Your greatest danger is letting the urgent things crowd out the important.
~Charles E. Hummel
I was home alone on Saturday. Elizabeth was traveling and wouldn’t be home until late in the evening. The day to myself. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, dishes, unpacking from a trip, regrouping from a busy week.
All day. To myself. What will I do? All the things I could get done began to rush through my head.
- Emails I need to respond to.
- The book I want to finish.
- The book I want to write.
- The garage needs cleaning.
So what did I do? I shut down my email, put my phone away, made some ginger tea, and listened to the sound of silence.
One by one, I pushed away the distractions and slowed down my brain. Yes, it took several minutes, but soon it was just me and…
The big clock was ticking; a motor was running in the distance, and the wind, with the occasional gust, whirled through the trees in the backyard.
Sure, the garage and the emails roared back into my head, but they were soon drowned out by the silence and pushed away quickly. I tracked my heart rate. It’s down 5 points in the first 10 minutes.
We have become the greatest arsonists of our generation. We’ve set our lives on fire and constantly pour on the fuel. The fire has become a salve, telling us everything is okay.
- “See, we’re better off than the neighbor next door.”
- “Keep up with the Joneses. They’re doing ____ or just got ____.”
- “I have to finish this by _____ because ______.”
- “I need to ____.”
- “I want to ____.”
Distractions are a cancer that breeds other distractions. Without distractions, rich nuggets unearth themselves and often are right under your nose. Starve the distractions, and the noise dries up. Turn off the noise, and the smoke clears. Take away the tyranny of the urgent, and peace settles in. Check out THIS.
Heart rate is down another two points. Oops, there goes the ice maker.
Yes, I know: I’m at the front of the line, encouraging you to set goals, chase dreams, and live your best life. Those things are real; I believe they are part of living an abundant life.
But those dreams, goals, plans, and timelines are revealed in silence. They are nurtured in solitude. If you are taking the cue for your next step from the things happening around you or your circumstances, you’re not necessarily missing the boat, but you may be in danger of taking the wrong boat. After all, Thomas Merton said:
“People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall.”
Put down the matches and the gas can. Let the flames die down and take the challenge. Resist the tyranny of the urgent and the voices screaming in your head. They’ll go away soon enough — if you allow them. They demand to be engaged, and when they realize you aren’t answering, responding, or yelling back, they go off to find another victim.
If everything starts with a single thought, what are you thinking? When are you thinking? How long are you thinking? Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Where you are today is a result of your thinking yesterday. And where you wind up tomorrow will be the result of your thoughts today.
As a man thinketh, so is he. James Allen takes that Bible thought one step further: “As he thinks, so he is; as he continues to think, so he remains.”
It’s hard to think with all the noise around you, so shutting down the distractions and the extracurricular activity is the first step. Could you put yourself in a timeout? Could you turn off the cacophony of noise you have become so enamored with?
Think big, then take small steps, create small habits, and relentlessly eliminate the small foxes and distractions. Slow down, and just BE.
taken from the earth.” ~Napoleon Hill.