97. Lessons From My Technology Cleanse

Foreign Kenny Chapman here. Welcome back to Leadership in a nutshell, where we're cracking the code of that driven mind that you and I both have. I am just so blessed to be your host, and I have so much gratitude for you spending a little bit of time with me each and every week as we just break down something that's happened to me, something I've thought about, something I've learned from a client, something one of my coaches has taught me, Anybody. My team is teaching me all the time. This entire universe of education I'm so grateful for. Today we're on episode 97, and it is about the lessons from my technology cleanse. And so let's talk about that. I recently did a technology cleanse, and I took three days and I embraced, like, okay, I'm not taking any client calls. I'm not checking email. I'm not going to respond to text messages. I'm going to just dip out for three days. And I personally did a Friday, Saturday, Sunday period. And so I just was like, you know, I feel like it's time. And I feel like that in the world that we live in today, and all of the pressure and all of the external attention grabbers, if you will, right? Everything's vying for our attention. You can't turn on the TV without some advertisement. Try to make you feel bad about yourself. I shouldn't say making you feel. They're attempting to make you feel. Lack and separation and a division between who you are and what you have to who you could be and what you should have. And anything on social media, all the comparison mindset of different people posting on different things, and a lot of it's just people doing their best, and that's all fine, but there's so much ego speaking to ego, and I'm focused on the soul speaking to the soul. And I believe sometimes we need to slow down and take time out in order to really create that inner listening to our soul. So the lovely Christy and I have been doing a lot of personal development together, and we decided we're gonna step back and take three days with no technology. We're not going anywhere. We talked about maybe going on a retreat and, you know, going into the mountains or going somewhere on the beach and doing it. We said, you know what, we're gonna do it in our own environment, in our own home and have a, you know what you'd call a quote, staycation. And we'll. We'll cook food and we'll read books and we'll watch mo listen to Music and just enjoy our lives together, celebrating our union, celebrating our life that we've chosen to build together. And so. Okay, cool, Kenny, great idea. Great thought. Right, okay, so let's break it down. We go to the gym on Friday morning and I want to listen to some music. So I personally happen to use a Spotify app. Well, I need to jump on the WI fi for the gym. Well, as soon as I jump on the WI fi, what happens? Here comes some text messages. Because I personally have my phone set up to where text messages can come through on wifi. Went okay, didn't see that coming. And so we kind of went through this process and I just wanted to share with you, like, there's a strategy, there's a reality, and then there's an overall goal and a reason and a point. And so for me, you know, as I kind of navigated those few days, what I thought was going to be three days of no connectivity at all, which I certainly may do at some point, but I wasn't attempting to have that cleanse this time. I really wanted to cleanse from email, from text messages, from phone calls, from shoulds. I should look at that. I should respond to that. Up until recently, I've been off of social media pretty much completely. I posted one time in the last, I don't even know how long about the lovely Christie's birthday until I started missing my tribe and I started wanting to shoot video again and be present a little bit with my tribe because I kind of got mad at the messenger, if you will, when it came to technology. It's kind of like I don't watch the news personally. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a TV in my home. And some people don't have a tv, But I like to watch basketball, I like to watch football, I watch baseball. Sometimes I'll watch a little golf. I like documentaries. Christy and I watch a lot of documentaries. I like to learn things. And so I choose to have a TV in my home, but it doesn't mean that I tune into the channel that has the news on either 24 hours a day or at 5:30 and 6 and 7:30 and 9 and 10pm or whatever it is. Right? And so I find awareness always drives results in my life. And what I've realized in this point in time in my life and in my career is there's a major addiction to connectivity going on. And everybody's telling us how we need to be connected and why we should be connected. And so as I went through this weekend or that particular weekend when I did it, I was like, wow, it was interesting. So as soon as I decided to have online streaming music play, then that meant that text messages could get through. And I know I could go turn off those notifications. So I don't need you hitting me up and telling me how to do this differently. I just wanted to share my awareness, because what I realized is how connected we are. And I needed the Internet to stream documentaries that we would watch. And then we decided to go on a hike. And so we hopped in the car, and I needed the navigation system to, quote, unquote, needed it. Yeah, I could have got out a map book and I could have charted my way and all that, but I wanted that, so I needed to turn on my phone to get there. And then later in the weekend, Christy and I went out to a quiet place that we like in the desert where we just go hang. It's an actual old ruins area from the Native Americans. There's great energy out there. And I told her, I'm like, I'm going to bring my phone. It's turned off, but I'm going to bring my phone in case I need it. And I was talking to a client and a friend about that. A client who's a friend, I should say that after my little cleanse. And I told him about that, and he's like, isn't it funny that we used to do all kinds of things all over the world without a cell phone in hand? And he even said, he's like, now I hardly even go outside. He's got some acreage. He's like, I don't even go outside without my cell phone just in case something happens, Right? And so we have all these agreements, and I'm not telling you that you need to change anything. I just want to bring awareness. One of my goals in my work that I do now is to just share my own experience on this podcast and through videos that I shoot and through the coaching groups that I help. And part of my work at Blue