Reserve Room for Revelation

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Blaise Pascal

I am addicted to podcasts that pepper me with new ideas on being a better writer, a better leader, a better person. Along with my daily devotionals, I subscribe to multiple mailing lists from writers/curators like Ryan Holiday and David Perell, emails that direct me to terrific articles, books, documentaries, and movies. I immediately jot them down, filling my backlog - there is never enough time!

But it's not enough to constantly consume and learn. While I discover many ideas by drinking from the firehose of the Internet, I need to set aside time to stop taking in information so I can properly synthesize novel concepts into my life.

Like Pascal's quote, I find sitting and doing nothing to be difficult. The primary reason is my busy schedule with family and work, along with carving out time for exercise and good sleep. I also don't like feeling that I'm wasting time or being lazy.

I have a healthy meditation practice, but I rarely experience an epiphany. Mindful breathing may set the stage for a flash of insight, but it seldom takes me there by itself.

I eventually realized that I achieved my biggest breakthroughs when taking a warm shower or resting between sets while lifting weights. Scooping snow off the driveway in the calm of the early morning light. Sometimes, it happens while driving with the radio off or enjoying a quiet walk around the neighborhood (or a farm like my mom’s incredible photo above).

It is those times when my brain is on auto-pilot, and I have pushed back on my instinct to always be filling my brain. Those are the times when I receive a bolt of inspiration and suddenly find myself scrambling to send an email reminder about the perfect employee to fill a critical role or figure out a simpler approach to a seemingly intractable problem. This realization led me to turning off the Rocky soundtrack while lifting weights. It causes me to take a break from my latest audiobook every once in a while in the car, choosing silence instead.

We live in an age when it has never been easier to distract ourselves. But even if you are listening to a helpful podcast instead of playing a video game or binge-watching, remember to reserve room for revelation. Otherwise, the quality of your output will never match all of those insightful inputs.