The Fête/Life Project / No.15 Must One Unplug from Reality To Properly Observe Reality?

THE SOLUTION TO A SIMPLE, MEANINGFUL, WELL-DESIGNED LIFE /

THE F Ê T E / LIF E PROJECT

15

NO. MUST ONE UNPLUG FROM REALIT Y T O P R O P E R LY O B S E R V E R E A L I T Y ?

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FETEPRESS.COM.AU / ISSUE NO.20

health / W E L L - B E I N G

PHOTOGRAPH / SERAINA SIL JA HÜRLIMANN INTRODUCTION / ANNABELLE KERSLAKE STORY / JOSHUA FIELDS MILLBURN

M U S T O N E U N P L U G F R O M R E A L I T Y T O P R O P E R LY OBSERVE REALITY? We have all been there… standing in a trance, scrolling though social media or pressing send and receive on emails over and over and over again while time passes us by.

What is it that we hope to find? Why the need to be constantly checking in, when the result is checking out of real life? Face-to-face relationships are put on hold and suffer while time is literally lost. Be inspired to make change by Joshua Fields Millburn – one half of The Minimalists – as he shares his thoughts on the outcome of spending two months of ‘quiet time’, mobile phone free…

PEOPLE ARE SUPPORTIVE Going without a phone for any extended period of time seems to be the modern-day A N D U N D E R S T A N D I N G equivalent of a vow of silence. Two months When we make changes in our lives, we’re ago I decided to get rid of my phone for often afraid of what people will think.

60 days as an experiment, just to see what ‘Will they think I’m crazy, stupid, or out of would happen, just to see whether my touch?’ People are more supportive and world would keep spinning. People were understanding than we think – particularly shocked. Some were appalled. Some the people closest to us. Especially when people were flat out worried about me. we discuss our changes with them and let them know we’re making the changes so I’ll skip the overused Matrix references we can live happier lives. Our true friends about unplugging from the grid and simply want us to be happy. say I learned more about myself than I

intended. I couldn’t have done so without disconnecting for a while, without stepping back and actually thinking about my life in a deliberate, uninterrupted way.

W E P R O G R A M O U R S E LV E S

THE WORLD GOES ON

Without a mobile phone, without the internet, without a TV, the world keeps turning. You can test anything for a short period of time to see whether it’s right for you. It’s not hard to give up anything when you live in the real world. There wasn’t a single time when I actually needed my phone over the two months. Sure, there were times when it was inconvenient, times when I had to fight through the frustration – but that was a small price to pay to reprogram the twitch.

Yes, I’ll go back to using a mobile phone for practical purposes – GPS, necessary phone calls, the dictionary app I missed dearly, a memo pad and a few other useful apps – This is what I learned during my two but I’ll use it utterly differently going months of quiet time: forward. I’m not going to use it to check email anymore, I’m not going to use it to WE HAVE WEIRD EXPECTATIONS send text messages while standing at a I realised I needed to get rid of my mobile urinal and I’m not going to rely on it as my W E C A N R E P R O G R A M O U R S E L V E S phone for a while when I felt pressure to primary means of interacting with the respond to text messages, email and social Similarly, we can change these patterns. world around me. My phone usage will be media throughout the day. We all have When we remove a habit from our lives, more intentional than before. My phone different expectations. You might expect we become acutely aware of how that habit will be a tool, not an appendage. someone to respond in an hour, someone affected our lives. This is true for any habit else might expect a response in ten – smoking, over-eating, etc. It took 22 days minutes, another person might expect it for me to reprogram the twitch, 22 days of the same day. These expectations are pausing and noticing why I was twitching. arbitrary. When I eliminated my ability to After 22 days I no longer felt the urge to immediately respond, I was able to toss immediately react, I no longer felt the need everyone’s expectations into the ether. to pacify myself with transitory activities THEMINIMALISTS.COM like texting or responding to emails during THE MINIMALISTS ARE BESTSELLING MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS every moment of ‘downtime’.

AUTHORS AND INTERNATIONAL Without the banality of ephemeral text SPEAKERS WHO HAVE BEEN DOWNTIME IS A MISNOMER conversations, my real face-to-face F E AT U R E D O N T H E TO D AY S H O W, We used to have precious interstitial zones conversations have become more TIME MAGAZINE, NEW YORK TIMES, WALL STREET JOURNAL AND L.A. in which we could find momentary solace meaningful. When I’m spending time with W E E K LY. T H E Y H AV E W R I T T E N – airports, checkout lines, waiting rooms my closest friends and loved ones, I now THREE BOOKS, INCLUDING THE and other transient sanctuaries in which have more to discuss in earnest. I enjoy BESTSELLING MEMOIR, EVERY THING we could bask in reverie. No longer is this these conversations more than ever.

THAT REMAINS. THEIR #1 INDIE the case. Now, everyone seems to be on FILM, MINIMALISM: A DOCUMENTARY their phones during these fleeting ABOUT THE IMPORTANT THINGS, moments. They are attempting to be more IS AVAIL ABLE TO PURCHASE productive or interactive, but perhaps THROUGH ITUNES AND G O O G L E P L AY. stopping and thinking is far more productive than fiddling with our phones.

Without knowing it, our daily activities have a profound impact on our future selves. I used to reach for my BlackBerry every few minutes no matter where I was – even at the urinal. Even when the phone wasn’t with me, I had programmed myself to reach for it. What an obscene twitch.

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