Distractions divert us from what is important

Stephen Covey’s book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says that getting to where we want to be requires focus on the “wildly” important. Covey said that it is all too easy to get off-focus. Often, we get pulled off-course by a myriad of “urgent” demands in our everyday lives. Covey notices that people who are successful or happy, do it by staying focused on the “important.” It is all too easy to get distracted.

Take this distraction: American politics.

We have a terrible engineering and environmental disaster as a result of BP Oil’s sloppiness and lack of foresight. They took chances and sadly, have lost.

Now there’s a clip on the news, of the US Representative from Texas, Joe Barton, apologizing to the chairman of BP Oil. Apologizing for President Obama making BP take full responsibility for the blowout and the damages.

Barton is the clown in this strange comedy of errors. We the people did not have much oversight over deep water rigs and OUR waters. Somehow, we never considered what might happen if and when something like this would happen. But risk was downplayed and there was no plan. It is an error to believe that big corporations can fully regulate themselves.

(The engineers at BP might have raised a flag, but no one paid them any mind.)

Now here comes a clown, apologizing to BP for ruining the Gulf of Mexico and the coastal environment for our children’s children. I am ashamed of that guy.

Distracted from what is wildly important. And the politicians do not have a clue.

Tags: Energy, Political Ignorance