Switch Off and Unplug for an Entire Week

This is post #2 on how to re-tool your life when it’s been dealt a life-altering change. 

First, this is a good thing to do intentionally and willfully, but having it thrust upon me tells me I did not do a good job with other opportunities in the past. I’ve learned that if you don’t seize the opportunities to do some self-work, you end up doing it by force. The same thing with your physical health, if you don’t take time to rest, you’ll be in bed sick. The Universe conspires to change me into a better person.

We did a 40-day sabbatical, where we just unplugged from email, calendars and most other social activity. The location change to San Diego helped too. We had limited internet in the marina. The initial purpose of the 30-day vacation was to celebrate our 30th anniversary, that turned into a 40-day sabbatical as a result of losing both our jobs. 

The second time I really got a dose of disconnection was our trip down the coast from San Diego to La Paz, BCS Mexico; about 1000 miles. As we left the States, our first overnight between San Diego and Ensenada, my iPhone decided to do a forced update, the problem was, in order to activate the phone, it just needed to check in with a Verizon cell tower, no problem right? There are none, there is no coverage for about 750 miles of the Baja. 

What I learned was two things did not happen. I did not die and the world did not collapse due to my absence of influence. So, does that mean I’m not important? Does that mean it’s essential to have access to the internet? I guess not. That sounds kind of harsh, however being over 50 years old, I’ve seen a few of my friends die, and ironically, life goes on; at least with those left behind to fend for themselves. 

It is strange, but our sense of importance, even being essential is potentially overblown.  Try this experiment, even use your iPhone slo-mo filming mode, having your hand in water, pull it out and see if there is a handprint left behind, even one second later. Not so much, right? So what in the world is really important? Reminds me of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, “Hello in there! what’s so important? Whatcha got worth living for?” It’s a good question.  (a great movie too)

You’re probably wondering, how does he start asking you to give up tech for a week and now we’re talking about the meaning of life? Well, let’s be real, we have average of 22,000-30,000 days on the Earth, and what we do with it matters. I’ve heard myself say this to people often lately, “You can take two things with you when you die, your friends and your memories. Nothing tangible goes with you. I believe if you love well, tell your friends the truth, you’ll see them in Heaven. 

Memories are the best things to create intentionally. You can create them out of nothing, and give them to people as a gift. They’ve done studies about happiness, and the people who buy things are happiest on the day they bring it home, the happiness drops dramatically as time carries on. In fact, the thing they loved, is now despised. However, if you invest in making memories and having experiences, you discover they get better with time. That vacation that was a disaster is now ‘the best vacation ever’ when your adults children are sitting around the Thanksgiving table talking about their childhood. It’s something the mind does, the pain, suffering and calamity fades out of focus to the blurry background, while the fun memories are all that remains.

We personally know really wealthy people who have many choices to do as they please. The happiest ones we know choose travel with friends as the best value versus buying that new Porsche. Now, they may go ahead and buy that car, but they’ll get it in Del Mar and drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to Oregon with an old college friend to make it a memorable experience. 

I think the whole thing about unplugging, is to remove the stimulus, remove the addiction to how many Likes you got on that post or retweets and realize what is most important. Studies have shown that the dopamine addiction to social media is very real. A subtle change happens. You begin to see the person you meet, that little nudge to call that friend comes into better focus, you’re present in the moment. When you’re free from the constant pull. It’s taking in the moment called now, the only moment you really have. 

Live a life worth people talking about for generations. If you want to live forever, have a meaningful life that changes those around you forever. Give the gift of experiences, make memories with others and be present to now. 

This blog post series was inspired by the work of Dharam Barrett and can be read here
PS at the writing of this, we’ve had no cell coverage for 9 days, we’re still alive, try it! 

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