September 9, 2025 • 18 mins
Episode Summary
What’s the #1 tactic the enemy uses when he can’t defeat you? Distraction. In this episode, Jim explores why distractions are more than just lost time—they rob you of clarity, creativity, and calling. From the “rocking chair effect” of busyness that feels like progress but goes nowhere, to perfectionism and the fear of being seen, Jim unpacks both the psychological and spiritual sides of distraction. Anchored in Hebrews 12 and Ephesians 5, this conversation will challenge you to refocus, lay down your shiny objects, and take one step closer to your God-given mission.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
[01:00] Why distraction spirals so quickly for creators.
[02:00] The spiritual component: distraction as a weapon of the enemy.
[03:00] The hidden costs of distraction—time and creativity.
[05:00] The story of Peter on the water (Hebrews 12) and how quickly focus slips.
[06:00] How trauma and avoidance fuel distraction, and the “rocking chair effect.”
[09:00] Shiny object syndrome and why unfinished callings drain us.
[14:00] Safe zones vs courage zones: busy but not brave.
[15:00] The enemy’s tactic of distraction (Ephesians 5).
[16:00] A challenge to name your shiny objects, lay them down, and refocus on your true calling.
Key Takeaways & Memorable Quotes
- “If the devil can’t defeat you, he’ll distract you.”
- “Busy doesn’t always mean brave.”
- “Movement without mission is just noise. But focus anchored in Christ? That’s power.”
- Hebrews 12:1–2 reminds us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the ultimate source of focus.
- Ephesians 5:15–16 calls us to make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
Weekly Challenge
Identify your shiny objects—the distractions that keep you from doing the things God has called you to. Write them down, lay them down in prayer, and replace them with one small act of obedience toward your mission.
Resources Mentioned
- Join the Newsletter: www.leadwithjim.com/nl
- Full Episode Show Notes & Transcript: www.leadwithjim.com/podcast
- Book Mentioned: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport
Connect with Jim
- 🌐 Website: www.leadwithjim.com
- 🎙️ Ask a Question: leadwithjim.com/ask
- 📱 Instagram: @leadwithjim
- ▶️ YouTube: Lead with Jim
Support & Engage with the Show
- Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
- Leave a Review: If this episode encouraged you, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts—it helps more Christian creators find the show.
- Share: Send this episode to a friend who struggles with distraction.
Thanks for listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
If the devil can't defeat you,he is going to try to distract you.
Let's talk about that.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity,
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgo,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
(00:22):
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
have to.
Let's get into it.
Have you ever sat down to tryto get work done?
Like you want to be superproductive today you have everything
scripted out.
You went ahead and you did thethree points and you're like, these
are my goals for this morning.
(00:43):
And you sit down, you're like,I'm going to finish the podcast episode.
I'm going to write that chapter.
I'm going to actually scriptout a YouTube video.
And you're doing this andyou're, everything's going great.
You're working hard.
And then you tell yourself, Ineed a break.
I need to give my mind a break.
Step away.
And where do you find yourselfon tick tock on YouTube?
(01:06):
Just take.
Because you tell yourselfyou're going to take that moment,
take that second, and thenthree hours later you come to and
you don't know how you gotdown this social media hole and you
don't know why that you'vebeen watching all these videos and
then you're trying to figureout why the penguin is wrestling
a cat and where the hat camefrom on the penguin.
(01:27):
If you ever been there, sohave I.
And today we're going tounpack that because there's something
deep to why this happens to you.
And it's not just apsychological thing.
There's a spiritual component.
And in when both hit, you're,you're being distracted not because
for distraction's sake, butbecause the enemy and it you are
(01:49):
the enemy is the defeated foe.
Let's get that straight.
Because if you accepted JesusChrist as your lord and savior, the
devil cannot defeat you, buthe can distract you.
Because why a distractedadversary, which you and the you
and I are the enemies of the devil.
If you're accepted Christ, thedistracted adversary will delay the
(02:10):
person from actuallycompleting their mission.
So we start this episode withan understanding that the enemy is
trying to delay you from thecompletion of your mission.
And to do that, he's going tohyper distract you.
Now, if you're a personalitytype that is already predispositioned
to distraction, it mayactually be a lot harder for you
(02:33):
to stay focused.
But we're going to dive Deep.
