The School of Greatness - 226 The Power of Disconnection

Episode Date: September 11, 2015

"We forget to connect to what really matters, which is ourselves." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes and more at http://lewishowes.com/226.

This is 5-Minute Friday, episode number 226, and it's all about the power of disconnection. Welcome everyone to this episode. I just got back from four days in the island of Kauai without a phone, without my computer, and without any electronics. I packed my bag. I went there, had four days in a waterfall, jumping off cliffs into pools of water, swimming in the ocean, hiking the coastline, hanging out with friends, eating food, taking a jeep all around the island by myself. I went on a solo vacation by myself without my phone for the first time in 15 years since I've had a cell phone.

First time in 15 years that I did not have my phone on me for more than a day. And let me tell you, it was liberating. And I want to talk about the power of disconnecting and disconnection. You know, we're always so connected to our phones and our electronics that we forget to connect to ourselves and to the world and to human beings and to our visions. We're constantly checking our phone, checking email, looking down at the screen, hunching over our backs at the computer, but we forget to connect to what really matters,

and that's ourselves. And I'll tell you what, I was scared. My team gave me the challenge. I was going to go and take my phone and just turn it off on airplane mode, but my buddy Matt said, no, you should leave it here. And it made me scared. It made me thinking like, oh my gosh, I don't think I could do that for four days, not have my phone on me. I live with my phone. It's something that I'm constantly checking. I get phone calls. What if someone

texts me and something happens? What if I can't find my way around? I need a GPS. I need Google Maps. I need all these things. And I said, you know what? Since this scares me, it probably means it's something I should do because I've been relying on it and I haven't been able to connect to myself. I've been doing so much work with this book launch. It's been four, five, six interviews a day

for the press, for media, for podcasts, for webinars to release around the launch of my book on October 27th, that I realized that it's not going to slow down anytime soon. We're getting more and more interviews coming up, more press, more travel. You know, we're doing a book launch, a book tour. All these different things are happening for the rest of the year. And I realized if I keep doing this and I'm just constantly connected to my phone and the computer without connecting to myself, then I'm probably going to

crash and burn and I'm not going to be taking care of my health. So I booked a flight, packed my bag and went. And I tell you what, it was the most incredible thing I've done. It made me want to stay longer. It made me want to, you know, it makes me want to do this every few months and take a week where I literally don't have my phone on me, don't have my computer with me and completely disconnect from the things that I'm connected to the most. That served me in a lot of ways. They build my business. You know, I'm able to do great things with them. I'm able to talk to my friends and family. I'm able to look at video people. All these different things are great. But when we become reliant on it, when we aren't able to go one day without checking our phone,

that means our electronics, our phones, they have the power over us as opposed to we having the power over them. So I want to give you guys a challenge. I want you to sometime within the next few months before the end of this year to allow yourself to go on a digital detox disconnection period. And that means it could be 24 hours. I'm going to give you a minimum of 24 hours where you have no connection to your phone. You don't even have it with you. You actually put it in a different place and you never touch it for 24 hours. No computer for 24 hours. So nothing where you log into anything.

No iPad. Nothing where you log into a digital connection for anything for a minimum of 24 hours. I recommend doing it a full weekend or even a full week if you want to get crazy. But give yourself that opportunity. And when you do this, don't just sit around and watch TV all day and be inside. Do this where you go on a hike all day. You're in the ocean. You're out with friends. You're in nature. You're doing something where you're connecting to yourself. I took a book and a journal and I was going to write in the journal every single day, and I was going to read my book because I thought I was going to be by myself a lot.

But what I found is that I really enjoyed being around other people and just connecting like humans do and like we used to do before we had cell phones and before we had that vibration in our pants constantly from the phone vibrating and ringing and checking. And now we have Apple Watches where we're constantly getting vibrated on our wrists and looking down on our wrists constantly. So disconnect from the things you're connected to the most. Disconnect for a minimum of 24 hours. Give yourself the weekend or the week if you want to really dive into this challenge. Plan it sometime in the next few months before the end of the year.

I'm telling you, you're going to have to schedule this and say, okay, this is the weekend I'm going to disconnect. And tell me how you feel. If you've done this before in the past, then post a comment below in this post at lewishouse.com slash 226. Go there and post a comment below and let me know what opened up for you when you did disconnect. How did you feel? Did you feel like you needed to get on your phone and check things? Were you freaked out or did you feel more relaxed? And if you haven't yet done it, then post below in a comment of when you're going to do this,

what you plan to do during that time instead of being connected to your phone or your computer. And let me know. I would love to hear your responses when you do this. Stay connected to me and let me know when you're done because I'm excited to hear about the incredible breakthroughs you'll have when you connect to yourself, your friends, and the world without being connected to your devices. This is 5-Minute Friday, guys. Thank you so much for being here. We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thank you guys so much. Share this with your friends. If you have a friend who is always connected to their devices, share this with them. LewisHouse.com slash 226. If this is your first time listening to this podcast, thank you so much for showing up.

It means the world to me. Make sure to subscribe over on iTunes. And if you are a regular on the podcast, then you guys are incredible. I love you. You're the reason why I continue to do this. So thank you so much. And I'll leave it at that, guys. This is. I love you. You're the reason why I continue to do this. So thank you so much. And I'll leave it at that, guys. This is my message to you.

Make sure to connect to yourself and get disconnected from your devices from time to time. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.