What I Learned from Walking

I somehow had caught a nasty stomach bug that had me lying on the sofa.  Finally, after a day, I was feeling a bit better and I thought, well, at least, I will take our puppy Teddy out for a walk.  In fact, well, in my mind we were going to power walk.

Teddy and I went out to the trail.  It is a wide-open area amongst an overhang of trees.  But I didn’t see it that way on this walk.  For Teddy the smells, sounds, birds and noises were overwhelming and exciting for him.  He wanted to stop at every chance he could get to smell or explore something.  Now, this just didn’t fit into my plan for my daily exercise.  I planned a power walk, not a leisurely sniff as you go day.  I became more annoyed as we went along.  Now, I was going to take control of the situation.  I started to press and pull Teddy but today I wasn’t going to win.  By fighting I was only making the walk worse and un-enjoyable.

There is much research out there about walking and creativity.   I have seen many clients use this technique for meetings, idea generation and relaxing time.  Steve Job, Diane Von Furstenberg and Bill Gates use this technique too.  

After all of fighting through the initial part of the walk, it was time to relax, let Teddy sniff/stop and enjoy nature. Today I would use this time to relax and think.  Soon ideas started to bubble up—friends I wanted to see, ideas for clients. Finally, I enjoyed the wide, quiet swath of trail that was covered in leaves with the sun shining in certain places.

Sometimes I can’t plan on for the day.  It is time to relax a bit and listen to the ideas while walking. I forgot about  creativity and  walking.  Sometimes it is better to accept the circumstances versus fighting and gnashing my teeth.  The walk actually was more productive than my original assumption.   This week, make it a goal to have a walking meeting with your team.