I sometimes wonder at what age I started saying things like, ‘Another year gone already? Doesn’t time fly?’ or ‘Where have the years gone? It only seems like yesterday that….’ The thing is I don’t think there was a definitive age. I think it was a slow progression.

People say that as you get older, time goes by quicker. That’s definitely true. As we get older, we get more responsibilities, more pressures. We have to juggle multiple things at once. We plan for the future. We have small creatures to educate and keep alive. All this stuff doesn’t leave a lot of space in our brain. We don’t really get a chance to stop and take it in.

Whereas, when we’re young, we live for the moment. We don’t worry about what’s going on over there or in a few days or months or years time. We focus on what’s happening right now.

But how does this relate to creating peace?

What does creating peace even mean?

I’d been trying to think of a suitable title for this blog post. So, I went back to when the idea popped into my head.

Because I’m so used to getting up between 4 and 4:30 each morning, even on my days off, my body clock tends to wake me up early. This is what happened one Sunday morning. I woke up around 6am. When this happens, I do one of three things. Try to go back to sleep, get up and do some writing stuff, or just lay there and enjoy the peace.

This particular time, I just laid there. I listened to the birds outside and the cars shushing by in the distance. I felt the breeze coming through the slightly open window. I watched the curtain move in that breeze. My eyes adjusted to the darkness. I listened to the silence of the house. The peace. And it was bliss.

I then thought about my usual routine. The rat race, the multitasking, trying to fit everything in. And I thought about the distractions. The things that take me off my path when working or creating content for Construction Cogs. YouTube and social media. These are my distractions. For you, it could be music, porn, gambling, whatever. It’s all noise.

This was when my mind went back into that quiet bedroom. I leave a notebook in my drawer next to the bed for these moments, but it was too dark to write in it, so I opened the notes section in my phone and spent the next twenty minutes writing down my thoughts in bullet points. Then laid back and enjoyed the peace again.

In some ways, this is my favourite part of the day. The quietness when everyone else is asleep. I love the walk to work at this time. When nobody is around to disturb me. No TV, no phone, no music, no tasks, no talking. No noise. Just me and my thoughts. Just observing what’s around me. Enjoying the nothingness.

No noise, eh? That’s the key. I thought about calling this ‘Reduce the noise to slow the world down.’ But noise can be interpreted as actual noise. Which in part is what I’m talking about here, but noise covers a broader spectrum.

Driving a crane can be a mentally taxing job. Lots of concentration and focus is needed. Sometimes, I like to do things to give me a break from that. In between lifts, I might look at YouTube or check social media. It’s easy. It doesn’t take too much brain power. I even find myself doing this when creating content. Sometimes mid task.

The trouble is, I think this is giving me a break, but in reality, it’s filling my brain with shit. It’s disconnecting the wires in my brain and rearranging them. It’s procrastinating. It’s just creating a load of noise.

What sometimes happens is, instead of doing what I’m supposed to be doing, I do this stuff or get caught up talking to someone or jump from one task to the next without actually finishing one. Then when I don’t finish anything, I feel guilty or pissed off with myself.

So, I’ve come to realise I need to cut down on all this noise. One, for productivity. Two, to stop my life whizzing past.

How does creating peace slow the world down?

I have a couple of theories:

One

One way of looking at this is to think about when you’re driving a car. How many times have you jumped in the car, then got to your destination and not remembered the journey? You’ve no idea how you got there because you were on autopilot. The trees and cars and buildings and life whizzed past without you noticing.

But when you’re in the passenger seat with someone else driving, suddenly you notice that garden centre near you has a sale on, or the Smiths down the road have had their driveway redone, or the trees are just starting to brown for Autumn. You salute a lone crow. You see a kestrel hunting mid-air above a field. You take life in as a passenger. You might even appreciate it.

My version of driving that car is what I’ve mentioned before. Jumping from task to task, project to project. Quickly trying to watch a YouTube video between lifts or while working on my content. Checking Twitter or X or whatever you wanna call it, when I should be doing something else. Multitasking, confusion, forgetting things, making mistakes through rushing, ‘Must do this otherwise….’, ‘Have to do that or….’.

Even as I’m writing this, I’m thinking about trying to log into my website because I’ve had problems with it. And I’m tempted to watch the highlights of Liverpool beating Bournemouth 0-4 at the weekend. I’m also occasionally checking the wind app to see what wind the crane is getting in case I don’t have to climb in a couple of hours.

Two

This is kind of a follow on. It’s about focus. Focussing on the task at hand to the best of my ability.

Think about elite sportspeople. When they’re training, they have absolute focus on their mission without distractions. Then, when they’re on the track or field, they’re so tuned in to what they’re doing, everything slows down.

But it takes a long time to train for this level. They say you need 100,000 hours of training to be able to get to the elite level. For everything to slow down when you’re out there doing your thing.

