Distracted? Overwhelmed? The question that brings me back home.

It’s a sickening feeling — reaching the end of your workday, and realizing that you’ve done absolutely everything other than what you actually intended to do.

Lately? I’ve been feeling that way, quite a bit.

It’s not a feeling I enjoy.

And one night, not long ago, while shuffling a Tarot deck on the 45th floor of a New York City highrise, 500 feet above the scuttling taxi cabs and sacks of steaming garbage (Oh, NYC…) I pulled a card that I needed to see.

The craftsman. The father. The architect.

The question?

“What are you building?”

Four words that shook me out of my wine and cheese stupor.

I read them again:

“What are you building?”

The fascinating part? I know what I’m building. I’ve never been clearer.

(My business model can be distilled into five syllables: Write. Teach. Be helpful. That’s the world I’m designing.)

The frustrating part? I’ve been laying down bricks that don’t belong in my building.

Good bricks. Great bricks. Just not my bricks.

“What are you building?”

I set down the card and felt like I’d traveled back home.

And since that night, I’ve been a far more attentive architect.

Distractions? They still happen. But construction is back on schedule.

P.S. A little repetition never hurts. So: what are YOU building?