Just walk away
Bill Raymond
?? Bill Talks AI newsletter ?? Speaker ???? Trainer, Coach, and Consultant ???Podcast host
These last few months, I have been very busy juggling personal life, some client projects, and two large projects I am undertaking to grow my business.
One of these growth projects is a software application that will greatly reduce the time technical authors need to spend compiling their books for print, eBook, and training.
To build the software product, I had to dust off my developer skills and learn quite a bit. For example, I know and understand XML, Xhtml, C#, ePub, Visual Studio, localization, and object-oriented programming, but I had limited practical hands-on experience.
Building software and writing a book are very similar. There are days you can sit down and type beautiful code or crank through a thousand words. Then there are the dark days. These are the days where focus and attention to detail go out the window. It is just you and the computer. That screen staring back at you with the always-blinking cursor taunting you to do something, anything worthwhile.
During those dark times, I would sit in front of my computer trying my best to fix a bug, improve the grammar in my book, or fester over a small but all-consuming issue. Just recently, I ran into a serious problem with my software product. Usually, I can turn to freelancer.com and get a developer to fix a problem for a few hundred dollars, or ask a question on stackoverflow.com, but this time no one had the answer.
I searched and searched some more for that answer for three full days. I wrote code that I knew in my heart of hearts should work, but it was not to be.
Do you watch the cooking show Good Eats? The host, Alton Brown, cooks a dish that you should not touch and used a great line for a drive that point home: "Just walk away. That's right, just walk away...".
Channeling my inner Alton Brown, I walked away from the technical problem. I still pondered it but refused to sit down and write any software code for three full days. This morning, I woke up and realized my approach was all wrong and the answer to my coding problem came to me all at once. Reinvigorated, I fired up Visual Studio, commented out more than fifty lines of broken code, and replaced it with the one single line I thought might just work. I pressed the F5 key to run the code and waited for the screen to load. Hesitantly, I clicked the button that would run my masterfully simple one-liner.
It worked on the first try! I looked around but there was no one to high-five, so I just sat there with a big smile on my face and got back to work.
I led many projects in my lifetime, and I could always sense when someone was getting burned out or needed to take a break, so I would pre-empt this by giving them some time off or making them promise to do something else and come back to it later. That is something I should have done for myself a long time ago. Three weeks ago to be exact.
The next time you get stuck in your head or you are stuck with a problem you cannot solve, please take this advice: Just walk away. Come back and don't give up, but don't rush yourself. You will be better for it.
Empowering Businesses to Outperform Competitors—Transform Operations, Maximize Growth, and Unlock Unmatched Profit Potential
8 年Bill, "Just walk away" are very wise words indeed. As a software architect / developer, I have run into this very thing more than a few times. Walking away can do wonders. I usually find that if I give it a break (short or long) and put my mind onto something else, or totally go off grid, so to speak, more often than not, it will come to me. I used to skip lunches and power through, or eat lunch at my desk and work through. That is not healthy, nor the best way to be productive. When I worked with Leta at Duke Energy, she and I would go for a walk, get some fresh air and just chat. It never ceased to amaze me how much creative energy can be gained from taking a walk or short break. Sometimes, sleeping on it or getting away for a while is the only way to overcome the roadblocks to achieving success and accompanying hurdles of frustration.
?? Bill Talks AI newsletter ?? Speaker ???? Trainer, Coach, and Consultant ???Podcast host
8 年Wish I had horses to visit :)
Senior Information Security Engineer at Wells Fargo
8 年This is true for so many things in our lives. We get stuck on something and the more we try to fix it, the worse it gets. "Just walk away" is a very good theme to have for those times. Go do something entirely different, refresh your mind, refresh your body. Take the dog for a walk, go to the barn and from the horses, go we'd the garden, but most of all, just walk away. Then come back with an entirely different mindset. I've experienced this many times!
Professional Coach | PCC Coach & Mentor | Certified Positive Intelligence Coach | Mental Health First Aider | ICF Mentor Coach | Speaker | Facilitator
8 年Great advice Farnia, and a high five to you!
Sales Engineer at Samsara
8 年Simple yet profound.