The following is adapted from The Call I Almost Missed by Tommy Short.
I didn't come up with the idea during a slow season. There was no sabbatical, no mountaintop moment, no built-in support system. I had just launched a business as an executive coach and keynote speaker. My wife was still grieving the loss of her mother. My dad's health was uncertain. We had two kids at home, both under four years old. Our world was already stretched thin.
And then, at 3 a.m. on June 28, 2023, one question woke me up and refused to leave: What if you turned your cell phone off for a year?
I didn't tell anyone. I didn't write it down. I just turned it over in my head a hundred different ways. I imagined what I'd lose. What I'd gain. How it would affect my family, my business, my relationships. No matter how hard I tried to shake it, the idea stayed. It didn't feel like a hobby or an experiment. It felt like a calling. Wild and stupid and sacred all at once.
I knew two things right away. First, waiting until January 1 would kill it. The longer I sat with the idea, the louder my fear would get. Logic would eventually win, and I would talk myself out of it entirely. Second, I wasn't completely sure why I was doing it. That clarity came a few weeks in, when it became undeniable that this had come from somewhere bigger than me.
So on August 6, 2023, the second anniversary of starting my business, I turned my phone off. No announcement. No farewell post. I sat on the edge of my bed, held the phone in my hand, and pressed the button. When the screen went black, the silence wasn't just around me. It was in me. I walked into my closet and set the phone on a shelf next to a stack of shorts. That's where it would stay for the next 365 days.
Before that moment, I told my wife. We were on a walk, the dog with us, sun out, calm air. I said I was going to turn my phone off for a year. She said, without hesitation: "Absolutely not."
She wasn't cruel. She was scared and tired and still grieving. And honestly, I wasn't really asking. I had already decided. That's one of my flaws. In marriage, being decisive to a fault isn't always a strength. Sometimes it's a shortcut through someone else's fear.
We finished the walk in silence. And still, something in me said: Do it anyway. Not in rebellion, but in obedience to something I didn't yet fully understand.
This year didn't give me all the answers. But it stripped away every lie I had been living. And it started with one simple truth: there is no perfect time. Only now.
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For more advice on answering your calling and embracing the unknown, you can find The Call I Almost Missed by Tommy Short on Amazon.
Speaker and writer Tommy Short focuses on helping high-performing leaders reclaim presence in a distracted world. A former Division I Men's College Basketball Referee, for nearly two decades he officiated elite-level games including Olympic training camps and nationally televised matchups. When he stepped away from his phone for 365 days, he confronted his deepest fears about identity, success, and faith. His story, with its raw honesty and life-changing insights, has resonated with executives, athletes, and parents alike.
(Royalty free image: https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-space-grey-iphone-1367229/, Credit: Diana ✨)