With the increasing levels of noise and glamorization of trivial activities that is portrayed through social media, it’s very easy to be distracted.

This distraction leads to impatience. That impatience can manifest itself at work, feeling unfulfilled because your impatience has lead to a focus on the short term and forgoing the long-term vision. And perhaps even more detrimental impatience in your personal life, where you may find yourself choosing to swipe right for the sake of convenience.

The pervasive poison that is comparison serves as an almost daily reminder to me of the importance of being focused and not letting these distractions interfere with the bigger picture. So instead of being distracted by the noise, or the success of your peers, which commonly leads to envy, I am an advocate of focus.

1.Focus on what you define as success. Know that you have to define success for yourself. Play to your strengths and preferences by being conscious as to what values you adopt. Don’t be pulled into the stereotypical or common perception of anything. Do not adopt an idea without first evaluating it for yourself.

2. Following your passion, what you love to do is not the end all be all it’s often made out to be. More than pursuing a passion, which can lead to poor job satisfaction, and even poorer return, focus on pursuing something of value. And then focus on getting really good at it. Your passion is not always what you will be best at. Your passion doesn’t always allow you to add value.

Being an independent thinker is a conscious and active battle where you must fight against noise.