Destiny Distractions: What’s Stealing Your Focus Is Stealing Your Future

Most people don’t fail because they lack talent…

They fail because they’re distracted.

In this episode of the Black Sheep Leadership Podcast, we break down one of the most overlooked threats to your success — destiny distractions.

If you’ve ever felt busy but not productive…
 Focused but not moving forward…
 Or stuck in cycles you can’t explain…

This episode is going to wake you up.

We’re diving into the 3 major distractions that silently derail your future:

🔹 People Distractions — Those who aren’t going anywhere but are comfortable taking you with them. The time-wasters, energy drainers, and conversations that keep you stuck.

🔹 Media Distractions — Social media, television, and digital noise designed to capture your attention and program your focus. If you don’t control your input, something else will.

🔹 Internal Distractions — Overthinking, procrastination, emotional loops, and lack of clarity — the hidden patterns that keep you from executing.

You’ll learn how to:

✔ Identify what’s secretly draining your time and energy
 ✔ Recognize distractions disguised as opportunities
 ✔ Take back control of your focus and direction
 ✔ Build discipline around your attention and environment

Because the truth is…

What you focus on daily becomes your future.

And if you don’t protect your focus…

You will lose your momentum without even realizing it.

🔥 Listen If You’re Ready To:

•  Stop feeling stuck and start moving with intention 
•  Cut distractions that are delaying your success 
•  Build focus, discipline, and clarity 
•  Take control of your time, energy, and future

"INFORMATION IS EVERYWHERE EXECUTION IS RARE"

