Although most people think of me as a positive person, and I do in fact try to focus on the positive, the truth is that I get extremely annoyed by certain things. Like annoyed to distraction, like I have a hard time thinking of anything else.
Examples: the sound of leaf blowers and grass-edgers on a rainy day. I mean, the sound of either of those things any time grates on my nerves horribly, not just because of the noxious, loutish racket itself, and the fumes, but also because these landscaping practices have come to represent a huge waste of money and resources. And because they embody our society’s preoccupation with compulsive tidiness in the great outdoors despite the fact that said preoccupation is actually killing off the biosphere.
But somehow it’s especially nerve-grating on a rainy day.
The grass-industrial-complex noise is just one example, but I can really get going about that.
So I can attest to the effectiveness of the following survival tip:
The best way I have found to not completely be driven crazy (and go down the rabbit hole and get distracted from my purpose), is to be too busy doing something fun, cool, and/or mission critical to pay much attention to the gross annoying thing that’s happening. It never quite disappears, but basically the volume gets turned way down.
Or as I once heard it expressed (I think it was from some ancient Chinese philosopher but I’m not sure; if I find the source I will let you know):
To defeat evil, make progress toward the good. In other words, focus on the good thing you’re trying to create, not the bad thing you’re trying to stop. It’s what I call a probiotic as opposed to an antibiotic approach.
If you try this approach, or if you have already used it, let me know how it works for you.