You see every bit of that tennis ball that’s flying at you at 140mph. You get your feet into position, you know what technique to use, you know where you’re going to hit it. Or the glove of that 18 stone boxer swinging at you is coming in slow-motion. Because you’re focussed only on that. You’ve trained for it over and over without noise. You have clarity. You have peace.

How am I going to slow the world down?

I’m gonna do what Christopher Reeves did as Superman in the eighties. Fly around the world as fast as I can the opposite way to what the world is spinning. If I’m quick enough, like him, I might be able to spin the world back the other way to reverse time so that I can go back and change a few things.

Nah, I’m joking. That would be ridiculous. My Superman suit doesn’t fit me anymore.

What I’m really going to do is a combination of things. And this is important because I’m 44 in a couple of weeks. I’m still fairly young, but it’s middle age. I’ve been to more and more funerals over the years. It’s dawning on me that I could be running out of time, so I need to use it wisely.

1.

I’m going to prioritise my tasks, people, hobbies, distractions. Whether it’s up the crane, working on my side hustle, or in home life. Whatever task I’m doing, it needs to be important so that I don’t feel guilty about doing it. Like I said previously, I feel bad if YouTube or social media prevents me from creating content.

But if I do other tasks that are important, it will be acceptable. For example, sitting up the crane for hours isn’t good for you, so I like to stretch and exercise. I’ll allow this because it needs doing. It’s important.

2.

I’m going to refrain from watching too much YouTube in between lifts. And if I do, it’s going to be educational or inspirational. It’ll only be content that helps with my personal growth or the successful running of Construction Cogs. The same goes for social media.

Each distraction will be an important one. A useful one.

3.

I’m going to enjoy nothingness where I can. You might be wondering what that means. To give you an example, my son and I did karate years ago. When I took him to the children only sessions, sometimes I’d sit on a bench away from all the other parents. Sometimes I’d write in my bubble, but other times I’d just sit there watching them all train. It was noisy, but this was my peace. I didn’t think about work, bills, jobs to do, etc. I’d just be in that moment.

I’ll give you another example. I visited a friend at his house recently because he’d had an accident. I’d never been there before, so he gave me a tour. Upstairs, there was a room with just a wardrobe and an armchair facing the window. No telly, radio, table, or anything. I asked him what that room was for. He said he got changed for work there in the mornings. But sometimes, he’d just sit in that chair and stare out the window. He’d watch the world go by, as well as letting his thoughts come and go.

This nothingness is important. Sometimes it’s when the magic happens. Ideas arrive. Things become clear. Revelations arise. Like when Sir Isaac Newton figured out the concept of gravity when an apple fell on his head while he sat peacefully under a tree.

4.

I’ll try to fully focus on one thing at a time, rather than jumping around. This is harder for some than others. Some people have conditions that prevent them from focusing on one thing for too long.

Not only am I going to try to focus on one thing at a time, when I’ve finished that one thing, I’m going to think about it. Let it sink in. Especially these YouTube videos I’ve referred to. Instead of watching vid after vid after vid, I’ll think about the video for a while. I’ll question what I’ve heard. I’ll try to establish what I can learn from it.

Our brains aren’t designed to cope with the plethora of such readily available information that the internet provides. It’s useful, don’t get me wrong. But it can also be overwhelming and damaging.

Conclusion

We’ve established that I need to strip back my tasks, as well as try to avoid negative or unhelpful distractions. I’m really gonna work on that. But what’s noise to me might be helpful to you. It’s about finding what puts you in the right head space. And being truly honest with yourself about that.

There are loads of other ways to create peace. For example, some people stop working when they eat. They go off to eat their food, rather than on the go. They saviour each taste, feel all the textures. They’re aware of the smell and colours of the food. They chew lots rather than scoffing. They’re in that moment. This is a form of meditation. It helps rid anxiety. Focusing fully on that one little task stops you thinking about whatever is making you anxious.

You can also set a time limit for each distraction. You can set aside ten minutes a day to social media. Half hour a day to YouTube. Whatever it is. You can be strict with it or flexible.

Organisation is also important. ‘Clean your room’ is great advice from clinical psychologist, Jordan Peterson. Get your shit in order to make life easier to manage. Easier to understand. All that clutter and mess is unnecessary noise.

Einstein used to think about his work at the just before falling asleep stage. He’d hold a cup of water, which kept him from falling fully asleep, otherwise he’d drop the cup or spill the water. This is because things often come to us in the subconscious. In that semi-conscious, meditative state. That’s why a lot of people meditate.

Before I finish, let’s not forget, there are conditions that affect the behaviour that creates noise, not only in the metaphysical sense, but creates actual noise in the mind. Whether it’s ADHD, schizophrenia, or whatever the case may be. But there are methods to control or manage these conditions.

If you’ve got this far, thank you for having the patience to read my ramblings. I do this for myself as much as for you readers. I hope to learn a thing or two by putting these words on the screen. Hopefully, you will too.

Why not join my quest in slowing the world down just a little? Only good things can come of it.