Build Your Central Park

The Power of Designed Stillness

During a recent trip to New York City, I found myself standing in the middle of Central Park, struck by how calm and quiet it felt compared to the chaos of the surrounding city.

The buzz of the city, the honking taxis and flashing billboards, all seemed to fade into the background as I walked through the trees and winding paths.

In a city that never sleeps, Central Park was designed to give people a moment of peace. It represents a space to slow down, breathe, and reset.

Central Park is 843 acres of calm jammed right into the middle of the most chaotic, overstimulated, and overcaffeinated city on Earth. When designers first proposed it, a lot of people hated the idea. Some thought it was a waste of space.

Thankfully, the designers didn’t just see empty space, they saw necessary space. A space to think. A space to feel. A space to be. They understood that people don’t just need more to do, they need space to be human.

Central Park offers a sobering reminder for all of us: If you don’t create space for peace, the world will fill it with chaos.

Environment > Discipline

Here’s what world-class performers have figured out: Your environment is louder than your willpower.  

Think about the best athletes, artists, thinkers, or leaders you know. They’re not immune to distraction. They’re just better at not relying on willpower to ignore it. They remove the temptation. They design systems and environments that work for them, not against them.

Mental fatigue doesn’t always come from doing too much, but rather our inability to never “turn off.” We’re always on. Always reacting. Always “connected.”

So if we want to help athletes (or ourselves) show up better, we’ve got to help them stop reacting to the noise and start creating their own version of Central Park.

Similar to how Central Park didn’t show up by accident, mental peace and clarity must be designed on purpose.

Feed Your Focus, Starve Your Distractions

I recently posed this question to a group of professional baseball players: If a highly successful CEO (or performer) got to run your life for a day, what is the first thing they would eliminate?

One of them responded with “I would remove MLB Network from the TV’s in the clubhouse and stop following certain baseball accounts on Instagram.”

So here’s a practical exercise:

Ask your athletes to imagine a high-level CEO (or anyone successful they respect) is in charge of their day and is responsible for eliminating one thing that threatens their success.

Here’s a couple of potential prompts:

1. What’s the first distraction they would eliminate for you?

(Think: Mindless scrolling, negative social media accounts, toxic social groups/peers, etc.)

Now ask: How can you make that distraction more inconvenient starting today?

(Think: Muting certain accounts, deleting apps, turning off at a designated time, leaving your phone in another room)

2. Where in your routine can you create time/space for a mental break?

(Think: A short window for stillness and presence with activities such as meditation, journaling, prayer, a walk, etc.)

You’re not asking for an hour-long zen retreat. Start small. Two minutes of intention beats twenty minutes of distraction every time.

Final Thoughts

Central Park wasn’t created by accident. Your mental peace won’t be either.

World-class performers recognize that the loudest performances are orchestrated by the quietest minds.

So build your own Central Park. One that protects your focus and creates a sense of mental peace. Let it become a space where your best work begins and where you can simply be human.