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

It's a black shop. The black shop. Hey, what's going on, everybody? It's your girl Thina Renee back with another episode of the Black Sheep Leadership Podcast. This is the place and safe space for the misfits, the underdogs, and the overlooked leaders that's ready to level up in any economy. On this podcast, we're giving you knowledge that contains no fluff, no filter, and no fear. Because around here, we don't do excuses, we're only moving in strategy. Okay? So listen if you're sensitive, addicted to comfort, or waiting to be saved, this is not your safe space. But if you're ready to execute, evolve, and lead from any seat, you're in the right room at the right time. I'm your girl Athena Renee again, and I'm here to help you plug your purpose in so that you can get paid and profit from it. Okay, now today I'm excited about this particular episode because this is going to be major for you when you are trying to discover your destiny, level up, or move in purpose in any way, shape, or form or context, okay. Today, we're going to be talking about destiny distractions because whatever is stealing your focus is also stealing your future. Okay, I'm excited about this one because this is going to help a lot of you out. If you're anything like myself, you will notice that it just seems like the older you get, the faster time flies. Right? I grew up in the 90s, and it just seemed like the summers, the days, everything took forever. Right? It just took so long, but nowadays you can start at 5 a.m. And guess what? You can just be busy and caught up in your day-to-day, whatever those things are, and you will look up, and it's 5:30 in the evening, and you know, once it's 5:30, it's downhill from there. Okay, so today I'm going to be talking to you about multiple things that could be stealing your distraction and how to snip them out without being over the top or without seeming like you're cold-blooded or just an a-hole, right? Because if you are if you resonate with being a black sheep, right now might be that time where you are you want to level up so bad, and just because you're absolutely focusing on you and the and minding the business that pay you, a lot of times people will try to paint you out to be a villain, okay, and it's just not the case. You are not a villain, you just focus on yourself, okay, and people will try to project because as black sheep, we spoil people a lot, we support so many people, we are there for them. It don't even have to be monetary, it could be just listen to them talk about their life on the phone, all types of things supporting their events, but for whatever reason, when it's time for uh the black sheep to receive the same generosity from sometimes the very same people, we just don't get it, we do not get it, and it's not about people treating you exactly the same, however, we do want to feel like we appreciate it, and a lot of times we do not. So, guess what? In this day, at this age, and at this stage, it's just time for you to really knuckle down and say, you know what, I'm gonna be about what's about me, I'm gonna stay down and and support whoever supports me. There was one influencer that said, and I love this saying, he said, if they are not supporting, they're not important, right? And like I said, guys, I'm focusing on it, does not have to be money because we all know your time is your most valuable asset, all right. So let's get into this episode. Most people don't fail because they lack talent. You know, the thing about it is everybody was born with a talent. Some people were born with multiple talents, that is how generous the creator is. Number one, number two, this is why you never have to be intimidated and or jealous about what somebody else is doing. Why? Because you have your own gifts of skin and skills that nobody else has, just like you. You just have to tap into them. But people don't fail because they lack talent, they fail because they got distracted. You don't even lose your destiny, you don't lose anything overnight for the most part. You lose it in small moments of distracted focus. And here's the thing I want you guys to understand, and never ever ever forget this. If you don't control your attention, someone or something else will, yes, it will see destiny distractions. Destiny distractions is anything that pulls you away from who you're becoming, okay. And the trick about distractions is not everything looks wrong, right? Not everything that's wrong or a distraction, it may not come off as a distraction, it might seem like it's something else, okay. But what I want you guys to understand is sometimes distractions can look like conversations, opportunities, entertainment, and even relationships can be distractions. Okay, so we're gonna get into these three pillars of destiny distractions because I want you to be aware of what really can get you off the course to living your best life ever. All right. I hope y'all grab those pen and paper because you know I'm gonna drop a whole framework for you that you can start using today. All right, number one, people distractions. Y'all know people are one of the largest distractions that we have, it's people, so people distractions, and listen, y'all, there's two types of people distractions that I've always observed. Number one, there the ones they're not going anywhere, they don't have any vision, there's no growth, and there's no urgency. This is how you can point these folks out because one thing I want you guys to understand as a black sheep, people that's not going anywhere, they want to take you with them. This is why they come to distract you, okay? Because they're not going anywhere, and if they can bring somebody else with them, it helps soothe the pain that they know internally that they're not on