If you have ever woken up at 3/4am,
To do something important,
Then you must have noticed
How quiet it is, at that hour.

You can hear the littlest rustle.
Your mind is quieter too.
Your thoughts come to you easily and clearly.
You find your flow effortlessly.
Insights to challenges you had the previous day
Come flooding in,
Like they had been held hostage somewhere.
Dilemmas that appeared too close to call,
Suddenly look like common sense.
There’s a feeling of wisdom and confidence,
In the way you place your bets and choices.

Then, slowly, as the first rays push away the darkness,
As the matatus start honking,
As the radios and TVs are turned on,
As humanity wakes up and scurries, to God knows where,
And as the noise and pandemonium
That goes with it, increase,
You find yourself thrown back to the old world,
Where focus and flow are difficult to come by,
And doubts cloud your resolve.
Where insights come only in trickles,
And thoughts are as clear as mud.
Almost nothing seems to fall neatly in its closet, anymore.
It’s the same you, but something has changed.
Some fog seems to have descended upon you.
Is it just fatigue, or is there something more?

What is it about the hours of 3 and 4am,
That makes everything feel so calm, clear and easy?

Maybe Beethoven can help us.
Yes, Beethoven, the musician.
You see, Beethoven wrote his most famous scores
While he was deaf.
Imagine that for a moment.
Beethoven wrote entire symphonies
Without hearing a single note!
It turn outs that he could hear his music more clearly
In his mind, while deaf,
Than when he had his hearing.
“The less he could hear, the more original he became.”

That’s, most probably, what’s happening
At 3 and 4 in the morning.
In those very quiet hours
We find ourselves tuned-in to ourselves,
And open to hearing the wisdom within us.
There aren’t many distractions at that hour
To steal our attention, or make us anxious.
We are rested, settled, calm and relaxed.
That’s when the hostages we have imprisoned inside us,
Find their freedom.

It was true for Beethoven,
And it is also true for all of us.
“The path to tuning into the wisdom within
Begins by tuning out the noise without.”
In other words, we find our genius
When we tune out the noise.
The more often we do it,
The more calm, collected and effective we become.

No. This isn’t about waking up at 3am.
It’s about being deliberate
In finding some quiet time, and space, to tune-in.
It may be sitting at your favourite spot,
By the window, overlooking the water.
It may be waking up early, to do deep work.
It may be a quiet walk in the park, or on the beach.
It may be a lone road trip over the weekend.
It may be a regular get-away to a quiet place.
It may be a long, warm and scented soak, in the bath.
Anything that helps you tune-out the noise,
And listen within.

So, how often do you schedule time and space,
To tune-in to the wisdom within you?
Are you sabotaging your genius
By failing to tune-out the noise?

*Today’s reflection is inspired by this piece by Ozan Varol