Phooey, I’ve spent the last couple of hours trying to find either the hard copy or the digital version that is somewhere on my computer or in the BusinessWeek archives of an article telling the story of how one of the top international investment bankers has unplugged from the wired world so he would have more time to think. But during my search, I found over-wired examples that curled my hair—the worst of which is mentioned in both Hope Brown’s and Canon Kendall Harmon’s blogs—an article in WSJonline called The Type A Bathroom (I’m glad I missed it, I would have had nightmares!) The responses to the blog tell me that I’m not a minority of one in my feeling on this subject. More about this another day.

Today is about time to think; to dream; to play in your mind; and then innovate—not just in business, but in your home, your relationships, your life.

Where do you find time in our busy world to think, not think-to-accomplish-something-specific, but just think? About everything, about nothing. To un-tether your mind and let it fly free. To play with thoughts, ideas, concepts, something you’ve seen—or wanted to see—with no structure or expectations or goal.

To find time to think, unplug! To dream, unplug! To innovate, unplug! Not just you, but your employees, too! Turn off your cell phone, take a break from your email, shut down your Blackberry. If, in fact, your world does crash because you were unplugged for a couple of hours, guess what? The structure was fundamentally flawed—whether knowingly or by accident.

Fewer and fewer people seem to be able to tolerate silence, let alone enjoy it, wherever you go there is sound. TVs run all the time when people are home, businesses have background music, there’s music-on-hold, radios in and out of cars, music on iPods/phones. Anything to stop the silence—and thinking.

Trust me, the world as you know it won’t end if the next time you get in your car you leave off the radio/iPod and all your wireless world. Try it on your way home. Shut off all the electronics, skip your music fix, and just let go of your mind. It takes some practice and probably a few miles of fear, but get through that and see the difference.

Treat yourself to silence—it can be magical.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 19th, 2006 at 12:13 am and is filed under Business info, Communication, Culture, Motivation, Retention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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