their stuff, they're not on top of their game. So when they got somebody else with them, guess what? They feel a little bit better about it. So the first type of people distraction is this is the ain't going nowhere crowd. And like I said, guys, you ever talk to people, and no matter when you talk to them, they could be 16, 26, 36, 46, 56, and beyond, they don't have a vision for their life, they want to blame everything on the government, the system, their neighborhood, their race, their country, any and everything. They don't have any growth, right? They don't have any growth, but they'll sit and complain about everything, they're not trying to do nothing different, right? Then here's another one. This one right here. Sometimes it's a covert operation, and that is no urgency. What do I mean by that? Listen to me very carefully, y'all. We cannot control the time, right? We don't know how much time we have in general on earth, right? However, what we can do is we can still say, Hey, I don't know how much time I got, but what I do know is I'm going to utilize a time that I have in a good way. So, what does mean? That means you about business, you're not standing around wasting time, moving slow, showing up late like you got forever. Have you ever observed some people? They just they just move real slow and doing every single thing. Now, listen to me very carefully. I'm not talking about uh rushing and messing things up because some things take time, okay. You have to understand the difference, but what I'm talking about right now is we have people out here in the world right now. Listen, they know they got stuff to do, and they not trying to move at a pace to get things done. I mean, you can literally see it in everything they do, okay? Whether it's showing up for work, showing up for their family, showing up for their business. You ever went to a business and they got somebody working in the back and they don't even care about the pace they're working in, right? I'm not saying to rush and mess stuff up because a lot of times when we start rushing, we mess things up, but what I'm talking about is having an urgency like a zest for life, right? When we start talking about oh, yeah, they standing on business. When we talk about standing on business, that's when you have a certain type of urgency in life, okay? But guess what? These folks know they're not going anywhere because they are comfortable, and what they want to do, they want to try to make you comfortable too. Because, see, when you adapt a mindset that I always say a lot of black sheep, we have a certain mindset, and I just simply call it we don't settle, we don't settle because at the end of the day, if you resonate with being a black sheep, you understand that there's nobody that's coming to save you. There's nobody coming to save you. If there's any saving that'll be done, it's gonna get done by yourself, so you don't waste time trying to um, you don't waste time waiting around for the perfect president, the perfect country, the perfect spouse. You have figured out as a black sheep, if you're gonna make it happen, if it's going to happen, you're gonna be the one that makes it happen. And so, like I was telling you guys, you must understand that misery doesn't just love company, misery recruits company as well. This is why you ever been at work somewhere, or it doesn't even have to be at work, but you ever notice how when someone is going through a whole bunch of stuff and they're just feeling miserable, they just want to go tell everybody and try to recruit them on with you, or recruit them with them, right? They want you to hop on the same bandwagon. And it's like, no, I don't want to go. Right? Why? Because even in their misery, even in them being comfortable, they want to bring somebody else with them with them. They're not even a leader in their own misery. This is why they talk about the birds of a feather flock together. Observe who people are around, observe who people have in their group. Why? If they if you see that it's uh a per, let's say you know someone, right? And you observe that they're always hanging out with a specific crowd. You know why? Because they resonate with each other. It's not a lot of friction in that group because they're all good, they're happy, and they're comfortable. But see, when you a black sheep, you were born uncomfortable. And to be honest with you, I created this podcast because I want you guys to understand that you being a black sheep, it's really an advantage. This is why every innovative top invention, um, resource, everything that we have in society, eight times out of ten, it was invented by a black sheep. Even if someone else came and um finished off someone else's ideas, such as Nicola Tesla and Elon Musk, still two black sheets. Right? Because it takes a certain level of grit, thick skin, and just a certain level of uncomfortability, if that's even a word. It just takes a certain level, I believe, a certain level of grit to stick with something even when nobody else is doing it. And I always tell you guys as a black sheep, this is the reason why you don't fit in. You don't fit in because you were born to stand out, right? And when you really tap into that, you know why. When you tap into that, you can use it as your power. Okay? The next type of people that will waste your time and and um, or the next type of people that will district you are the time wasters. Oh my goodness. Listen, y'all, these are dangerous because they don't look harmful, right? So, what does that look like? People that call you randomly and want to be on the phone for hours and not talking about nothing, they might be talking about the housewives on TV, they might be talking about some series, the game. I don't want to talk about the NFL in any kind of game, I don't want to talk