It was a long walk, 11 days long if I recall correctly. As odd as this is going to sound, it is true. A series of events somehow resulted in me trekking to basecamp of Mt. Everest. It’s not something that I really ever intended to do or even ever thought about doing but an opportunity presented itself and I went for it. So, I found myself hiking along a group of colleagues, tour guides, sherpas and quite a few yaks.

Now, an interesting thing happens on the way to basecamp – no one talks. It’s not that they don’t want to or they are avoiding you, it’s that they can barely breathe as a result of the altitude. So, we walk in silence using every breath to fuel us up the next hill. When we do stop for a break, we can talk but otherwise, it’s just limited to the bare minimum communication required to navigate the journey.

At first, the silence is deafening. It’s very difficult to get used to. Think about it, when is the last time you didn’t speak to anyone or watch TV or listen to music or surf the internet for an entire day much less 11? Our days are filled with the sounds of life. We talk to each other, hear car horns, the radio, telephone ringing, videos, elevator music, the tick of the clock on the wall. Our eyes and ears are basically under assault on a daily basis.

In the film industry, they call it room tone. Every room in the world has its own unique sound. If you don’t believe me, turn off whatever you’re using to fill your day and just listen. You’ll hear the air conditioning system humming along like the sound of the Starship Enterprise when everything else is quiet. A car softly driving by in the distance, whoosh. The wood floors creak as if an invisible man is walking on them. Just listen.

On the days I make a conscious effort to listen, I can hear the cracking sounds of my ankles and knees as if they are complaining about all that I’ve put them through over the years. I notice how one of my feet hits the ground a little harder than the other. I should probably get that checked. I hear the layers of clothing I’m wearing rub against each other trying to fit together just right. Sometimes when they don’t like each other they fuss and make a little more noise so I know to creak back up the stairs and change.

I know that it’s not that big a deal that no one talks but you have to understand that not only aren’t we talking, we aren’t doing anything else but walking. No spouse yelling at you. No pitter patter of children’s feet running around the house. No conversations. No television. No sounds of daily life. No radio. No video games. No internet. No nothing. It’s just you and your thoughts. When’s the last time you were alone with your thoughts for days on end?

It just doesn’t happen anymore. You might get a quiet car ride to think about a few things on your mind. You might be able to have a few minutes of solitude in the the shower or when you cut the grass, but when is the last time you removed all of those things that assault your senses and just were?

You know, on this journey, it dawned on me that many of us purposely lead an assault on our own senses so that we don’t have any quiet time. Quiet time is lonely. And lonely means you’re alone and that has somehow become a very bad thing. God forbid that you’re alone and have to actually think about your life. With smart phones everywhere we don’t even get to relax in the bathroom. We have to check our email, our Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter accounts. We need to fill every waking second with useless information and noise so that we don’t feel alone. I believe that with all this new technology to keep us company, we are, indeed, more alone than we have ever been.

It’s easy to fill your day with stuff. Easy to watch a few hours of television or surf the internet. It’s easy to post a picture and see how many likes you get or text someone and keep peripherally involved with people you actually haven’t talked to in years. It’s easy to drown in the noise of the day but it’s not simple. You see, simple and easy are not the same thing. They are not synonymous in life.

Easy is a drug. It’s infectious and overtakes your life if you can’t control it. Easy is instant gratification, simple is delayed gratification. Instant gratification is, literally, instant. It’s small but enough of a hit to keep you going for a little longer until you need another little hit. And then the cycle continues and you keep instantly gratifying yourself just to feel something. It could be buying something new to get that hit or eating something bad for you that always tastes good even though we always regret it afterwards. When is the last time you did something easy and learned a lot from it? I’m guessing, never.

Simple, on the other hand, may sometimes be the hard way but it is also, by far, the most rewarding way. For example, working to get a four-year degree takes forever. In fact, my first one took five and a half years. But that moment you finally get that degree in your hands, it is cathartic. It’s a release of hormones that you just can’t get to in one day. You have to earn it. It’s like a four-year build to an eruption of joy. Afterwards, you realize that you were getting little hits all along the way and just didn’t know it. It was that ah-ha moment when you learned something amazing or that A+ you got on an exam. It was that lifelong friendship you made in that class you hated or that professor who changed your life in one lecture. Getting your degree is definitely not easy but it is, simply, one of the many ways that you can move forward towards leading a more meaningful life.

Universal Truth #1

The first step in leading a simpler and
more meaningful life is to quit looking
externally for gratification and
begin looking internally for it.

Please take a minute and make two lists for me. The first one is simply a list of things that you want. It could be anything. A new car, a new job, to travel, whatever you can up with. You are only limited by your imagination. As your list grows you may start to see some similarities in items and there is no need to list every single item in this list. For example, cars, houses and money and all fit under the same category – material items. Group similar items together and that should help make this task manageable.

I do want to take a second and be clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting material items. The Lord knows, that I have a very long list of material items that I’ve wanted and many that I still do. So, have fun with it and list out as many categories as you can.

The second list I’d like you to make will be revealed in my next blog – The Mt. Everest Diet – Part II coming soon.

All good things,

LSG