Thinking of the next business move? Here is the latest advice from the top business schools-Stop thinking! Yes, you read that right. If you need to get busy with your next idea, you must do so in silence. What is new about this you ask? Well, the silence is not just about switching off your iPads, iPods, phones and laptops; it is about the silence within. You must switch off the noise you make for yourself.
Those thoughts about the next mail, next text or tweet or even just what you plan on saying when you next meet up with your boss/subordinate/ business acquaintance. It is time to shush them. Research in the last decade has proved what most of us have grown up hearing; that ‘Silence is golden’. Chronic noise like the whooshing sound of cars and traffic has been associated with high blood pressure and other heart ailments. And while that may be bad news for your body, it may not directly impact your business sense. What affects your business brain is actually the absence of noise in any way or form. In 2006, a study on the effects of music on the brain led to the discovery that two minute silences between the ‘relaxing’ pieces of music impacted the brain more than the music itself. In a 2013 study at Duke University, the researchers discovered that silence actually made the brain cells in the hippocampus area of the brain grow.
Even when you are in a quiet zone but engaged in active goal oriented thought, the brain is experiencing noise. It is only when there is silence in the brain and you let it rest that it integrates the external and internal information into a ‘conscious workspace’. During this period, your brain actually discovers what fits. It enables the brain to think of profound and novel ideas. And as any business guru will tell you, that is the true entrepreneurial skill.
The word “noise” comes from a Latin root meaning either queasiness or pain. Isn’t it time to shed some of the pain for a lot of business gain?
by Paisuchi