about a sports game for hours on top of hours, and let me tell you why. Because they are already rich, they are already wealthy, they already have their opportunity. Why do I want to sit around on the phone and talk about anything for hours that is not helping me level up? Okay, other time wasters, some people that want to pull you into their drama, right? They got stuff going on at home or at work, they want to pull you right in. Okay, then you have some things that waste your mental energy, right? It could be stuff at work, different meetings, stuff that does not have anything to do with what you're doing, and by the time you get done with it, you've you figured out you've wasted so much energy, you don't even have time to do your own stuff. Okay, this is a part of the people distraction problem. They show up as the time wasters and people that know they're not going anywhere in life. One thing I want you to understand as a black sheep, if you don't remember nothing else about the people distractors, okay. Remember this and write this down. I'm serious, post this up and just start to observe the people that you are around, and remember this people will waste your time because it's not theirs. See, they don't care. People that want to people that's a distraction, they don't care about your time. Why? Because they don't care about their own time. This is how you know they're not hidden on nothing. If you observe a person that don't even respect their own time, you know they don't respect yours. Okay, and here's the thing time wasters don't always hate you, they just don't value your time the way you would. So listen to me very carefully. If people don't respect your time, they don't respect your future. This is not about you hating people or being mad at them, and they might be decent people, it's just that everybody has not tapped into the fact that we don't have forever on earth. If we're gonna do something, we need to go ahead and do it, be about our business and stand on business. Okay, number two, this is a big one the media distractions. Check this out, y'all. If you do not program your mind, someone else will. Okay, I want you to understand the media is not neutral. See, I listen to I look at a lot of folks that get wrapped up into the media, the news, and all these different things going on, and then you hear people talking about, well, I watch CNN because they're this, and then you hear some other folks talking about I watch MSNBC because they're this, and I watch them because they're on the left or they're on the right. What you must understand is the media is not neutral, they're not taking sides. You know what the media is designed to do, it is designed to capture your attention, hold it, and redirect it. Period, it's all about clicks. That's what it's about, it's all about clicks, it's not about trying to enlighten you and make you feel nice. Okay, have you ever noticed that there are certain channels on TV, and this could have been when we had the regular uh expanded cable and all of that, and some of us still have these digital cable packages. I know a lot of us have um uh streaming platforms now. However, if you have anything like local TV, sometimes stuff like Tubi and all of these different outlets, there used to be a little moniker or a little tagline at the bottom of the screen, and it would say paid programming, they call it programming for a reason. Listen, guys, listen, when you're looking at different things, TV, whatever it is, look at those small things they put on the screen, they're not just doing it for anything, paid programming. You know why? Because somebody is paying that company to program you. Think about all the think about okay. Like I said, I grew up in the 90s. Think about the programs from the 90s, and think about the difference of the programs that we have now. Now, check this out. I'm not here to bash anybody's lifestyle, but have you noticed how back in the 90s we had a mixture of programs? A lot of it was more based on family um education, it was kind of wholesome, you know. We still had the ratchet dustbook and stuff in there, but it was more wholesome, right? Now, listen to me very carefully. As of 2026, every other program you see will have something about the Rainbow Club lifestyle on the program. Everything listen, guys. Let me tell y'all two shows that just really had me flipped out now. I am a bit of a horror movie fan. Okay. And there was one particular horror movie, if you if anybody remembers, it's called Child's Play with Chucky. Well, Chucky came back with a series, and y'all, the series was pretty good. But do you guys know the main two characters that are young boys? These guys are not even adults, they are a part of the LGBA, whatever community. In Chucky, a horror movie, right? Like really, but that's not it, guys. So another one of my favorite series and movies to watch, and I know this is kind of gonna, I'm like geeking out with this one. How many of you have seen all the different types of Sherlock Holmes? Right? We had the ones Robert Downey Jr. definitely did a great job, him and that one guy, and then we had the guy from England, the series, he really was great. So he's been really uh involved in that Sherlock Holmes community or excuse me, series from BBC for a while. I believe it came back around 2016, 2018. However, guys, as of 2025, 2026, somewhere in there, I messed around and ran up on an episode where guys, these folks have made Sherlock Holmes gay. Now, come on, guys, Sherlock Holmes, I mean it's paid programming, they call it it for a reason. Let's think, let's talk about social media, a distraction. I love the internet, I love everything that it brings on the negative side. But guess what? Social media, if you're doom scrolling, that's why they call it doom scrolling. Why? Because