Distraction The Silent Killer of Purpose How to Stay Focused and Aligned

Discover the power of focus and purpose. Avoid distractions that delay your destiny. Align your energy with your true purpose and watch clarity return.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Yo, what's poppin' family? Welcome to another episode of the I Can't Help Them Podcast. I'm your boy, I'm your host, Rodney Footman. Listen, we're here for another episode, baby, of the I Can't Help Them Podcast. I Can't Help Them Podcast. Yo, what's up, family? Listen again. I'm your host, your boy Rodney Footman. I said it twice. And today we're gonna be talking about something that is quite frankly robbing people. It's not sin, it's not failure, it's not lacking opportunity, but it is distraction. Yes, sin. So today's episode is called Distraction. The Solid Killer of Purpose. Because listen, if you get distracted, I mean you get distracted, but it's gonna kill you purpose. It's gonna kill you purpose. Because most people aren't destroyed by the devil. They're destroyed, they're distracted. I'm sorry. Most people aren't destroyed by the devil, but they're distracted from their destiny. They're distracted from their destiny. Hey, I'm just listening. I'm just giving y'all what God gave me. Y'all distracted. Y'all, the devil ain't even bothering y'all. Y'all just distracted, not doing what you're supposed to be doing, not moving the way you're supposed to be doing. You know, you're distracted. Distracted. Here's one thing. Here are some things about distraction. It doesn't, number one, it doesn't look evil. It looks normal. Listen, you be scrolling, you be talking, entertaining, dating, arguing, overthinking, and overworking. Distraction isn't always bad things. Let's let that sit right there. As I say, Sila. Distraction isn't always bad things. It isn't always a it's often good things, but it's in the wrong place. It's often good things, but it's in the wrong place. Let's Hebrew 12 and 1, just a brief synopsis, it says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us. Notice it says, notice in the scripture it says, sin and wait. It says sin and wait. Listen, everything slowing you isn't sinful. Some things are just heavy. I'm gonna say that again for the people in the back and to the side, to the other side. Everything slowing you isn't sinful. Some things are just heavy. They just heavy. Listen, we live in the most distracted generation ever. Listen, ever. I mean ever, yo. You got notifications, you got DMs, you got reels, you got group tracks, you got dramas, you got comparison. You wake up and your mind is already full. No prayer, no focus, no silence, just noise. And noise makes it hard to hear God. Noise makes it hard to hear God, Jim. Listen, you listen, some of us don't even wake up. When we wake up, we don't even acknowledge God. The first thing we do is grab that phone. The first thing we do is check uh our messages, our emails, our Facebook notifications, DMs, people done sent us stuff throughout the night. Listen, I'm gonna be honest, I'm I'm guilty of it myself sometimes. Listen, because I work, I work night shelf. And so I go to sleep like during the day. So I might sleep, we get off probably about 8, 8:30. I go to sleep, I get up probably about 12, and then I be up from like 12 to about 8. And then it's like 8, and then I get up like 11:45 to get ready for work. But between 8 and 11:45, it just seems like everybody wants to send me messages, everybody wanna send me reels, everybody wanna send me notifications, I get emails out the Wazoo, all that type of stuff while I'm asleep. And the first thing I do when I wake up when it's time to go to work is check that phone. I don't say, God, thank you for waking me up. God, I thank you that I'm about to be able to go to a job where it's providing me more than enough for the things that I need. No, I check my phone sometimes. I'm guilty. I'm listening, I can't talk to y'all about it if I don't talk to myself. But yeah, sometimes we do all these things and don't get started on group chats. I am a part of so many group chats, it don't make no sense. I hate when somebody put me in a group chat. Listen, if you hate when somebody puts you in a group chat, raise your hand. Because I can't stand it. Especially if you ain't let me know that I'm in the group chat. You just put me in there without my permission or nothing. You just put me in a group chat. I don't like it. You put me in a group chat. Now I got 50 notifications and text messages because people text and all in the group chat. Man, that hurt my nerves. If somebody knows how to silence them group chats, please let me know. I got an iPhone. Please let me know if you can silence group chats because I need to know how to silence them things.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

But yeah, it just noise. Noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, noise, noise.

