sites and blogs. I was reading information and learning some things, but there is no way that was the best use of my time.
I know I’m not the only one who gets stuck in this trap. In the past week, several students informed me that they actually had to have a friend change their facebook password during a major assignment and/or finals so that they could begin to have some focus. We have so many stimuli these days. We can do so many things. We can multitask. But I wonder if this is starting to hurt our ability to pause and give true focus.
I want to focus on reading.
I want to focus on writing.
I want to focus on listening to the people in my life.
I want to focus on truly enjoying life.
So I’m looking to regain some of that focus right now. I don’t want to just be a wizard at a pinball version of my life. Rather I’d like to find a way to potentially “defy some gravity” (yep, there is some Wicked on this playlist as well) and focus on a way to really make an impact.