We're going to get some tools,we're going to get some understanding.
And by the end of this, you'regoing to walk away with some things
that says, okay, I can do thisand get one step closer to my mission.
So let's begin.
We've got to understand thehidden cost of distractions.
See, we think distractionfeels harmless.
We're like, man, this is onlygoing to be a few minutes.
(02:54):
And we pull out the phone andwe go in and we start scrolling.
We're like, oh, that's cool,that's cool.
And then we start tellingourselves, well, I can look things
up, I can begin to see things.
But there, what we don'trealize is two things are happening.
We dive into this feeling ofharmlessness, but in reality, it's
robbing us of our time,because time is the only commodity
(03:15):
you will never get back.
So it is the most preciousthing that you have.
So when the more distractedyou are, the more time is sucked
from you.
The other thing is, is themore distracted I am, the more voices
I have.
And have you ever been in the place?
Like, I'm very sensitive to alot of sound.
So if I go into a mall andeverybody's talking, I'm trying to
(03:39):
listen to every conversationat once and it really, it hurts almost.
It's like I can't do it, butI'm trying and I become overwhelmed.
When we are hyper distracted,we have so many voices running through
us that we don't, we lose ourability to create.
And if you are a businessowner, if you are a leader, you are
(04:00):
a creative by nature,especially if you're listening to
this podcast.
You're creative by nature, andif you put too many voices in there,
you are not going to be ableto draw upon the purity that's inside
of you to create out of that.
So if we understand that thehidden cost is our time and our creativity,
(04:20):
then we can start reallydiving in and putting an emphasis
and a priority on the factthat if I enter into this and there's
no shame or guilt, when we'redistracted, we all do it, but we
got to fight against it.
We got to have guardrails.
But when I enter intodistraction, I am risking or I am
using the currency of my timeand my clarity, which equals my creativity
(04:44):
to spend on said distraction.
Hebrews 12 tells us, Fix oureyes on Jesus.
But let's get real.
It's hard to fix our eyes onJesus for any length of time.
We want to.
We want to make sure we'realways Fixed on Jesus.
But we tend not.
So we even see this in Scripture.
(05:05):
Peter, like when Jesus waswalking on the water, Peter, Jesus.
Peter's like, can I get out ofthe boat?
Jesus like, come on, get onthe water.
And when he got on the, hewalked on the water.
And then you remember thestory is that when he took his eyes
off Jesus, he was what?
Distracted?
He began to sink.
There are spiritual overtonesto the, to our distractions that
(05:27):
when we take our eyes off ofJesus, we will begin to sink and
become overwhelmed.
But thanks be to God, because why?
Because Jesus was there tolift him back up and pull him out
of that overwhelm, out of thatdistraction, out of that basically
drowning because it was water.
Let's get the literal side of that.
(05:47):
And he offers that to us too,when we fix our eyes on Jesus.
Now if you've taken your eyesoff Jesus, here's an, here's an opportunity
to put them back and be like,all right, God help me every time
I move my eyes.
And it'll happen 5,000 times a day.
But that's okay.
God has the patience for usand we just need to continue to make
(06:08):
the decisions to say, I'm notgoing to spend my time and my clarity
on things that are going totake me away from my purpose.
So if we have these things andwe're intentional and we fix our
eyes on Jesus, we can begin totake the necessary steps towards
completing the mission God hasfor us in our lives.
But let's go a step further.
(06:30):
Let's push the barrel just alittle bit into the realm of the
uncomfortable.
Because here's the ideal isthat you'll never grow in comfortable
situations.
So I'm going to push you alittle bit further and I want you
to walk with me in this issimply this.
Now listen and tune in for a second.
The distractions we oftenengage in are more coping for our
(06:51):
trauma than they are anything else.
There are avoidance mechanisms.
You know, in psychology ittalks about a lot about the fact
that we use things to avoiddealing with the things we need to
deal with.
Part of that is, is divinginto our phone.
And some people may have sometouches of ADHD and are easily distracted
in many areas.
And we acknowledge that.
(07:12):
I do have a case of that, somelevel of that.
But I also understand thatthrough a lot of my own personal
therapy and my own posterstuff that I will find myself in
intentional distractions toavoid some emotions that I don't
want to deal with.
And they become co coping mechanisms.
