Turn It All Off and Get Quiet With Yourself

When was the last time you shut it all down, got quiet, and listened to what you had to say to yourself? That’s what I am asking you to do, to turn off all the stimuli for just a moment, but before we get there…

I get it. Being overloaded with stimuli is a first-world problem. I know this is true because I’ve been to parts of the world where surviving the day is the biggest challenge. What to eat and where to sleep are the biggest challenges. But if you’re reading this right now, there is a high probability that you are battling over-stimulus more than hunger or the need for shelter.

I would argue, on some level, that struggling with over stimulation can be more dangerous.

It kills goals.

It fuels comparison.

It derails ambition.

It drives distraction.

Stimuli is a dream killer.

Having been to places where stimuli doesn’t exist like it does here, this is what I know to be true. The farmer in Nepal wakes up in the morning overlooking the valley and their crops. There are seeds to plant or harvest, animals to be cared for, chores to be done, and meals to be prepared. The sun shines down on them, the mountains surround them, and the sky opens up above them on all sides. It’s a hard life, but one that comes with limited distractions. The farmer knows what needs to be done, knows what they can control, and is clear on the dangers and challenges of living where they do.

On the other hand, living in a constant state of stimuli creates a fog. We bounce from Facebook to YouTube to Netflix to Spotify to Zoom to Outlook, drowning in a sea of noise and dopamine hits. There’s a text to answer, a video to watch, a call to be on, and a song or podcast to listen to. It’s a noisy world we live in.

For years, quiet scared the hell out of me. Ask me to turn it all off, get silent, and sit with my thoughts; the restlessness would be overwhelming. I needed the stimuli to feel at rest… and then it hit me. I was never really at rest. All the noise and stimuli were keeping me from rest.

That realization led me to ask myself the question that I started with. “When was the last time you shut it all down, got quiet, and listened to what you had to say to yourself?”

As a business owner and a visionary, listening to myself is essential. When we were launching OrangeBall, I could sit down, and the ideas would flow freely. The excitement of what was new was the only stimuli I needed, and when I sat in the quiet of that, my imagination ran wild. Over time, the busier I got, the more the other stimuli crowded out the imagination.

About a year ago, I decided to change that. I began scheduling an hour a month on my calendar that was cryptically labeled in case anyone saw it. This hour, scheduled with myself, had no agenda. I would lock myself in a room with no stimuli, a pen, and some paper. I would sit quietly, and as thoughts came to be, I’d write them down. Some of those thoughts went nowhere and were completely illogical. Others led me down paths of “What if?” and “If that happened, we could do this…”

My imagination came back to life when I turned everything else off and made room for it.

You might read this and think it’s some woo-woo BS. Or you may think that imagination and dreaming are for kids, not adults, and that I should get back to work. Here’s my response. If you believe either one of those things, this will never work for you. You’ve already blocked it off with resistance. On the other hand, if you’re open to sitting quietly for an hour with yourself, a pad of paper, and your thoughts, I can promise you that the lack of stimuli will open you up to things you never thought of before… because you were always distracted and never made space for it.

Call-to-Action

“You should get back to work.” That is part of the reason I never labeled this on my calendar. I was afraid of how people would judge my thinking time. Today, I know that thinking time is the real work.

Try it. Turn off the stimuli. Get quiet, and hang out with yourself. It might be uncomfortable initially, but do it a few times, and you’ll find your groove.