What’s so wrong about being a scatterbrain?

I woke up this morning with a word buzzing in my brain. That is not unusual, but still. This word was exactly the one the title indicates. Scatterbrain.

I have had a few days off. This hasn’t been a particularly busy semester for me, so I have had some time for quiet contemplation. That’s probably quite healthy. Nevertheless, it brings about some worrying insight into the rather complicated sides of being me.

Not that I didn’t know. I am a scatterbrain. I very often tell my boyfriend that I have SOOO many things to think about. He hardly reacts. He knows. But most of the time I have som much to do, that I don’t have the time to follow up on most of those thoughts. But now I do. I have plenty of time to notice that all of these thoughts and areas of interest makes me almost unable to focus on any of them.

So I looked up the word in the dictionary. Not so much to my surprise as to my annoyance, the word is described in a very negative way. So I know that it has its sides, but I don’t want the world to see it that way. Because it has its virtues too. And that, of course, is why I write.

A person regarded as flighty, thoughtless, or disorganized. A person who is incapable of serious thought or concentration. A person incapable of serious, connected thought.

https://www.thefreedictionary.com/scatterbrain

The thing is, as a highly sensitive person I take in a lot. And then all of that is processed even more. Doesn’t it then make sense that all those impressions and processes wind up being a variety of different thoughts, ideas and focuses? To me, that is a fairly obvious outcome. And the word scatterbrain is very befitting. However, I totally disagree that the word scatterbrain deserves negative connotations. It is simply a natural fact and should be dealt with as such.

I am not saying that being a scatterbrain is a positive trait that you should indulge in. But if you are that kind of a person, it is hard to change. All you can do is try to live with it. Because of course it might have its advantages. And that is what you need to find out. Trying to be something you are not, doesn’t make you better, it makes you hard work. So whoever you are, try to understand what that means and make the most of it. Be the best you. If you are a scatterbrain, be the best scatterbrain you can be.

So what could possibly be the positive side of being scatterbrain? Let’s look at the facts:

1. Hard to focus – because you notice several things at a time
2. Untidy – because you don’t focus
3. Incapable of connected thought – ok, that is a problem if it is true, but very often you just haven’t seen the connection yet

I think it is very important for those of us who take in so much to understand that this is what is going on. We need time to focus and to understand what to focus on. I think our era simply doesn’t allow us that kind of time. We are forced to focus, even though our minds need to wander. To find the dots and make the connections.

Now that I have had just about enough time to contemplate on what I want to focus on, I have just about had enough time to become completely bewildered. My poor brain doesn’t quite know where to settle, because for once, I have to decide for myself. I have to prioritize. Who in the world has that kind of privilege these days? Time to prioritize?

Well, I do. And my mind is scattered enough to lose completely focus from what I was really trying to sort out, so I ended up doing this. You might call it procastination. But on the other hand, maybe it was good for something? In that case we might give it another, more positive name, and the outcome of a scattered brain seems much more positive. What do you think?