The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 21 Degrees
Over the past week, I’ve taken a few days away from my daily routine and spent a lot more time walking the dog, sitting around, reading, and being a dad.
During that time, I’ve put together strollers and doll houses and furniture and other things with 87 pages of instructions and 432 screws.
It’s extremely easy to get caught up in the world where everyone’s hurrying to get nowhere really fast. So some slow time is a very nice change.
Actually, slow time is just better. It’s a better way to go through life. Doing less. And doing it slower and more deliberately.
When I was able to get out of my own way, putting together the doll house was actually a bit therapeutic. It was really just about my perspective, not about the actual activity.
There’s another more important benefit to “taking time off.” It seems that it’s a rather effortless way to improvement.
It always happened at music school too. You’d work your tail off for the entire year, go home for the summer, come back and be better!
Somehow, you’d grow during the time you weren’t actively working on improving.
You don’t seem to get clarity by staring or working at something continuously. When you look/work for a period of time, go away, and then come back to it, that’s when you see things you may have missed.
For me, the “time away” reconnects me with the compass that sometimes gets drowned out by the noise of the world.
Want to improve your work with clients? Then stop working and go outside and take a walk. Don’t plug up your ears with headphones… don’t make a phone call… don’t do anything to “pass the time.”
Just go outside and start walking.
You’ll be surprised at the genius your mind delivers to you.