‘I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.’ Philippians 3:7-14 (NLT)
‘We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. All of this is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.’ 2 Corinthians 4:8-18 (NLT)
We all have a voice in our heads. What that voice says to us is our self-talk. You talk to yourself all day long, but the messages that little voice sends aren’t always trustworthy. Have you ever scrolled through your Instagram feed, comparing your life to the carefully chosen, idealized images others present, and decided that you’ll never look that good, love your job that much, or have enough money to go on that kind of vacation? Those people probably aren’t trying to make you feel jealous or insecure, but those images fuel your negative self-talk.
Acknowledge that voice inside your head and accept that it’s not always trustworthy. Once you do that, you can begin to filter out the noise that isn’t adding value. Books and articles, shows and movies, content you absorb online—they all contribute to your self-talk. Recognizing which ones are doing you harm empowers you to filter them out. That’s called self-regulation, and it helps you to find your way.
Instead of logging in the moment you wake up, maybe brush your teeth, work out, shower, and get dressed first. Scheduling your day ahead of time can cut down on the noise that distracts you. It can keep you focused on what really matters.
That will require sacrifice, but it’s worth it. In his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul declared that he considered everything he had achieved in the world and all of the status he acquired and reputation he’d built “. . . a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). That may sound extreme, but Paul was a man who understood his way forward because he’d chosen to turn down the noise and focus on what really mattered.
What kind of self-talk is distracting you? What’s feeding that self-talk and what would it take for you to turn down the volume on those sources of untrustworthy messages?
from How to Lead in a World of Distraction