Yesterday I formatted our Mac Pro’s hard drive, installed the Snow Leopard operating system, ran the OS updates, reinstalled Microsoft Office 2008 and Apple’s Final Cut Studio 2, more updates, created user profiles and completed a Time Machine backup at the end of the day. This process took me an entire day. Why would I want to take so long to wipe out the system and then build it back up you might ask. Well, if a computer is chock full of information, it slows down and eventually crashes. Just how it is. We’re the same, you know.
Most of us spend all of our days filling our minds full of information. The latest celebrity gossip, technology news, new car models, what our friends are wearing, Dr. Phil’s most recent cure, how our mother feels about us, what our spouse is thinking, who is getting promoted at the office–we are literally gorging ourselves on all of the information that we can stuff into our brains.
When was the last time we spent a day clearing our head? Formatting our hard drive? Oh, you can keep on cramming yourself with knowledge, but you will become bloated and top-heavy. Soon, you’ll crash. You won’t remember in whose world you are living. You’ll forget whose life you are living.
Perhaps it’s time for a little brain drain. Let go of all that data that you think you couldn’t possibly release without dire consequences. I imagine we would come up with some amazing stories to write, paintings to paint, songs to sing, strategies for our businesses, solutions for our relationships.