And then here's what we do iswe start doing things, we start doing
(07:35):
a lot of things to feel goodabout it.
And here's.
I call it the rocking chair effect.
You've probably heard of it,but it's.
You ever been in a rockingchair and you're just rocking really,
really fast and you're movingso fast and it feels great and you're
excited.
But then after doing this for20 minutes and you're.
It's.
You're almost like on aracehorse and you're like, yeah,
I'm going fast, I'm going far.
(07:56):
You realize you never movedfrom that one spot.
I think in business and life,we do this too.
It feels good, but like therocking chair, it doesn't make the
right progress because not allthings we do for pushes us into the
place of our purpose.
Sometimes we do things thatfeel good, that have nothing to do
with our purpose, and actuallykeeps us standing still.
(08:19):
And it convinces us that we'redoing something of importance when
in reality we're doing nothingat all other than trying to cope
with the fact that we don'twant to deal with the hard, the hardness
of what it needs to take inorder to take that next step.
So when instead of taking thenext step, instead of dealing with
(08:39):
the big emotion, instead ofhiring the therapist, instead of
doing the things that aregoing to push you out to become very
out there and live on socialmedia or doing whatever it needs
to do, we do is we overload our.
Our schedules.
And we don't face the silence,because remember, it's in the silence
we hear the voice of the Lord,the best, but we overload our schedule.
(09:01):
So we don't give ourselvestime for silence.
Or we chase shiny objectprojects, but we chase shiny projects
and we never finish any of them.
And God literally told us,hey, do this and we'll start.
And we're like, yeah, we gotthe dopamine.
Hit what's next?
We go to the next one and wenever finished the first thing God
said.
And then we wonder why Godactually never continues to talk
(09:24):
to us.
Well, he never stops talkingto us.
But a lot of times my friend is.
He's trying to tell you, and Idon't go to the next project.
Go back to the first one.
I told you.
Because that's where theanointing is, not into where this
is.
And because we're sodistracted and we do it intentionally
a lot to ourselves, the enemywill do it to help us.
(09:46):
Because we don't want to dealwith the uncomfortableness of of
what it takes to growpersonally, what it takes to grow
as a leader, what it takes togrow in a relationship with Christ
so that your business cangrow, your business can thrive, so
that your.
You can sell the book, you canget on the stage.
But we'd rather live inobscurity thinking we're doing a
(10:06):
good job instead of saying,you know what?
What does it really take toactually do the job God's called
us to?
So we stay busy.
And then for some of us,especially if you're an entrepreneur
or a ministry person, you makesure that busyness is a badge of
honor.
Like, I'm so busy, I'm doingsix ministries, or I have five businesses.
(10:28):
We use this as badges of honor.
And we stay so busy becausewe're actually afraid that if we
slow down, we'll have to facethe things we're running from.
And that thing you're runningfrom could be a wound, could be just
something that happened inyour childhood.
It could be your calling itself.
I remember I ran for mycalling for years.
(10:49):
Years.
Because I didn't want to faceit, because I didn't think I was
good enough.
But the moment I slowed down,I started saying, okay, I gotta face
this.
Because I. I'm.
I'm living a life that's unfulfilled.
Yes, I was super busy.
Yes, I was getting on dozensof podcasts, making decent money,
but I was unfulfilled.
And people's lives weren'tbeing changed because I was doing
(11:12):
things I was good at, notthings God called me to, not things
that I was anointed at.
And because of that, that.
That thing.
And I felt good in the onething I wasn't feeling fulfilled
totally.
So the reality was when Islowed down and I said, you know
what?
I'm hyper distracted, which Istill struggle with my friend.
(11:33):
And I'm working every day toget stuff done and be less distracted.
But I said, I'm going to bedoing this.
And so out of it birthed this podcast.
And I'm still working on thenames, and I'm still working on the
episodes and the directions,but it's.
I'm on episode 55 now.
I think this is episode 55.
And you do the thing God'scalled you to, and you take the journey
(11:58):
to see where he's called youto do it.
And this is where it getsreal, it gets heavy, because to do
that, you've got to.
You got to recognize thatyou're distracted, and then you've
got to make the shift to sayI've got to do these things and confront
these things to get into theplaces I'm supposed to be.
The places you were alwaysmeant to be.
