The calendar is moving towards the end of the year. It’s happening everywhere, including wherever you happen to be.
As the year end approaches it’s time to do something people do all too infrequently…just think.
I know that you think you think all the time. You probably do. What I’m talking about is not what you normally do. Most thinking is about the immediate issues needing resolution or where you’re going for dinner on Saturday night. Actually, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that most thinking is about even more mundane issues.
As we move towards the end of the year you need to totally clear your mind of all that and commit to some deep thought. Leave the office and go somewhere, lean back, put your feet up, and think.
And the topic? First of all, whatever wanders through your mind about how things are going. Let your mind float freely so those ideas you generally hide underneath all the day to day emergencies can float to the surface. Be open and honest with yourself. There’s no one in your head but you.
Then let you mind float over to how the rest of the year looks…and what you can do to improve the picture. Take some time. It doesn’t all come at once. You might have to take a walk or sit on a beach for quite some time before the best ideas come out of their hiding places.
Don’t critique. Just let those ideas flow. There’s plenty of time when you’re back at the office to clarify, edit, expand, and, yes, throw out the undoable.
Finally, let your mind move forward into the coming year. Just think about it. Not any particular details but the big picture. What’s it look like? How does this picture feel? And what pops up in your mind that makes you crazy about the future or gives you comfort?
Keep at it for awhile. Take a few days and just think at random times and in random places. Don’t worry about distractions, just think around them. Exercise your mind and let it run free.
You might come up with some great new ideas or solutions to what you thought were intractable problems. Or you might not. But you will come up with some different perspectives to take back and incorporate into your activities…and you just might find yourself taking breaks here and there to keep your deep thoughts flowing.
And who knows, exercising your mind this way might just lead to a great breakthrough that will change your company…and you…forever. At the very least, you’ll find yourself thinking about things in new ways as you move toward the end of the year and prepare for the one to come.
Exercise your mind…think.