you're wasting your time, you just scrolling before you know it. Two hours have gone by. Guess what, guys? We have all fell victim to it. We have all done that before, okay. Doom scrolling. Um, comparison traps. You see this on Instagram a lot or social media of any kind where people always want to compete and compare. Did you know that comparing yourself to someone else is the thief of joy? See, guys, there's no need of comparing anybody because you are unique, even if you don't resonate with being a black sheep. You are unique, even twins have their own fingerprint. So, why would I waste time competing with someone? But guess what? People always do it. Okay, then we have our new streaming programs, right? The Netflix, the Hulu's, and all these different things. We have started this new culture of binge binge culture. What does that mean? That means I'm gonna sit here and binge on this one series all day long. So if the average series is 30 to 45 minutes and I watch six of them, if I watch six episodes in there 30 minutes long, I just literally gave you three hours of my day. What type of time am I on? Three hours of watching somebody else that's already paid. Netflix, for an example, is a billion-dollar company. Why would I want to give them three hours of my time when they're already wealthy? I need to put that into myself. And what you must understand is they get paid for how long they can keep someone on their platform. Okay, what you must understand is if you spend more time consuming than creating, you're building someone else's vision and it's not yours. Let's talk about this crappy news. So, my dad was in the military for a very long time, um, all while I was growing up, all the way until 2014. And one thing he told me, he told me, he said, listen to me very carefully. Don't ever forget that the news you see in the United States is not the same news that you will see if you're overseas in some war zone, even if it's not a war zone, it is not the same news. So, guess what, guys? The news here, it has the fear cycles. Always want you to feel on edge, very scared. Outrage loops, they want you to be outraged and upset and mad, guys. This is all about pushing your emotional triggers. This is why in my book, The 33 Degrees to Misfit Mastery, I always tell you guys, be the last one in the room to react and respond. Always save it because your reaction is it's valuable. And if you don't believe me, think about the the reaction videos. Think about the reaction uh videos on YouTube. People have been running up a check making 60-second, one-minute, five-minute videos just for somebody to react. Somebody sitting there with water in their mouth, waiting on somebody else to do something silly so they can laugh, and people just sitting there watching it over and over and over again. This is proof positive that your reaction, your screen time is valuable. And I want you to understand as a black sheep, you need to protect your attention like it's money, because it is number three, and this is the big one internal distractions. See, the enemy is the inner me. I'm gonna say it again. The enemy is the inner me. The enemy within is the most dangerous one. Okay, these are the distractions that come from your mind, your emotions, and your habits. Okay, some of the internal distractions that we have, overthinking. Have you ever said I'm gonna do something? But then you sit there and overthought about it, and then the overthinking ended up being like 30, 45 minutes. You sitting there thinking about doing it, then you talk yourself out of doing it. So, how long are you gonna overthink this process? Right, two, three days go by. You still talking about I'm thinking about it. That's overthinking, procrastination, disguised as preparation. Listen, I know a lot of folks that do this one, they will procrastinate, talking about I'm getting ready. They're always getting ready to do something, but they never execute. Listen to me very carefully. As a black sheep, you need to stay ready. Don't get me wrong, guys. There is a time to prepare, but nobody has everything together. Don't let people fool you. The reason why it looks like it, because they make it look good. But for the most part, nobody has everything figured out. Okay. Next, emotional loops where you keep replaying old situations. Listen, I got caught up in this one because I I would say uh when was it 2023? I was deep into a narcissistic relationship and I finally broke free. Well, after that, I broke free and everything. That was cool, but guess what? After that, I went through this thing where I was an emotional loop trying to think like replaying the scenarios. Like, how could you treat somebody like that? Right? I mean, I was in a loop. It would literally be times where I would go into this emotional loop in this trance, and I would just sit there and waste two or three hours. I would shut down at 6 p.m. Because I put myself back into this emotional loop that had me staying mentally stuck and not being able to move forward. These are distractions. I'm talking about on a weekend you just throwing away half your day because you jumped into this emotional loop replaying situations. D, the lack of clarity. Sometimes when you don't know your direction, everything becomes a distraction. This is why one of the number one things you can do for yourself is to identify the clarity, identify where you want to go in life. And somebody might say, Well, I don't know, but guess what? Write down something that could even be a possibility. You might not know everything right away, nobody ever does, but let me tell you something magical about when you become intentional about what you want to do. When you become intentional, what happens is it will lead you. Sorry about that, guys. It will lead you to the place of where you need to