(12:20):
Because, let's face it, wetalk a big talk.
We talk like we want to makemillions of dollars.
We talk like we want to havedozens of books.
We talk about all of this.
But the reality of it is wedon't actually get to do these things
because we're honestly afraidof being seen.
We distract ourselves, whetherwe allow the devil to distract us,
(12:43):
or we intentionally do it toourselves because we want to be hidden
while simultaneously trying totell the world, I want to be seen,
I want to be heard, and I wantto make an impact.
Yet we do things and wediminish ourselves to live at a level
where.
Where we feel that people willtolerate us so that we don't get
(13:03):
hurt again.
Because that's what we'redoing is protecting ourselves from
being rejected, abandoned, or hurt.
So we're afraid to be seen,because if we're not seen, we can't
be hurt, we can't beabandoned, we can't be rejected.
So we'll play super small, andthen on social media, we'll tell
ourselves we need to play big,we need to go big or go home.
(13:24):
When in reality, we're soafraid to be seen, to put the offer
out there, to put the podcastout there, and just have the willingness
to be wrong.
But I'd rather be wrong in thepublic than to be hiding, wishing
I was wrong in the public.
But if you.
If you launch that thing, andhere's an exhortation for you, and
that's an encouragement, acommanding encouragement, if you
want to look at it from abiblical term, is put the thing out
(13:47):
there imperfectly and let itgrow with you.
Because I promise you, as youget out there and you start testing
the waters and it grows,you're growing to grow as a person.
You're going to develop as a leader.
God is going to develop you asa leader, and you're going to find
that the things that you'reputting out there is rudimentary
now, but mature as you mature.
(14:08):
There is no gift ofperfectionism in the.
In the spirit of God.
There is no gift.
He is the only perfect one.
You and I are not.
The gift is in ourimperfections, is because we are
imperfect beings serving aperfect God who loves us in our imperfections.
And we're just out therecreating, because that's what we
were created to do.
(14:30):
Create it to.
For a purpose, on purpose.
To do a purpose and just beingbring life to people.
So distraction really becomesthe safe zone.
And if you cannot grow in thesafe zone, you can only grow in the
uncomfort places.
It becomes our safe zone.
Busy, but not brave.
(14:51):
Doing things but not courageous.
And that's not what you'recalled to, my friends.
You're called to be a lion.
You're called to be a light.
You're called to be brave.
You're called to be courageous.
So let's stop being so busyand start doing the right things
and filling up our calendarwith what matters, not just what
makes us hide better.
So let's get a little blunt.
(15:12):
The enemy doesn't need you tomake that step.
The enemy doesn't want you tomake that step.
He doesn't want you to be seen.
He wants you to live ininsecurities and lack of identities
and all these things.
Because the moment you stepinto your calling, you become a problem
to the enemy.
Because if he can keep youdistracted, you cannot be in the
(15:34):
fight.
If you're not in the fight,then he gets to win this little victory
over whatever he's trying towin in this area because the war
has already won.
He knows he can't win, buthe's trying to use little victories.
But just think about it.
Instead of praying, we'rescrolling all day.
Instead of creating, we'remaking comparisons.
(15:54):
Instead of building themission of God, we're building excuses.
Ephesians 5 says this.
Be careful how you live,making the most of every opportunity.
Because the days are evil, my friends.
Distraction is not neutral,it's a weapon.
Staying committed doesn't meannever getting distracted.
(16:17):
You will get distracted.
It's going to happen.
It's going to happen athousand times a day, but every day
we want 1% better.
So maybe tomorrow you getdistracted 999 times instead of a
thousand.
And every day you live, youget distracted one time less.
That's getting 1% better.
It means coming back again andagain every time you fall, every
(16:38):
time you fail to the focus andthe faith to say, okay, I was distracted,
this needs to be done.
Going back to doing the thingand making the intentional decision
to stay focused.
So your challenges this weekis going to come.
Simple is number one is goingto be identify your shiny objects.
What are the distractions you have?
(16:58):
What are all the things thatyou want to do that keep you from
doing the things you need to do?
And then we're going to lay itdown in prayer.
We're going to write it downand then we're going to put boundaries
up to say, okay.
If it's your notificationsduring this time, all notifications
off.
