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Imagine for a moment that you need to study for an exam or prepare for an important presentation at work, so you set aside an hour to work on it that evening. During that hour you you get distracted. It's not really your fault though, it's just so easy to get caught up in a special presentation on television.

Manswers, anything on HGTV, Wikipedia,  and exercise blogs are virtually the same during that period of time.

Why?

Because none of them help you achieve your immediate goal of acing the test, or preparing that presentation. Effectively these distractions all hurt your progress.

Similar things happen in the realm of training. 

You get distracted and 'busy' and only train two days a week.

All you talk about is how you can't wait to get your strict pullups but you only practice them when the whiteboard commands you.

You finally get to the gym, but you only do 2 sets of heavy cleans before you realize you're late for work.

The difference between mediocre people and successful people is an unyielding focus on their goals despite all else (read: distractions).

Some distractions are a little harder to spot than others. Many times we get distracted with things that we honestly believe are helping us achieve our goals, when in fact the complete opposite is true.

Here is a little test to see if you're distracted without realizing it. Are you:

• Working on muscle-ups before you've got strict pullups?
• Allowing a skill to hold you back in your met-cons? (double unders, kipping pullups, etc)
• Allowing weakness to hold you back in your workouts?
• Working without a set goal or objective, for both the short and long-term? 

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be distracted.

Want buttery smooth double unders? Practice daily!

Eliminate your weakness? Squat heavy, press heavy and deadlift heavy more often!

Having trouble with your O-Lifts? Do the skill work correctly on a regular basis, remember practice makes permanent!

Muscle ups? Get strict pullups first, then do your progressions like medicine, regularly.

Strict pullups? Include negatives as part of your daily warm up.

Want to be better at life? Squat heavy more often, and set goals for yourself (See what I did there?)