Collar is just helping shine the light of awareness. And when I realized as a society we have an addiction to recovery, that didn't happen on accident. That happened very strategically by people with billions and billions of dollars vying for your attention. The fact that we suffer from FOMO as fear of missing out kind of syndrome in psychology. Like, well, I don't want to miss something. That's why all of the social platforms have scrolling. That's why when I watch Netflix and it says, oh, you liked that you might like this too. It's why Amazon has the cart and says, hey, you bought that. You might want to buy this too. It's all about engaging your attention. So it hasn't happened on accident by any stretch, which means that you need to more mindful as you control it. So I'm encouraging you to take a step back and just take a look and realize that one of the reasons we're so addicted to connectivity is when I disconnect from everything and I just sit in silence. No, the air didn't go dead. No, it didn't. See how many of you on the line were listening to this, were just like, wait a minute, what happened? Was there a break in my Internet connection? Why is there silence? Right. I believe that silence speaks. And I believe that when we're silent and we're quiet, it's one of the reasons I'm a big fan of meditation. It's an opportunity to allow your soul to speak. There are two things internally that are vying for your attention too. We have all this external going on. Then internally we have the ego and the soul. And the ego wants to remind you of what it's being reminded of externally. It's why it focuses externally. I'm missing this. I don't have that. And the soul is all about abundance. And you're complete. You're exactly where you're supposed to be. You're on the journey. Journey that is best fit for you at this moment in time. And that's all good. And so I'm not asking you to take a day or a week or three days or a month without technology. I'm asking you to look at your relationship with technology no different than when you meditate. It's not about stopping your thoughts. It's about changing your relationship with your thoughts. If I'm meditating and I have a thought. Come in. It's not a failed meditation. It's just being able to observe that thought and then let it go. So when you think about how you operate when it comes to connectivity, just be mindful. Are you grabbing that phone mindlessly? Do you find yourself just picking up and checking email because it's on your phone and it's in your pocket? Do you find yourself scrolling on your favorite social media app? Or maybe it's not even a favorite, but it's a familiar and conditioned situation. I would encourage you to disconnect for two hours, maybe even take an hour, shut off all your notifications. You know, go for a walk without your phone and see what Happens to your mind. It's fascinating, my friend. Make sure that you open up. It might be harder than you think, right? And so I know it is for me and I'm pretty aware individual. I worked really hard on my own awareness and my rituals that I operate every day to continue to deepen my connection to soul and the divine and really understand who I am and what reality means, my own perceived reality. And we got to shut things off in order to move forward with our lives and our own evolution in the human experience. And so I would encourage you to kind of do a few things here and I would encourage you one, to just find the desire. Really taking a break is you got to have desire to do it and you don't have to take the three days that I did and just be mindful of it. Hey, like I said, just take an hour and realize because how much is your conditioning? Just like, oh, what am I missing? Maybe I got an email, maybe somebody text me. Just leave your phone in another room for a while and see what that looks like. Then if you want to go a little bit deeper, create a plan around it. Like, maybe I'm going to take a Friday afternoon or maybe I'm going to take a Sunday and just have a technology free Sunday and just really focus on the people that I love and be connected with my family without being on my phone a lot. You know, we live in a world where a lot of us that run businesses, every time a sale is made, you get a notification. Every time somebody blows their nose, your software text messages you, right? What if you just committed to slowing that stuff down and cutting it off periodically and you embrace this and really just. I want to share a couple of the lessons that I got of how it was harder than I thought it was. And I really just kind of thought I'll just cut it off. And then my mind really starts. Starts shifting and elevating and running in circles and different things. Because I'm really good at meditation, but I'm really working on constant meditation, living my life in almost a meditative state. And I had this fear like, oh my gosh, I'm not going to do anything. No, I do more. I'm more effective. I have better communication, better relationships when I just slow things down. So as you take this on and kind of learn from yourself as you go through this, this isn't about my path. This podcast episode is just about me sharing my path for you to do with it what you will. So be easy with yourself, my friend. Have some fun with it. See what you can learn and write down what you learn as you, you know, take an hour break, put your phone in the other room and just, you know, maybe watch a video, maybe listen to a little bit of chill music, maybe read a book for an hour. And just after that hour, just jot two or three things. Man, my mind went crazy. You know what? I literally. I got up and I went and got my phone, and I didn't even realize it. Like, during my cleanse, I would get up and realize I'm halfway across the living room, headed to the kitchen because my phone's on the charger in the kitchen, out of, you know, away from arm's reach. Just realize how much you do that, and you'll realize how addicted you are to connectivity. Just check it out. Be easy with yourself. Have some fun. Learn what you can, and write down what you learned. I'm Kenny Chapman, your host of Leadership in a Nutshell. I'm so grateful for you being with me. Do me a favor. Subscribe if you haven't already, to this. Give us a rating review. They keep changing these platforms and most likely share this with somebody that needs it. That would really be helpful as we grow this community here. Share this episode with somebody that could just use a little bit less stress in their life. Until we talk, make it a better than fantastic week. I'll see you next time, Sam.