Your phone has more control over your life than you do

I recently read about a guy who finally opened his phone's screenshot folder.

Hundreds of them. Quotes. Ideas. Articles. Workouts. Bible passages. Things he swore he'd come back to.

He hadn't opened a single one. I can definitely relate - you?

He wasn't saving them to grow. He was saving them to feel like he was growing. He called it a gut punch, saying: "I wasn't learning. I was hoarding information and calling it progress."

That's drift. Not falling apart. Not disaster. Just drifting enough to convince yourself you're moving forward when you're standing still.

This is most men today. Scroll. Save. Click. Skim. Drowning in inputs, starving for actual change.

The problem isn't information. It's attention. And it's drift disguised as staying informed making plans that “one day” you’ll get to.

Nir Eyal said it this way: "The opposite of distraction is not focus. It's traction. Any action that moves you toward what you intended. Distraction is anything that moves you away."

Most men aren't inconsistent because they lack discipline. They're inconsistent because their attention is fractured. You can't be a man of intention with a mind that reacts to every ping, buzz, and random thought.

So here's a challenge for you to do today (or this week).

Pick one hour. Turn your phone all the way off. Not silent. Off. Tell whoever needs to know: "I'm unavailable from ___ to ___." (everything will be okay. Believe it or not, I’m old enough to remember when we would go hours without being able to be contacted by people. And the world went on.)

Then do something that actually matters. Read that book. Be present with your kids. Sit in silence. Talk with your wife without scrolling. Work on that thing you keep avoiding.

One hour.

If that feels impossible? Your phone has more control over you than you think.

Your life moves in the direction of what you repeatedly give your attention to.

Choose.

For you, Kevin

P.S. I'm working on the NO DRIFT Weekly Standard - a system for men who want to take control back. Before it's finished, I created a Weekly Scorecard as a free test. Want to try it and give feedback? Just reply.

Thanks for reading this. Share it with anybody you think would find it useful. And as a reminder, NO DRIFT is not mine it is ours. I want to know what you think, what you want to hear about, what you are learning. All feedback is welcomed.