If it's your emails duringthis time, I don't check my emails.
Put them on your calendarblock schedule.
(17:19):
Do the things that's going tohelp you.
Replace it with one small actof obedience towards your true calling.
Right?
Start taking incremental stepsto big things.
And then also you make sureyou want to make sure that you Jump
on the newsletter I'm gonna doa shameless plug jump on the newsletter
www.leadwithjim.comnl whereyou can join over 400 other entrepreneurs
(17:43):
and Christians who are who arelearning and growing together.
I send out weekly news updatesand encouragements and some Bible
study stuff that you're notgoing to hear in the episode.
Because at the end of the day,movement without mission is just
noise.
But focused, anchored inChrist is power.
Don't be somebody on missionwho's creating noise.
(18:06):
Be somebody who's anchored toChrist, creating impact.
So thanks for thanks forhanging out with me today, guys.
I just want to encourage you,challenge you and just really push
you to a place of doing thething God called for, called you
to.
Because we want the what Godput in you to come out of you mature
and be the impact it wassupposed to be.
(18:28):
And I'll see you on the next episode.
If the devil can't defeat you,he is going to try to distract you.
Let's talk about that.
Welcome to Online Business forChristian Creatives, the show that
helps you build a businessthat honors God, fuels your creativity,
and actually pays the bills.
I'm your host, Jim Burgo,leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur,
(00:22):
and a guy who's made justabout every mistake so you don't
have to.
Let's get into it.
Have you ever sat down to tryto get work done?
Like you want to be superproductive today you have everything
scripted out.
You went ahead and you did thethree points and you're like, these
are my goals for this morning.
(00:43):
And you sit down, you're like,I'm going to finish the podcast episode.
I'm going to write that chapter.
I'm going to actually scriptout a YouTube video.
And you're doing this andyou're, everything's going great.
You're working hard.
And then you tell yourself, Ineed a break.
I need to give my mind a break.
Step away.
And where do you find yourselfon tick tock on YouTube?
(01:06):
Just take.
Because you tell yourselfyou're going to take that moment,
take that second, and thenthree hours later you come to and
you don't know how you gotdown this social media hole and you
don't know why that you'vebeen watching all these videos and
then you're trying to figureout why the penguin is wrestling
a cat and where the hat camefrom on the penguin.
(01:27):
If you ever been there, sohave I.
And today we're going tounpack that because there's something
deep to why this happens to you.
And it's not just apsychological thing.
There's a spiritual component.
And in when both hit, you're,you're being distracted not because
for distraction's sake, butbecause the enemy and it you are
(01:49):
the enemy is the defeated foe.
Let's get that straight.
Because if you accepted JesusChrist as your lord and savior, the
devil cannot defeat you, buthe can distract you.
Because why a distractedadversary, which you and the you
and I are the enemies of the devil.
If you're accepted Christ, thedistracted adversary will delay the
(02:10):
person from actuallycompleting their mission.
So we start this episode withan understanding that the enemy is
trying to delay you from thecompletion of your mission.
And to do that, he's going tohyper distract you.
Now, if you're a personalitytype that is already predispositioned
to distraction, it mayactually be a lot harder for you
(02:33):
to stay focused.
But we're going to dive Deep.
We're going to get some tools,we're going to get some understanding.
And by the end of this, you'regoing to walk away with some things
that says, okay, I can do thisand get one step closer to my mission.
So let's begin.
We've got to understand thehidden cost of distractions.
See, we think distractionfeels harmless.
We're like, man, this is onlygoing to be a few minutes.
(02:54):
And we pull out the phone andwe go in and we start scrolling.
We're like, oh, that's cool,that's cool.
And then we start tellingourselves, well, I can look things
up, I can begin to see things.
But there, what we don'trealize is two things are happening.
We dive into this feeling ofharmlessness, but in reality, it's
robbing us of our time,because time is the only commodity
(03:15):
you will never get back.
So it is the most preciousthing that you have.
So when the more distractedyou are, the more time is sucked
from you.
The other thing is, is themore distracted I am, the more voices
I have.
And have you ever been in the place?
Like, I'm very sensitive to alot of sound.
So if I go into a mall andeverybody's talking, I'm trying to
(03:39):
listen to every conversationat once and it really, it hurts almost.
