Listen

February 19

“Listening is suspended disbelief” - Rick Rubin

Good morning, friend.

Take a deep breath in and stop.

Just a moment.

There’s a lot of things happening outside that head of yours. You probably don’t need a reminder. Notifications, demands, requests, dings, all flying around at ever-increasing speeds.

Then there’s the things inside your head: the errant thoughts. The number of times you’ve reread the start of this email, or looked away to a different tab before coming back to find the paragraph you left off on.

But there’s a level of thoughts deeper. Not just now, in this email, but throughout the day, in each conversation. “Where are they going with this?” The internal dialogue that takes over our mental space like a pop-up ad, distracting us from what is really happening.

Your head is, for good reason, full of interpretations. Stories. Dialogues. The world around you couldn’t care less. It simply is one thing not necessarily linked to anything else.

It means if you’re internally asking questions, you’re pushing your own theories on the facts around you. Making assumptions. In other words, not really listening.

It’s why truly listening is a form of suspended disbelief—not just ignoring distractions and errant thoughts, but delaying all the judging and assuming our brains are constantly placing on the incoming information.

Assumptions we need to survive, yes.

But also assumptions worth putting aside for a period of time to do nothing but listen.

Really listen.

Because you can un-suspend disbelief any time you want.

Morning Reading is a daily email to help center yourself, reflect, and prepare for the day. It’s sent with love from your friend, Zach in Austin, Texas. He even drew the logo himself.

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