SPEAKER_03 5:40

God is in a still small voice, just a still, small voice. If your life is loud, clarity becomes hard. If your life is loud, clarity becomes hard. If you always, clarity does become hard because your life is loud. That's listen, that one hit me too, because my life has been loud and and I've been out focused a little bit, you know, so God had to whip me back into shape and get my focus back because my focus was elsewhere. I was distracted by other things that I shouldn't have been distracted by. And I was distracted by some good things too, because I'm thinking this is supposed to be a part of my purpose. But come to find out, not saying that it's not a part of my purpose, but like I said earlier, I hadn't properly placed it in the correct place for it to really, you know, flourish and really be effective. And for the simple fact, like I had a lot of things on my plate, and I was trying to do everything and juggle everything all at one time, and it just was not. I might have been productive over here and lacking over here, productive over here, lacking over there because I didn't, I was distracted, distracted with too many things. Distracted. Some of us aren't distracted by phones, we're distracted by people. That's one of the things I was distracted by. Listen, entertaining someone who isn't aligned. Uh revisiting excess. Ooh, fixing people. God didn't assign you to fit. Good God about it. Now that one right there, giving energy where there's no future. Can we go back? Can we go back? I'm gonna go back. We're gonna go back to, we're gonna run through all of them though. We are distracted by people entertaining someone who isn't aligned. Listen, somebody that is not aligned, that is an automatic red flag distraction. Like if they ain't even walking in the same direction you walking in, distraction. Revisiting exits. Now, this is something I ain't doing. But some of y'all out there, y'all be revisiting exes, talking to people, thinking they done changed, thinking, and I'm not saying that they haven't changed, but just because they done changed don't mean that you're supposed to go back and revisit that, that you're supposed to open that door back up. No, direction. Because what's gonna end up happening is y'all gonna continue to talk, and then you're gonna start looking at them funny and start being like, man, this is the reason why you was an ex in the first place. Like, I'm just let's just be honest. Don't be revisiting unless the Lord says, go back. Man, you better go on about your business. Go on about your business, don't be revisiting no exes. Now, this one right here, the next one. Now, this one I had to realize myself, fixing people God didn't assign you to fix. Listen, this one was this this one was tough for me. Because listen, when I tell you people call me for advice and all this type of stuff, and I'm trying to help people. And you know, the the Bible says, don't cast your pearls, the swine. And I was casting a whole bunch of pearls because I was trying to help these people and fix these people, and they wouldn't even take my advice, and I was giving them good, common sense, God-led advice. And they would even say, Oh, Rodney, that's good. But yet, wouldn't do it, distraction, wasting my time. Listen. But it also helped me to find my purpose because you know, I'm in this program called Decoding. And one of the questions he asked that lets you know that you're a part of your purpose is what do people come to you most? And what is easy to you? What can you do without even thinking? And those are things like I give strategy. I can give strategy to anybody. You come to me with a which whatever you want to do, man. My mind will open up so quick and be like, bam, strategy, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. I got you. I have your whole blueprint plan built out for you. And people know that. Now I'm charge, I'm charger for it. Now, you know, I'm a I'm gonna be a purpose coach or something, strategy coach, solutionist or something.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

But yeah, man, I no, I'm not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Not doing that no more. I'm not trying to fix people that God didn't assign me to fix. Listen, uh, and I believe, I believe all of us do that at one point in time on this Christian walk, but we try to fix people God didn't assign us to fix because we just want to help people so much. And but now we have to learn that whoever God assigned you to, he assigned you to. And a lot of times you're trying to fix something that only God can fix, and you in the way.

SPEAKER_01 10:24

Get out the way, move, get out the way, get out the way, get out the way, and give it energy where there's no future.