It's like I can't do it, butI'm trying and I become overwhelmed.
When we are hyper distracted,we have so many voices running through
us that we don't, we lose ourability to create.
And if you are a businessowner, if you are a leader, you are
(04:00):
a creative by nature,especially if you're listening to
this podcast.
You're creative by nature, andif you put too many voices in there,
you are not going to be ableto draw upon the purity that's inside
of you to create out of that.
So if we understand that thehidden cost is our time and our creativity,
(04:20):
then we can start reallydiving in and putting an emphasis
and a priority on the factthat if I enter into this and there's
no shame or guilt, when we'redistracted, we all do it, but we
got to fight against it.
We got to have guardrails.
But when I enter intodistraction, I am risking or I am
using the currency of my timeand my clarity, which equals my creativity
(04:44):
to spend on said distraction.
Hebrews 12 tells us, Fix oureyes on Jesus.
But let's get real.
It's hard to fix our eyes onJesus for any length of time.
We want to.
We want to make sure we'realways Fixed on Jesus.
But we tend not.
So we even see this in Scripture.
(05:05):
Peter, like when Jesus waswalking on the water, Peter, Jesus.
Peter's like, can I get out ofthe boat?
Jesus like, come on, get onthe water.
And when he got on the, hewalked on the water.
And then you remember thestory is that when he took his eyes
off Jesus, he was what?
Distracted?
He began to sink.
There are spiritual overtonesto the, to our distractions that
(05:27):
when we take our eyes off ofJesus, we will begin to sink and
become overwhelmed.
But thanks be to God, because why?
Because Jesus was there tolift him back up and pull him out
of that overwhelm, out of thatdistraction, out of that basically
drowning because it was water.
Let's get the literal side of that.
(05:47):
And he offers that to us too,when we fix our eyes on Jesus.
Now if you've taken your eyesoff Jesus, here's an, here's an opportunity
to put them back and be like,all right, God help me every time
I move my eyes.
And it'll happen 5,000 times a day.
But that's okay.
God has the patience for usand we just need to continue to make
(06:08):
the decisions to say, I'm notgoing to spend my time and my clarity
on things that are going totake me away from my purpose.
So if we have these things andwe're intentional and we fix our
eyes on Jesus, we can begin totake the necessary steps towards
completing the mission God hasfor us in our lives.
But let's go a step further.
(06:30):
Let's push the barrel just alittle bit into the realm of the
uncomfortable.
Because here's the ideal isthat you'll never grow in comfortable
situations.
So I'm going to push you alittle bit further and I want you
to walk with me in this issimply this.
Now listen and tune in for a second.
The distractions we oftenengage in are more coping for our
(06:51):
trauma than they are anything else.
There are avoidance mechanisms.
You know, in psychology ittalks about a lot about the fact
that we use things to avoiddealing with the things we need to
deal with.
Part of that is, is divinginto our phone.
And some people may have sometouches of ADHD and are easily distracted
in many areas.
And we acknowledge that.
(07:12):
I do have a case of that, somelevel of that.
But I also understand thatthrough a lot of my own personal
therapy and my own posterstuff that I will find myself in
intentional distractions toavoid some emotions that I don't
want to deal with.
And they become co coping mechanisms.
And then here's what we do iswe start doing things, we start doing
(07:35):
a lot of things to feel goodabout it.
And here's.
I call it the rocking chair effect.
You've probably heard of it,but it's.
You ever been in a rockingchair and you're just rocking really,
really fast and you're movingso fast and it feels great and you're
excited.
But then after doing this for20 minutes and you're.
It's.
You're almost like on aracehorse and you're like, yeah,
I'm going fast, I'm going far.
(07:56):
You realize you never movedfrom that one spot.
I think in business and life,we do this too.
It feels good, but like therocking chair, it doesn't make the
right progress because not allthings we do for pushes us into the
place of our purpose.
Sometimes we do things thatfeel good, that have nothing to do
with our purpose, and actuallykeeps us standing still.
(08:19):
And it convinces us that we'redoing something of importance when
in reality we're doing nothingat all other than trying to cope
with the fact that we don'twant to deal with the hard, the hardness
of what it needs to take inorder to take that next step.
