Pause for thoughtlessness...

“Human freedom involves our capacity to pause between the stimulus and response and, in that pause, to choose the one response toward which we wish to throw our weight. The capacity to create ourselves, based upon this freedom, is inseparable from consciousness or self-awareness. (p. 100)”― Rollo May, The Courage to Create

Recently I took a couple of days off to travel to the USA for the first time. I had a chance to attend a Toastmasters event (took time to sit back and listen) in Austin and visit my family in Chicago. I decided that for these few days I would not work nor check my emails. I wanted to take time off to think, read, write, explore, talk to strangers, visit museums and cafes in both cities, and catch-up with family. And...I kept my word! I did just that.

Somehow I started to feel guilty about not working and guilty of taking a few days off after 12 years. If you're like me, at that point, you feel tempted to scold yourself to buckle down and work harder. That's completely counterproductive--you need to give your brain, and yourself, some rest.

Then I reminded myself and thought of a recent article that I read in Entrepreneur titled: “The Secret to Increased Productivity: Taking time off”. The article asserts that it’s harder to stay focused and solve problems when you don’t give yourself a break. Author Joe Robinson explains that “continuous time on-task sets off strain reactions, such as stress, fatigue and negative mood, which drain focus and physical and emotional resources.”

There is an art to doing nothing, intensely. The geniuses of the twenty-first century will be those who can unplug from the unyielding flow of incoming communication: emails, texts, tweets, Facebook, phone calls, and on and on. There's no hiding place from screens; we work at them, they entertain us, there are screens by escalators, in schools, and in our pockets to fill the gaps when we are not looking at permanent screens. Genius is so rare today because we are so distracted, updated, and connected. Rather then steering life we're reacting to whatever pours in. To work intensively for long periods you need to switch off occasionally for short periods. Working 24/7 is the Western way...We're all ambitious and want to succeed. It feels wrong to stop, even for a moment. It's counter-intuitive, but shutting a business down for a year may be the best way for it to grow. Every Seven years designer Stefan Sagmeister shuts down his studio for twelve months. 'Everything that we designed in the seven years following the first sabbatical had its roots in thinking done during that sabbatical,' he has said. A similar example for Simon Cohen, founder of Global Tolerance. Logistically, it wasn't easy. 'Our HR people said there was no such thing as a company sabbatical. It had never been done before,' he said. They made arrangements to prevent their clients from being stolen by competitors and after a year they came back stronger and better. Credit to Rod Judkins.

According to Inc. contributor Minda Zetlin, “A growing body of scientific evidence explains what many of us have learned from unpleasant experience: Push yourself through too many hours or days of work and your brain starts to push back. Ideas that once flowed easily dry up, and tasks that you should be able to perform quickly become excruciatingly difficult … you need to give your brain, and yourself, some rest.”

Here’s the truth: we all make time for the things we deem important. So, what have you decided is important in your life? What do you do to regain focus, stay alert, and active in the decisions you make about your life? Everyone requires time to reflect, recharge, and renew. 

Reflection brings energy and focus need to succeed. 

If you don’t see the value in reflection, you run the risk of harming how you communicate and connect with your colleagues and loved ones. As I also mentioned on my article in 2014, I’ve seen the negative effects of being busy, of burnout, and as much of a concern as that is, it is not as bad as spiraling down a dangerous slope, making poor choices and losing who you are as a person.

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy" Guillaume Apollinaire

Reflection time allows you to step back, step away, re-frame and change your perspective. From reflection often comes great advancement – like the very important notion of being in the driver seat of our own life. Not only CEO's, CPO's, CTO's, CFO's, COO's should (if they aren't doing so already) allow some time for reflections, but everyone.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).” ― Mark Twain

To conclude, we tend not to rate shutting down but it's more than just an absence of work; it's a tool for recovery. It's important to completely clear your mind. Only when you achieve this can you begin again, refreshed. To think deeply, sometimes you first have to empty your mind of all thoughts. With the festive season upon us, let's all take the time to be with our friends, families, and with ourselves. 

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Thank you to Rod Judkins for your inspiration. Your book, The Art of Creative Thinking, should be taught in schools. Also, thank you to Avi Liran for your professional advice and your tips in inspiring me to become a great future leader. Thank you for your present (book): Everlasting Optimism: By Lenny Ravich.

Follow me on Twitter: @mirelaxhota (I share business articles and other materials...) & @MirelaXnotes, where I share notes on the books I am currently reading/read, what I have learned or events I attend.

....because everything is about learning, time, and patience!

What I've learned from reading: The Art of Creative Thinking by Rod Judkins

• Make the present a present: Its important to adore what you do, and become totally immersed in it. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that people find genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called Flow. In this state they are completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves their creative abilities. He explains, "Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and though follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz"
• Open your mind: Many of the companies that function most successfully had adopted a flat structure. Usually in flat companies everyone owns a chunk of the company, which makes them genuinely committed to the cause . They have few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives. Workers are more productive when directly invited in decision-making., rather than being closely supervised by middle management. Employees feel more responsible. Comments and feedback reach people quickly. With a flat structure, the workforce can decide jointly on the right team for whatever task arises. It also eliminates the fear of being judged by your boss; a boss is always afraid of what their boss thinks, and so on. Fear is duplicated, quadrupled, and multiplied. Middle management stops inspiring creative thinkers and instead spread paralysis through their anxieties. Creative thinkers in a workplace or studio that is open to possibilities and new ideas, no matter how crazy they might appear knowing they will bot be laughed oat but taken seriously. 'The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, "Thus far and no farther." - Ludwig van Beethoven.
• Be mature enough to be childish. Blame society, parents, culture, schools, or whoever, but generally speaking our freedom to be childish is buried, and instead inhibition flourishes. We become afraid of being wrong, judged, or laughed at. Our fear of creating holds us back and prevents us from trying new methods for the sheer joy of it. The future belongs to those who can reconnect with play. It is the child in you that is creative, not the adult. The child is free and does not know what they can't or shouldn't do. They haven't found what works, whereas adults repeat whatever worked last time. Whatever you are doing, do it as if for the first time. They explore a land without and adulthood this ability is stifled. Schools teach you something- then test you. In life, you are tested- and it teaches you something. That latter is the only effective way to learn.

In our society, in the workplace, we are being told that being creative and not acting by the rules, defines some as immature or childish. It's time to stop this judgment and allow people to be creative and have an open mind.

"There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago." Robert Oppenheimer

"Optimism implies the courage to be imperfect."-Martin E. P. Seligman.

Who is rich? The one who chooses to be happy with what he has. – “Optimism implies the courage to be imperfect.” -Martin E. P. Seligman.

Thank you for reading, by Mirela Xhota