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The Friday Morning Pause

In this episode, The Friday Morning Pause: When My Brother’s Bookshelf Called Me to Stillness

We live in a world allergic to stillness. Our mornings begin mid-sprint—thumbs scrolling before our eyes even open. The impulse to jump into the digital chaos is immediate.

But sometimes, stillness finds you.

It was early Friday morning. We’d arrived late the night before, stepping into the cool air before the day turned hot. Half-awake, I reached for my phone—emails, headlines, social feeds waiting like a morning buffet of distraction.

We were in Cuba. No Wi-Fi. No 5G. No password. Just stillness, disguised as inconvenience.

Instead, I caught sight of something unexpected: a small stack of books on my brother’s TV shelf.

My brother and his wife are powered by perpetual motion. They are the definition of overscheduled and overstimulated. Yet there it was: Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday, quietly mocking my scrolling habit. The irony was perfect.

I put my phone down—a small, deliberate act of rebellion—and picked up the book. Within minutes, Holiday’s message hit me hard: in a world addicted to noise, the key to thriving isn’t more motion—it’s the intentional ability to pause and achieve mental clarity.

We exhaust so much of our energy either replaying the past or fast-forwarding to the future. We chase fulfillment as if it’s hiding somewhere ahead, when, as Holiday writes, “There’s no greatness in the future. Or clarity. Or happiness. Or peace. There is only this moment”.

Stillness, as he describes it, isn’t laziness. It’s an active calm—a refusal to be dragged into external chaos, creating a necessary internal space where good ideas and clear thinking can actually show up.

That morning, my brother’s bookshelf forced me into that quiet space. I realized I was about to waste the start of a beautiful day scrolling through things I couldn’t control instead of focusing on the reality right in front of me.

Maybe you don’t have a bookshelf waiting to interrupt your morning. Perhaps you think you don’t have time for stillness, living life perpetually "On the Fly." But here is the truth: you have to carve it out.1

The less energy we waste worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.

The key to living "On the Fly " isn’t speed—it’s direction. And direction starts with stillness.

I’m Patrick Ball. This is On the Fly. Stay curious. Be still. Ask questions. See you next time.

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