So when instead of taking thenext step, instead of dealing with
(08:39):
the big emotion, instead ofhiring the therapist, instead of
doing the things that aregoing to push you out to become very
out there and live on socialmedia or doing whatever it needs
to do, we do is we overload our.
Our schedules.
And we don't face the silence,because remember, it's in the silence
we hear the voice of the Lord,the best, but we overload our schedule.
(09:01):
So we don't give ourselvestime for silence.
Or we chase shiny objectprojects, but we chase shiny projects
and we never finish any of them.
And God literally told us,hey, do this and we'll start.
And we're like, yeah, we gotthe dopamine.
Hit what's next?
We go to the next one and wenever finished the first thing God
said.
And then we wonder why Godactually never continues to talk
(09:24):
to us.
Well, he never stops talkingto us.
But a lot of times my friend is.
He's trying to tell you, and Idon't go to the next project.
Go back to the first one.
I told you.
Because that's where theanointing is, not into where this
is.
And because we're sodistracted and we do it intentionally
a lot to ourselves, the enemywill do it to help us.
(09:46):
Because we don't want to dealwith the uncomfortableness of of
what it takes to growpersonally, what it takes to grow
as a leader, what it takes togrow in a relationship with Christ
so that your business cangrow, your business can thrive, so
that your.
You can sell the book, you canget on the stage.
But we'd rather live inobscurity thinking we're doing a
(10:06):
good job instead of saying,you know what?
What does it really take toactually do the job God's called
us to?
So we stay busy.
And then for some of us,especially if you're an entrepreneur
or a ministry person, you makesure that busyness is a badge of
honor.
Like, I'm so busy, I'm doingsix ministries, or I have five businesses.
(10:28):
We use this as badges of honor.
And we stay so busy becausewe're actually afraid that if we
slow down, we'll have to facethe things we're running from.
And that thing you're runningfrom could be a wound, could be just
something that happened inyour childhood.
It could be your calling itself.
I remember I ran for mycalling for years.
(10:49):
Years.
Because I didn't want to faceit, because I didn't think I was
good enough.
But the moment I slowed down,I started saying, okay, I gotta face
this.
Because I. I'm.
I'm living a life that's unfulfilled.
Yes, I was super busy.
Yes, I was getting on dozensof podcasts, making decent money,
but I was unfulfilled.
And people's lives weren'tbeing changed because I was doing
(11:12):
things I was good at, notthings God called me to, not things
that I was anointed at.
And because of that, that.
That thing.
And I felt good in the onething I wasn't feeling fulfilled
totally.
So the reality was when Islowed down and I said, you know
what?
I'm hyper distracted, which Istill struggle with my friend.
(11:33):
And I'm working every day toget stuff done and be less distracted.
But I said, I'm going to bedoing this.
And so out of it birthed this podcast.
And I'm still working on thenames, and I'm still working on the
episodes and the directions,but it's.
I'm on episode 55 now.
I think this is episode 55.
And you do the thing God'scalled you to, and you take the journey
(11:58):
to see where he's called youto do it.
And this is where it getsreal, it gets heavy, because to do
that, you've got to.
You got to recognize thatyou're distracted, and then you've
got to make the shift to sayI've got to do these things and confront
these things to get into theplaces I'm supposed to be.
The places you were alwaysmeant to be.
(12:20):
Because, let's face it, wetalk a big talk.
We talk like we want to makemillions of dollars.
We talk like we want to havedozens of books.
We talk about all of this.
But the reality of it is wedon't actually get to do these things
because we're honestly afraidof being seen.
We distract ourselves, whetherwe allow the devil to distract us,
(12:43):
or we intentionally do it toourselves because we want to be hidden
while simultaneously trying totell the world, I want to be seen,
I want to be heard, and I wantto make an impact.
Yet we do things and wediminish ourselves to live at a level
where.
Where we feel that people willtolerate us so that we don't get
(13:03):
hurt again.
Because that's what we'redoing is protecting ourselves from
being rejected, abandoned, or hurt.
So we're afraid to be seen,because if we're not seen, we can't
be hurt, we can't beabandoned, we can't be rejected.
So we'll play super small, andthen on social media, we'll tell
ourselves we need to play big,we need to go big or go home.
(13:24):
When in reality, we're soafraid to be seen, to put the offer
out there, to put the podcastout there, and just have the willingness
to be wrong.
