When your device is unplugged, the battery will drain. Plug it in and it’ll charge.
The opposite seems to be true for the mind.
When your mind is unplugged—from devices, work, drama—the battery recharges.
Plug it in to one of those things, however, and the battery will drain.
If you find your mind in a nonfunctional state, maybe it’s not because you’ve been plugged in too long—but, because you haven’t been unplugged enough.
Don’t let the wind uproot you.
Let its best attempts
To topple, twist, bend, and break
Be the exact force you need
To shimmy your roots deeper
Into the very ground
It was plotting to yank you from.
Simplifying even just one thing can have a positive impact on everything else in your life.
Why?
Because finding ways to give yourself more time, energy, and space will directly impact your overall mental state.
And when you can improve your mental state by alleviating the pressures of time, saving on the expense of energy, and opening up more space to think and be—of course everything else in your day will be positively impacted.
A great exercise: As you go about your day, ask yourself: How can I simplify this task?
And find ways that you can collect a few saved minutes here, save on some energy there, and accrue some extra space wherever possible.
What you might realize is that what you needed wasn’t more time, energy, and space after all.
What you actually needed was to just expend less.
The person who tries to dodge every raindrop gets hit just as many times as the person who walks calmly forward.
And so it is for the person who tries to dodge every mistake, error, issue, problem, challenge, obstacle, fault, slip-up, oversight, flaw, imperfection, adversity, responsibility…
The way I see it, the rain is inevitably going to come down over each of us. We can try to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge every drop to avoid getting wet—which will only end in vain.
Or we can feel the rain and walk calmly forward.
I’m not one to be difficult but I’ll fight like hell to protect my mental space.
Some things are worth being difficult over and it’s important to recognize that.
When I’m reading/ writing/ or otherwise doing deep work, for example, my phone is on silent, my internet tabs are closed, and my headphones are playing white noise on full volume.
It’s incredibly difficult to get a hold of me once I’ve entered this space.
Why do I do this?
Because I can’t do deep work with constant interruptions. And if I’m going to maximize my time in a deep work state, then I need to fight the resistance that comes with these efforts to protect that space.
And fight I will.
And when it comes to your mental space—so should you.
Let us not forget that today we are:
And are:
…As the greats that came before.
There is no reason why we too, cannot be great.