Silence is Golden

It is in silence when true innovation, creation and change begin.

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Hear that? That is what silence sounds like.

Now think for a moment. When is the last time in your life that you experienced true silence? Really, think about it. No radio. No Spotify in the background. No Netflix before bed. Nothing but your thoughts.

For many of you, my guess is that skimming over the first five lines of ellipses in the beginning of this article may be the closest thing to silence that you experience today. We go about our days with intention and speed, never to take the time to slow down and let our minds purposefully wander.

I’m not talking about the mind wandering you do during your third meeting of the afternoon when you begin to think about the errands you need to run or what you are going to make for dinner tonight.

I’m talking about the purposeful silence that we create for ourselves in which we take the time to think about our lives. We take time to reflect. We take time to innovate. We take time to create. We take time to doubt and question.

See, without silence, we go through days, weeks, months, and sometimes years of our lives depriving ourselves of these beautiful reflections and questions. Are we on the right path? What do we want in life? Could we do things differently? How can we improve processes? Who do we miss? What do we want to learn? What changes could we make?

These moments of silence are so powerful because they allow us to begin to question things about our lives and also become more aware. It is in this silence when true innovation, creation, and change begins.

Society has fallen victim to constant intake of content and media, and we’ve become afraid of silence. We watch Netflix to fall asleep. We hop on Twitter or Facebook when we wake up in the middle of the night to keep busy. We watch YouTube videos when we sit on the toilet. We listen to Spotify nonstop during car rides.

Creating silence in your life has to be intentional.

Many will say, “But I am so busy, it’s hard to create silence during my nonstop days”. I would argue it may be easier than you think.

Create silence while in the car on your way to work. Create silence before you go to bed. Create silence when you are in the shower. Create silence while you cook. Create silence when you get home from work.

I believe that if you create even 15 minutes of silence for yourself each day in which you purposefully think and become aware of your life, you will start to create change. You will gain more purpose and create new ideas. You will reflect and envision new directions for your life. Your mind is an extremely powerful thing - give it time to think.

Let this be a year for something new.

Let this be a year for silence.