Why silence is the key to unlocking your biggest ideas

A few weeks ago I was reminded why silence is often the key to unlocking your biggest ideas.

Silence does something remarkable to the brain.

When external input drops, no notifications, no conversations, no screens, the brain doesn’t switch off. It switches gears.

The part of the brain responsible for analysis, control, and effort eases back. In its place, the creative mind has space to come online. It's not always noticeable, but it's there ready for the right conditions.

The key I’ve found to awakening your creative minds is this: remove as much input as possible, and then plant the right question in your mind before stepping into silence.

This summer, I was reminded just how powerful this can be.

My son turns 16 this year. I had promised to write him a book for his birthday, like I did for his older sister a couple of years earlier.

By November last year, I’d had two failed attempts. I was trying to muscle my way through it using analytical thinking to do work that clearly needed creativity. With less than three months to go, I was stressing out about how I’d keep my promise.

So I shifted gears.

My son's a musician. We had had a conversation about his school year coming up and he told me he was going to have to write original music and perform it. "Cool", I said.

Later than night, as I was lying in bed with the lights off, I asked myself a question. "What form should the book for my son take." That's all. And what came to me a few moments later was, "songs".

In the four weeks after that creative insight, the book for my son's birthday appeared. Nine songs came to me as I was powered down over the summer break. And the idea of surrounding them in conversation between a young boy and his older self in a dream to illustrate the messages within them arrived shortly after.

The book is now written and off to the printer. The songs and conversations illustrate nine choices you can make to live an authentic life. One that you truly want to live, not one others influence you to live. It's what I hope my son's able to do.

If I hadn’t powered down my analytical mind, my creative mind wouldn’t have had a chance to do its job.

We can all do this, we just need the courage and space to live in silence for a little while and prompt it with the right question.

Then our creative minds can do what they do best. Provide big ideas to our biggest challenges.