SPEAKER_03 10:34

Listen, some y'all, some people y'all you talk to, you know. You just know ain't no future between y'all. I don't care if it's relationship, friendship, acquaintances, associate. You you already know, man. This ain't this ain't it, G. Yeah. We're gonna I'll talk to you for a little minute, but it ain't no future between us. Like, it's none. Like, we not even going in the same direction. Stop it. It's a distraction. It's a distraction. Some relationships aren't purpose partners, they are time consumers. You can't build destiny while babysitting dysfunction. You can't do it. Can't babysit somebody dysfunction, they got to do that themselves. Listen, everybody ain't a purpose partner. Some people are just time consuming, they just consuming your time, distracting you from what you're really supposed to be doing. God is trying to download some things on you, He's trying to get you to read his word, he's trying to get you, give you a new blueprint, he's trying to give you a new idea that nobody has ever done before. His mysteries are in his word. And you are conversating with someone thinking they are purpose partners, but they are really time consumers. We can't be doing that. We're not doing it, we're not letting nothing distract us in 2026. 2026, we full force, baby. That's even with this podcast. I ain't gonna need a lot. This podcast, I'm doing good, doing good. Got a little distracted. Just got a little distracted. Went putting out the content every day like I used to be doing, wouldn't was uh slacking on time. I used to do the episode every every Monday at uh 12 noon. I was putting out the episode and to listen, and then it started happening on Tuesday, then it started happening on Wednesday, and I gotta get myself back together. The Lord had to show me, like, hey bro, hey bro, you tripping, you distracted. What you're doing is really blessing people. You just because you don't see the numbers doesn't mean people are not looking, doesn't mean people are not watching, doesn't mean people are not paying attention, just to see if you're gonna be consistent so they can even uh follow you. Because if you're not consistent with what you're doing or what I gave you, like it's just gonna be another flop. So you need to be consistent, you need to get back on your grind, you need to get back on it. Stop being distracted. Whatever got you distracted in this season, listen, let it go. I'm trying to tell you, let it go. It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it. Now I'm back on my listen, y'all gonna get these podcast episodes every Monday, 12 p.m. And you're gonna get that real every day. Listen, I'm gonna be on YouTube, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Friends, Facebook, Instagram, and I don't know no other platforms. Doing the five by doing the five I do. But listen, y'all gonna get it. Y'all gonna see me. Ain't no more distractions. We in here, G. We in here, we locked in. We we locked in. Ain't no distractions, man. Please, distractions. No, ain't no more distractions, yo. Listen, you can still be busy and still be behind. You can be active and still unfocused. You can attend everything and accomplish nothing. I talked about that in the last episode. You you're over-stimulated, you're over-stimulated, Christian. We not, we're not doing that. Listen, listen, Martha was distracted with much serving, but Mary chose what was better. Distraction isn't laziness. Sometimes it's just misplaced energy. It's just misplaced energy, yo. Focus your energy where it need to be.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

I know that kind of hit a little bit. That can, yeah, that kind of hit a little bit. Distraction isn't laziness because there's a lot of people who are not lazy. Just misplaced energy, yo. Energy. If the enemy can't destroy you, he will distract you. I'm gonna turn, I'm gonna do a 4360 on that one. If he can't destroy you, he'll distract you. Because let's be honest, when God has purpose something in your life, there is no devil in hell that can stop it. But he can slow you down with distraction. So it'll take you a longer time to get to the things that you need to get to and to get to your purpose. He'll slow you down because he can't stop it. He can't stop it because it's God ordained. But he will slow you down. And then you find yourself behind on time. Listen, I remember for about two, three years, I was getting prophesied that uh Rodney, you two, three years behind. Rodney, you two, three years. I'm like, what in the world am I ever gonna be on time? But I was distracted in those years. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing. I was doing stuff for other people, doing stuff that I ain't had no business doing. Like just doing meaningful stuff for the kingdom, but it wasn't uh purpose-driven. It wasn't for my purpose, it was for somebody else. It was somebody else's project. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but it was for somebody else. And so I was behind on myself. I ain't doing that no more. Like, gee, I ain't doing that no more. Listen. Because distraction delays, it slows you, it scatters you, it keeps you almost productive, but not effective. It keeps you productive almost, but not effective. Oh, not effective, G. Not effective. The most dangerous place to be is busy, but miss the line. Bruh. And I done been there. You're busy, you're doing everything, you're doing everything that you think is right, but you miss a line. Man, that listen, that right now, that robbed me.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

What?

