Day 3 – The Fear of Exile
This challenge is also about attachment but not things sitting around our home that we never use but THE THING that we use the most!
Our phones.
I see people so often attached to their phones everywhere I go. I see people out on the roads driving (Yes! While driving!!!) and walking the streets with their phones out heads down.
Next time you are in a car turn your head to the left and right when you pull up at a set of lights and just see how many people who are driving pull their phones out quickly while at the lights.
Now, legalities aside for a second, I believe that by far the worse thing is actually the attachment to the phone.
Our whole lives are on our phones. It’s the way we connect to our friends and our work. Even more, it’s our music and our ability to predict our day by checking the weather, connecting to the community by watching sports scores and see what’s going on in the world through news and social media…but more importantly…
It’s our connection to what those things represent to us.
Social media represents our ability to be in an echo chamber of our own thoughts to receive constant validation.
If we need to check the weather it’s our need to stay ahead of the elements that may ruin or improve our day.
Music can be our happy place to drown out our negative thoughts or the negativity and distractions in the world around us.
Connecting with other sports fans around the world is also all about our ability to be a part of a community who feel the same passion, pride, and heartbreak for the same things as us.
And there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. We all need community, validation (read: confirmation of our existence in the world) support, information, connection, certainty, comfort and many other things.
The issue, of course, arises when we don’t have alternatives to give us these things. For example, when we don’t train ourselves to get a human connection through actually going out of our way to speak to strangers in the street.
And the narrow-minded, mono-habit, uni-focus of having our phones for everything can be detrimental.
So my challenge for you today is to leave your phone at home for a day.
“Yes, Brett, but I need it for work!”
If you had a voice that just kicked into gear, then telling you why it’s a bad idea, you now know that you MUST do this challenge.
But firstly, and to do it in the best way, you need to listen to that voice as it will tell you how to beat it.
Do you just need to be on the phone for work calls during the day?
Then turn off just your mobile data and wifi off for the day.
“What about my wife? She always likes to get texts from me during the day!”
Tell her that you are going to turn your phone off for the day because you doing a personal challenge.
She WILL survive! Trust me! And while you’re at it, get her to do it too!
“I need to meet friends straight after work! I don’t want them to think I’m abandoning them!”
Tell them that you are going to turn your phone off for the day because you doing a personal challenge. Assure them that you will be there at the planned location regardless.
They WILL survive!! You can always turn your phone back on should any emergencies arise of course!
9-5. Or while at work? From the moment you leave the house?
Whatever you think might be a struggle for you!
Make it your own. The world won’t fall apart.
It is ok you can take a break from it!
When you turn it back on at the end of the day, take a photo of the screen with all the missed calls, messages and alerts that you have. Was it as bad as you make it out to be? Did you miss anything at all? Did you miss everything? Did everyone survive?
Please post a screenshot on social media of your choice (after the challenge is over) and don’t forget to send me a copy via email. Tell me how you felt before, during and after the challenge!
More challenges coming very soon!