How my quiet time has changed after 10 years

In 2014 I read Three Simple Steps by Trevor Blake and immediately started practicing 20 minutes of “Quiet Time” every morning. If you know the book, you know it’s a simple form of meditation with a specific purpose: helping you find winning ideas.

I did that for a decade. I rarely missed two days in a row. And many wonderful things happened in my life partly because of that practice. I don’t say that lightly. Quiet time worked for me, and if you’re doing it as the book describes, I’d never suggest you stop.

But over the last few years, my practice has quietly evolved into something the book wouldn’t recognize.

Some years ago I read Reality Transurfing, and it profoundly changed how I think about life and the world around me. Interestingly, Transurfing doesn’t prescribe any kind of meditation at all. There’s no 20 minutes, no technique, no purpose to sit down with.

So these days my quiet time is based on how I feel. Some mornings I wake up and want to close my eyes and meditate, so I do. But more often I find myself just sitting outdoors, surrounded by nature, being a quiet observer. Noticing the birds, the trees, the sky. Letting thoughts pass like clouds.

It’s interesting what changed. I went from a practice with a purpose to a practice with no purpose at all. I sit down wanting nothing. And somehow that has become the most important part of my day.

I don’t think the old way was wrong. I think it was right for who I was then. A decade of disciplined quiet time is probably what made it possible to sit outside now, wanting nothing, and feel like that is enough.