In the Quiet

We are ruled by our email and messages as soon as we check them. I did it this morning. I was not planning on it as I made my coffee and got ready to meditate, but it happened. It’s a virus that works fast. To often we are led by other things as we start the day versus planning our day to our terms. I got a really great quote from a blogging peer that explores this really well.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it. – Henry Ford

Tim writes about the importance of making your year by finding a platform that allows you to freely think. How critical it is just to find the time before all else, to just think in the quiet.

How rare thinking really is. Tim is right.

Here’s the entire blog: This Year Will Be Different (Maybe)by Tim Bryant

I highly recommend taking a few morning minutes as you have them to check Tim out.

To be really effective we have to close out competing priorities begging for our attention and focus our output before we even start. This year I have reserved 30-45 minutes in the morning to setting the day up. No email. No text messages. No social media. No news. Just my journal and productivity planner. I’m going to keep you posted on how it works out. It’s so hard to do. Especially hard if your very connected to any kind of ecosystem through technology. It can hit you from every direction.

Being in the quiet first thing before I start my day I am learning is one of the most important things I can do before beginning my day. I feel purpose and intentionality happen in the quiet of my planning/thinking time. You might have to wake up several minutes or hours earlier than usual like I have to. Doing it 30+ times however in a row, I’ll build a habit. I won’t find it such a chore. Be the best you can be for others by giving yourself the morning time before you start.

Only in the darkness can you see the stars. – Unknown

All the teachings I’ve ever read from the stoics of the past to the greatest philosophers/writers of today have a time for solitude they recommend taking daily to reflect or plan. Today more than ever, we need to protect that time. You develop the most in tranquility and the quiet. Because you can digest it. Because you’re not in a tug of war with all the world’s notifications or social shenanigans. Because you’re in control of the time in front of you. Once you step into that current of life, the rapids have you.

Giving ourselves planning time and quiet time to bring intention or purpose to our day is one of best things we can start our day with. Below is a website that I follow and get emails from regularly. It’s called My Morning Routine. There is a common thread for almost every story I’ve read in how they start their day. In solitude and the quiet before everything else. Even at times before family or significant other time. If you cannot get yourself composed and planned for the day, how do you be at your best for family?

Give your goals in 2018 the opportunity to truly take root. Give yourself the gift of quiet.

✌🏻 Shawn