SPEAKER_03 16:25

Because I was I was yet almost in that place again. I'm out here doing things, but it's not aligned to my purpose. Getting distracted, trying to take on, even taking on stuff that I shouldn't be taking on because it's not aligned with my purpose. But it sounds good. The cause is great, everything is great, but it's not aligned with my purpose. And that's where we have to, as believers, as Christians, even as people, like we have to understand that every good thing ain't a good thing for you. If it's not aligned with your purpose, like it's a distraction. It's just a distraction. The devil will throw good things at you to make you feel like you're doing something. And I'm not saying that you're not doing nothing, but if it's not aligned to your purpose, if it doesn't, if it's not attached to your purpose, if it's just a good idea that you think is gonna be good and gonna be great for you, okay, but you have to go to God and be like, God, is this aligned with my purpose? Because if it's not aligned with my purpose, then it becomes a distraction from your real purpose. And here you are going off doing something and building something, and you're not even aligned. It'll be terrible to build something and something that's great, and it's not even aligned with your purpose. Crazy. I know, I know, crazy, crazy. Here's how you fight distraction. Now we're gonna go to how to fight distraction. Audit your time, reduce digital consumption, cut conversations that don't add value, cut them, create intentional quiet time, clarify your assignment because when your purpose becomes clear, distractions lose power. Focus on spiritual discipline. Listen, I'm gonna say those again so y'all can hear just because just in case y'all missed it. Audit your time. Audit your time, please. Reduce digital consumption, reduce it. Don't be up on social media and all that all day. Don't do it. Matter of fact, take it down to about 30 minutes to an hour a day. That's all you really need, anyway, because you ain't missing nothing, G. You ain't missing nothing. Cut your conversations that don't add value. These people that you're talking to all day, every day, if they ain't add no value to your life, cut it. If they add no value to your purpose, cut them. Listen, I had to cut like three people this week. Like, I like it just it just dawned on me, like, yo, bro, why am I talking to them? Ain't nothing good coming out of the conversation. Every time I tell them an idea, they always give me the negative side. It's never uh a positive positivity when it comes with it. Or they like, are you sure you want to do that? Are you sure? Like, like, I don't need that type of energy in my life right now. Like one thing I'm doing, I'm I'm I'm learning about financial literacy and about life insurance and all that type of stuff like that. And I had one person tell me that it's a scam. Life insurance is a scam, or the company that I'm working for is a scam, but yet they have an A and a Better Business Bureau. Make it make sense. So people like that, you don't need to be talking to. They don't add no value. Cut them. I don't cut them because I don't need no negativity in my life. Nah, G. Listen, like I said, uh my church, Unity International Charlotte, come visit us any Sunday in Charlotte. Come visit us anytime, 11 a.m. My pastors are Bishop Fred D. Gooden the third and prophetess Jamila Gooden. Listen, I'll tell you, you'll have a wonderful time if you come. But we are on a 21-day of positive energy.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

We ain't got time for no negative energy, yo. We ain't got time.

SPEAKER_03 20:21

We ain't doing no negative energy the whole month of March, yo. We that's what we're on at our church. That's what I'm on for the rest of the yeah. No negative energy, yo. Listen, just want to let you know, you are not behind. You're not behind. You're not, you're distracted. And once you remove the distractions, clarity returns. So move the distractions, clarity gonna return, momentum gonna return, peace gonna return. Stop giving energy to what's not assigned to you. Stop entertaining what's not aligned, stop feeding what's not fruitful, and your destiny deserves your focus, and your under your destiny deserves your focus, yo. Not only your destiny, but the people you are called to, the people that are waiting on you, they deserve your focus. They deserve it. Yeah, you might not think so. But you are called to somebody. We all are called to somebody, somebody's waiting on you, and we need you to clear out the distractions so you can give us what the Lord wants you to give us. I mean, that's for me too. I still gotta clear out some distractions, yo. Listen, I ain't listening. I'm trying to day. Because some days you some days you want to be distracted. Ain't that funny? Some days you want to be distracted, some days you want to just sit there and stroll all day. Some days you want to sit there and talk to people all day. But when you have a purpose, you you gotta cancel that out. You gotta fight every day. You gotta have that discipline every day, that focus, every day.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Every day. You hear what I tell you? Every day.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

AG, listen again. Your destiny, your purpose deserves your focus. Listen, if you resonate, I forgot the word I was gonna say. Listen, if this episode hit you in any type of way, listen, I need you to share this episode. Listen, I need y'all to subscribe to Apple Podcasts. I need you to subscribe to Spotify. I need you to subscribe to YouTube. Listen, I need you to subscribe to all of these. Because I'm trying to grow. I want to grow. Continue to grow.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Continue to grow.

SPEAKER_03 22:31

Listen, I hit a milestone, 50 downloads. Listen, wonderful. Thank you all. Thank you all. I want to keep growing. Listen, I'm I celebrate my little wins. Hey, listen, because the little wins are gonna turn into big wins. But I had 50 downloads and I appreciate everyone that's down below. I appreciate everyone that's listening. I appreciate everyone that shares my stuff. I appreciate you. And uh let's just keep growing together, baby, because this is, you know, this is not the end. Hopefully, one day I'm gonna be in a podcast studio and all that type of stuff. Right now, I'm just starting with my phone because I just wanted to start. And that's the problem with some of y'all. You just you just don't start. I'm starting with this and then I'm gonna build because this is not the ending for this platform. So again, I thank you all. Thank you all, thank you all, thank you all. And again, this has been the I Can't Help Film podcast. And this is your boy, your host, Rodney Football. And I'm gonna keep coming with the bangers every single week, baby. Let's go.