I wish I had started cutting off the flow of music/noise into my ears and into my mind in order to be able to pay attention to the world around me sooner.
There’s a video on YouTube of a man giving 9 points on how he thinks life should be lived. One of the points is about not holding too tightly to grand plans and visions because you might miss the shiny thing out of the corner of your eye when you’re so focused on some grand vision in the distance.
This is true of every day of our lives. We can remain so stimulated and driven that we spend every day go, go, going and forget to see the world around us.
Taking my headphones out frees me to think through issues that I’ve been wrestling with and opens me up to the world around me, the people around me, the beauty around me.
I used to put my headphones in to seal the world out and to seal myself in. Now I take my headphones out in order to make sure that occasionally I catch that shiny thing out the corner of my eye as I go through life.
I strongly encourage you to consider, the next time you put your headphones in, what if you didn’t? what if you sat in silence during the Uber ride? What if you went to the gym without music?
What would your mind do? Where would it go? I wish I had started taking my headphones out sooner.
