A Twelve Hour Fast

I chose the word FOCUS to guide me this year. Specifically, I am focusing on health and wealth - making smart and sustainable choices for my body and our bank accounts.
Over the first three weeks of January, I worked through a sort of personal development/bible study/workbook/book.  One of the  exercises was about clearing out distractions and clutter.  I feel pretty good about organzing my schedule around my priorities.  I also regularly pare down our material possessions and don't feel like I'm drowing in clutter.  I wanted to be open and not defensive around the assignment.  I was curious where I could change and grow.  What I found when I got honest about where I spent my time on a daily basis:   I LOVE my phone. Specifically, I LOVE Facebook and Instagram - refreshing and scrolling and looking at pretty pictures and reading interesting articles and feeling connected and informed.  I had to admit it was time to back away from the mobile device and social media. 
Scrolling on my phone is a daily habit.  I don't need a media detox.  I don't want one day a week without social media.  I enjoy those mediums and I use them for work.  I do need a time in my day that is focused and uninterrupted.  I do need to start a task and finish it without updating the world in the middle or stopping to post an event reminder in my team's Facebook group.

I thought through all I've learned in goal-setting, time management and personal growth over the past ten years of entrepreneurship.  The rhythm with which I begin and end my days matters. My morning sets the tone for my day.  The way in which I fall asleep directly impacts how I start my morning.   I decide to choose a 12 hour fast.

I will not log onto Facebook or Instagram (or twitter or goodreads for that matter) from 8PM - 8AM. Maybe that sounds silly to you - you never check your phone. But after only five days of this practice, I have been given a reality check! I am a distracted person by the end of the night, I can scroll and read and click and scroll and read and click and scroll for 90 minutes! I might have just as easily spent a few minutes washing my face and read 30 pages in bed and then gotten to sleep on time my mind free from the latest political escapade, sexual scandal or sad update from a friend. I might have actually answered and sent the emails I had opened up my laptop to send.  I already have very productive mornings, but they are taking less time now and are simultaneously more relaxed since intentionally leaving the social feeds for after 8AM - post reading and prayer, post work out, post breakfast, post to-do list writing... after all of that. 

It looks like FOCUS is going to be a layered theme for me this year - focusing on health and wealth? YES. Focus for a concentrated amount of time on how I want to feel? YES Lose some distractions? YES.
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Share in the comments if you think a 12 hr media break a day might help you - or if there's something else you want to take a break from to get to what is really important

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