But I'd rather be wrong in thepublic than to be hiding, wishing
I was wrong in the public.
But if you.
If you launch that thing, andhere's an exhortation for you, and
that's an encouragement, acommanding encouragement, if you
want to look at it from abiblical term, is put the thing out
(13:47):
there imperfectly and let itgrow with you.
Because I promise you, as youget out there and you start testing
the waters and it grows,you're growing to grow as a person.
You're going to develop as a leader.
God is going to develop you asa leader, and you're going to find
that the things that you'reputting out there is rudimentary
now, but mature as you mature.
(14:08):
There is no gift ofperfectionism in the.
In the spirit of God.
There is no gift.
He is the only perfect one.
You and I are not.
The gift is in ourimperfections, is because we are
imperfect beings serving aperfect God who loves us in our imperfections.
And we're just out therecreating, because that's what we
were created to do.
(14:30):
Create it to.
For a purpose, on purpose.
To do a purpose and just beingbring life to people.
So distraction really becomesthe safe zone.
And if you cannot grow in thesafe zone, you can only grow in the
uncomfort places.
It becomes our safe zone.
Busy, but not brave.
(14:51):
Doing things but not courageous.
And that's not what you'recalled to, my friends.
You're called to be a lion.
You're called to be a light.
You're called to be brave.
You're called to be courageous.
So let's stop being so busyand start doing the right things
and filling up our calendarwith what matters, not just what
makes us hide better.
So let's get a little blunt.
(15:12):
The enemy doesn't need you tomake that step.
The enemy doesn't want you tomake that step.
He doesn't want you to be seen.
He wants you to live ininsecurities and lack of identities
and all these things.
Because the moment you stepinto your calling, you become a problem
to the enemy.
Because if he can keep youdistracted, you cannot be in the
(15:34):
fight.
If you're not in the fight,then he gets to win this little victory
over whatever he's trying towin in this area because the war
has already won.
He knows he can't win, buthe's trying to use little victories.
But just think about it.
Instead of praying, we'rescrolling all day.
Instead of creating, we'remaking comparisons.
(15:54):
Instead of building themission of God, we're building excuses.
Ephesians 5 says this.
Be careful how you live,making the most of every opportunity.
Because the days are evil, my friends.
Distraction is not neutral,it's a weapon.
Staying committed doesn't meannever getting distracted.
(16:17):
You will get distracted.
It's going to happen.
It's going to happen athousand times a day, but every day
we want 1% better.
So maybe tomorrow you getdistracted 999 times instead of a
thousand.
And every day you live, youget distracted one time less.
That's getting 1% better.
It means coming back again andagain every time you fall, every
(16:38):
time you fail to the focus andthe faith to say, okay, I was distracted,
this needs to be done.
Going back to doing the thingand making the intentional decision
to stay focused.
So your challenges this weekis going to come.
Simple is number one is goingto be identify your shiny objects.
What are the distractions you have?
(16:58):
What are all the things thatyou want to do that keep you from
doing the things you need to do?
And then we're going to lay itdown in prayer.
We're going to write it downand then we're going to put boundaries
up to say, okay.
If it's your notificationsduring this time, all notifications
off.
If it's your emails duringthis time, I don't check my emails.
Put them on your calendarblock schedule.
(17:19):
Do the things that's going tohelp you.
Replace it with one small actof obedience towards your true calling.
Right?
Start taking incremental stepsto big things.
And then also you make sureyou want to make sure that you Jump
on the newsletter I'm gonna doa shameless plug jump on the newsletter
www.leadwithjim.comnl whereyou can join over 400 other entrepreneurs
(17:43):
and Christians who are who arelearning and growing together.
I send out weekly news updatesand encouragements and some Bible
study stuff that you're notgoing to hear in the episode.
Because at the end of the day,movement without mission is just
noise.
But focused, anchored inChrist is power.
Don't be somebody on missionwho's creating noise.
(18:06):
Be somebody who's anchored toChrist, creating impact.
So thanks for thanks forhanging out with me today, guys.
I just want to encourage you,challenge you and just really push
you to a place of doing thething God called for, called you
to.
Because we want the what Godput in you to come out of you mature
and be the impact it wassupposed to be.
(18:28):
And I'll see you on the next episode.
Host
Jim Burgoon
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