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Does rubbernecking stop you from achieving your goals?

Seems like a weird thing to ask but, what happened was'

I was driving home the other morning from a fishing trip and was happy as can be because, I caught some fish, the roads were clear and I didn't have to watch out for anyone coming into my lane on the highway.

It was smooth sailing so to speak as I cruised down thw highway with virtually no cars in sight.

That was until, from almost out of nowhere I ran into miles upon miles of bumper to bumper traffic!

It struck me as odd but I had a hunch I knew what was going on.

I drove at a snail's pace for miles, patiently waiting to see if I was right.

When I finally arrived at the point where the "problem" was stemming from I found that I was indeed right!

You see, the police had pulled someone over for speeding and instead of driving on and moving forward, some of the people who were driving by the pulled over vehicle decided to slow down.

Nope, they weren't slowing down to be more cautious, but rather to take a look at what was going on beside them instead of in front of them.

That's rubbernecking.

As soon as I saw this I quickly realized that this was a similar phenomenon to what happens to the best of us as we begin to focus in on our goals, challenges or problems.

Have you ever single-mindedly decided to pursue a goal or solve a problem and just as you were making progress on it something grabbed your attention and moved your focus away from what you were focused on? Then all of a sudden when you went back to try to focus in on it again, you felt like EVERYTHING backed up on you and you had even more problems or things to tend to or deal with first.

Just like the traffic, your problems and challenges won't just stop if you lose focus. Rather, they keep following you and if you get sidetracked and lose focus, your challenges or problems back up like the bumper to bumper traffic I was driving in that day.

Rubbernecking in life is the equivalent of driving your car at full speed and then sticking your head out of your window and staring at something beside you.

If you slam the brakes your problems will hit you from behind.

Just as worse, if you don't slow down you'll end up crashing into what's in front of you and destroying it. That's the equivalent of sabotaging your next step in achieving your goals.

Fact is, this happens to all of us in life but, the people that are the most successful in life are the ones that learn from this critical mistake and maintain their focus in future situations that make them susceptible to rubbernecking.

The moral here my friend is keep your eye on the road or rather your goal and DO NOT allow outside distractions to pull your attention off of what you are aiming to achieve.

The truth is, many of these distractions will come as HUGE opportunities fancied up with great marketing, the rest will come as your very own family and friends.

Your only responsibility is to know what they are and ask them to wait until you finish what you started.

Listen, emergencies happen and you cannot avoid them because of a goal, challenge or problem. You are human, not machine and you must take care of those you love BUT...

The rest of the time, if it's not that important, it can wait.

You can gracefully and without injury to others stay focused and concentrate on your goal. In doing so, you will maintain your momentum and quickly achieve your dreams and desires.