Disconnect

All the best, happiest, and most creatively productive times in my life have something in common: being disconnected.

No internet. No TV. No phone. No people. Long uninterrupted solitude.

When I was twenty-two, I quit my job and spent five months alone in a house on a remote part of the Oregon coast. Practicing, writing, recording, exercising, and learning. No internet. No TV. No phone. No people. I drove into the city only once a month to see friends and family. The rest of the time, I was completely disconnected.

In those five months, I wrote and recorded over , made huge improvements in my musicianship, read twenty books, and got into the best physical shape of my life.

When I was twenty-seven, I moved to the and did that again. Months and months of lovely solitude. That’s how I started CD Baby.

It’s not that I hate people. The other best times in my life were with people. But it’s interesting how many highlights were just sitting in a room in that wonderful creative flow, free from the chatter of the world. No updates. No news. No pings. No chats. No surfing.

Silence is a great canvas for your thoughts. That vacuum helps turn all of your inputs into output. That lack of interruption helps you .

Every business wants to get you addicted to their infinite updates, pings, chats, messages, and news. But if what you want out of life is to , then those are your obstacles.

People often ask me what they can do to be more successful. I say disconnect. Even if just for a few hours. Unplug. Turn off your phone and Wi-Fi. Focus. Write. Practice. Create. That’s what’s rare and valuable these days.

You get no competitive edge from consuming the same stuff everyone else is consuming. It’s rare, now, to focus. And it gives such better rewards.