Unplugging from the ceaseless, overwhelming digital burnout machine that is the digital lifestyle, by cultivating a disciplined #OffMode Practice, will, in fact, create a psychological and energetic vacuum. Nature abhors a vacuum. Let’s talk about what happens when the noise stops, so you can be ready to navigate it and create something better.
Yes, suddenly and dramatically cutting down the noise in your life will result in all of your fears and concerns coming to the forefront of your thoughts…but you’ve put off these dragons long enough. Whether its work, your social or home life, its time to do more than simply avoid and stave off problems. Cultivating the bravery to face them, find ways to wrestle with them, and even learn to appreciate and understand them, will put you on the path to a Heroik life.
#OffMdoe in Society
When you’re unplugged, you’ll notice just how wired everyone else is, and how crazy it’s making them. The outrage porn, the hustle porn, whatever promotes a state of heightened anxiety, to create a synthetic feeling of progress, momentum, productivity, and meaning. Unfortunately, these artificial sensations are very hollow and it only increases anxiety and depression. The good news is you can guide others to better experiences, learn to laugh at the ridiculousness instead of getting angry as often and find more delight and meaning in seemingly innocuous real-world experiences.
#OffMode at Work – You’ll Know The Difference Between Busy & Productive
When you stop hyping up your brain with busy work, and false metrics, flooding it with endless to-do lists and emails, all in an effort to increase your anxiety to a false feeling of productivity. You’ll finally see that most people operate themselves, their teams and business with a false sense of capacity. This means they always over-reach and beat themselves up when they don’t achieve their goals. It also means they pursue too much at any one given time, and fail to achieve most of their goals if any. The upside of this knowledge is that you will understand the importance of limiting your goal setting and seemingly setting a course to achieve less but better, but you end up achieving far more than most people who are too plugged in and wired.
Your expectations on work capacity become realistic. With realistic sense of your capacity, your goal setting and goal achieving performance increase. Because you aren’t tricking yourself or your team into believing that you’re capable of achieving insane amounts of projects and tasks. Your focused on less but better, the essential projects that drive the most important needles forward. And you let the rest of them go. TPS reports? Meh.
#OffMode in Social Life – You’ll Find Out Who Your Friends Really Are
Think of a conversation where someone gave you the passive “uh-huh” or “yeah” to pretend they’re paying attention when they are really flipping through some app on their phone. Imagine you’re on a road trip with a spouse or some friends and all they do is stare at their phone, oblivious to the journey. Sometimes, the silence, the boring parts, are indeed the point. Not everything in life need be a highlight reel to be meaningful. If you can find meaning on the boring parts of the journey, you’ll find that you’re capable of traveling further than most. And you’ll realize why most people never make it off their couch or away from their desk.
#OffMode at Home – Fewer Interruptions, More Attention; Notice The Little Things, Reconnect & Develop The Skills That Matter
When you’re #OffMode practice is healthy, the anxiety and false metrics of digital life and work greatly reduce, relieving a lot of pressure. Healthy boundaries between the noise and you naturally go up as well. You learn the importance of aggressive, unapologetic filters. Society will think you odd, but your capacity to engage and communicate with patience and grace will slowly but surely increase. In fact, it is amazing when the pressure is off, just how much more effective a communicator you can be. This can and will improve your relationships at home and at work if you let it.
#OffMode in Your Head – Your internal dialog, your antisocial, introvert identity will protest, kick and scream and cry.
I’ve never met someone who was healthy, functional and truly anti-social. Even to their own standard of being internally fulfilled, underneath the hood of every isolated misanthrope is a wounded person with a desperate need for meaningful connection. Deep down, they’re miserable. Okay, maybe not even that deep down. The point is, introversion or the “crippling anxiety” everyone on the web complains about, is a common mask and a crutch used to help us procrastinate from developing social skills. Not all the time, but certainly, it’s as over-prescribed as ADHD.
The truth that no one is sharing (because there isn’t much money in it, or it won’t win friends in it, and they want you addicted to coding for them on the cheap), is that introvert label many cling to has enabled droves of people to avoid learning how to develop social skills and social intelligence. The true and healthy introverts love small or intimate social settings and healthy amounts of alone time.
Anchoring in the label of “introvert” or spreading the “crippling anxiety” meme enables you to mask your fear and anxiety around failure in social situations is exactly the kind of dragon you need to learn to face. This also enables you to do all those other feedback loops online you’re addicted to that keep you from facing your stuff and moving on to better problems.
Don’t worry, you don’t have to slay it in the first session, you’re simply cultivating some dragon-wrestling moves. Baby steps.
Yes. This is scary. Turning down the noise will draw the attention to the current state of your real life.
You will feast your eyes upon the real scoreboard of your life. There will be tears…but there’s also a lot to be grateful for as well, that has been neglected and a lot to look forward to as you have turned your head up to see the horizon.
Maybe you’ll find yourself making changes, speaking up more, yet yelling less; finding joy in landscapes and fresh air again, or the simple exchange of smiles and friendly banter with your local barista.
Check Out The Rest Of The Series
- Part 1 – 9 Reasons Why Now is the Best Time to Disconnect & Cut Back
- Part 2 – When You Cut Out The Noise & Lights What You Hear & See May Scare & Excite You
- Part 3 – The 4 Key Elements Of a Solid #OffMode Practice
- Part 4 – 4 Simple Ways To Help You Get Started With Your #OffMode
- Part 5 – #OffMode Options To Help You Reconnect With The Real World
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