go, but you have to get started because confusion is the breeding ground for distraction. So even if you have an idea, you say, you know what? Well, I don't really know what I want to do, but I know what I don't want to do. Guess what? That is a great starting place, okay? A great starting place, okay, because the lack of clarity is when everything becomes a distraction. A distracted mind cannot build a focused life at the end of the day. You must understand that if you're distracted, you can't build a focused empire. See, when people build empires, and guys, when I'm talking about an empire, it's whatever you set your mind on that will make you happy. Okay, everybody don't want to be a millionaire, everybody don't want to be a billionaire. Some people are happy with saying, Hey, I'm making six figures, some people are happy with saying, Hey, I make$85,000 a year, right? But if you don't start somewhere, that's why I always tell my people when they're in my groups, my coaching classes, start. I call it the magic number. Start with the magic number, if nothing else. What is the magic number? The amount of money that you need to make every single year to live the lifestyle that you want to live with you plus any responsibilities that you have. Come up with that number. That right there will be a great place to start. Why? Because let's say, for instance, you say, Well, Athena, I need to make about 80,000. Okay, great. 80,000. So now you know there's gonna be certain uh careers that you can't go into. Why? Because they don't qualify for the$80,000 mark. Start somewhere, all right. So let me go ahead and give you these uh five steps on how to cut the distractions, how to eliminate them. Number one, audit your time. Ask yourself where is my time actually going and who is consuming my attention, and be a savage about it because you can't get your time back, you can't get it back. Number two, set boundaries, limit conversations, reduce access, and protect your schedule. See, a lot of us we love our people, we don't mind talking to them and being a shoulder to lean on and an ear to listen. There's nothing wrong with that, but guess what? Limit the conversations, don't sit there on the phone for a whole hour or two just listening to those things. Reduced access. I get it. A lot of people love to come to black sheets. Why? Because we're strong people, but we're still humans and we got stuff to do. Reduce the access to people and protect your schedule. Number three, control your input. Listen, y'all, the scrolling, start transmuting that or start transforming that into learning, all the noise and the reactions, turn that into intention and strategy. Number four, create a focus system. Oh, this is a good one, guys. I implement this all the time. A focus system is you ask yourself a question daily, and that is, what will I focus on today? What will move me forward in my life today? Okay, whether it be I'm gonna focus on fitness, I'm gonna focus on just um my career, I'm gonna focus on family things. Okay, ask yourself every day, what will I focus on? I even do it. I'm gonna give you an example. I keep a lot of tabs open when I'm working on my computer. So some days, you know what I just sit back and say today, I'm gonna focus on organizing my files in my computer. Okay, number five, cut what's not a line. This is a hard one, but you must understand that every level in life requires a different level of separation. I'm telling you guys, if they're not supporting, they're not important. Number one, number two, if they are not helping you move forward, they're holding you back, they're holding you back, and there is nothing in between. Okay, here's some signs that you're distracted. You feel busy, but nothing is getting done. You start things, but you don't finish them. Sometimes you're constantly shifting, focused, and then at the end of the day, or sometimes in the middle of the day, you feel mentally scattered. Some people call it scattered brain because you're all over the place. I want you guys to understand destiny is not lost in one big decision, it's lost in small distractions repeated daily. Black sheep don't fail because they're not capable, they fail because they stay connected to what's comfortable. If you want a different life, you need to have a different level of focus. Okay, now listen to me very carefully, y'all. If you found this episode helpful to your journey, hit the like button, uh, leave some comments however you catch this episode, and look at the um in the description box. I'm also going to be putting a um I'm also going to be putting a um worksheet in there so you can use that as your distractions, uh, your distractions workbook as well. So that I want all of us to really get on point with our time. Um, black sheeps, we have given so much to people that don't give us nothing. And I don't want you to be a part of a group of people that look back over their life and they're upset and they're bitter because they gave to people places and things that never gave nothing. Now is the time. See, when there's a lot of turmoil in the world, that is your sign to be to start to get on your business. I don't care if you wasn't on it for the last 10, 20, 30 years of your life, the way the world is going now with all this globalization and everything, this AI, all these different things, it's really time to get focused on what you want to do. Okay, I'm gonna be dropping an episode. I want you guys to really tap into it, and it's going to show you how, no matter what's going on in the world, the one thing that you can tap into that will provide you and your family power, unlimited profit potential, and everything else that you need to level up. Okay, so until next time, I'm your girl Thina Roday and I'm signing off with the Black Sheet Leadership Podcast. Take care.