It’s been an interesting ride on this trip to Chicago. I’ve had the TV on quite a bit here in the hotel room. And for the record television is a horrible companion.
But yesterday I caught some snippets of a movie set in Australia. It centered on a couple of competitive swimmers working toward competing on the international level and it had the look of one of those based on real events movies like Chariots of Fire.
Unfortunately I never caught the title of this one.
One of the sub plots caught my attention, though. It was one of those classic stories of a couple of buddies becoming competitors over time. It was interesting how they each dealt with the change in relationship differently.
Both of the friends were very good swimmers, fairly evenly matched. They each thought the other was better.
It seemed every time they raced, the one who had his head less distracted by all the other things going on in their lives was the one who’d come out ahead at the end of the race.
It reminded me how important it is for successful people to keep their heads in the game when they are on the field (or in the pool).
Keeping the focus over the long haul hasn’t historically been one of my strongest suits. I don’t know if you are like me, but maybe you find yourself sometimes getting distracted by the urgent things that come up through the course of life too.
For example, this week my wife got called up for jury duty. Not a big deal normally. Except in this case they were looking for a jury for about the biggest murder trial of the year in Savannah.
You know the kind. Front page of the local paper every day and all that. Of course I’m sitting here a thousand miles away wondering what all is going to happen.
Will she get selected? If so will they be sequestered because of the media circus? If she gets sequestered, who will feed our cats until I get back home?
You know, all the goofy stuff that I really have little or no control over. And of course the mind can’t help but wander off into thinking about some of those movies where bad things happen to jurors in big trials…
Pile all that on top of working in a strange city, my normal screwy hours, and the fact that it is pretty stinking cold up here. (Not only are the locals complaining about the cold, but I heard one of the local TV weather guys say yesterday that he was running out of adjectives to describe how cold it is. 
)
Bottom line is I find it easy to get distracted from some of the things that really are the most important to me.
Successful folks realize that distractions are a part of life. They deal with the all the weird things that come along without letting them shake their focus or resolve.
They keep their head in the game.
Fortunately my wife was excused yesterday so she can watch the trial from the comfort of our living room without all the attendant stress of having make heavy decisions affecting other people’s lives.
And the weather here shows signs of warming.
All is well. And my worrying about it didn’t affect the outcome any. Go figure.
Ultimately we can’t let the distractions push us off course. If we are going to be successful we have to keep our heads in the game.
My friend, you are in one of the world’s great cities, I think the Bulls are in town, the stores should be ready for the holidays, museums should have some great exhibits, the resturants are great but you are right it is cold, colder than Aunt Gretel’s chest. How much longer are you around, my office is by the airport. Next time you are in, let me know, I will try to meet you.
Hey Jim! I fly out of O’Hare Sunday morning. The good news at the moment is that I’m no where near W. Madison Street at the moment. Actually I’m not anywhere near downtown at all.
Is this the film you saw?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/deepend/stories/s792670.htm
Trevor, Thanks for the link!
Yep. Swimming Upstream was the movie. I had to look at the pictures of the actors to be sure.
Now I think I’m going to have to rent it to see the whole thing! I only caught bits and pieces of it, but what I saw was really good.
Avoid watching TV and read the Free USA today given to you buy your hotel. Not the NYTimes, but still beats the tube.
Great tip Jody. Reading is probably a better option than the TV.
I tend to put the TV on when I’m in a hotel mostly just for some background noise because the quiet of a hotel can get overwhelming sometimes. Often I’ll turn on the radio, but this time the room didn’t happen to have a clock radio.