Everywhere I go people keep telling me how tired they, how stressed, how worried, and even how scared. This is accentuated by our horrible circumstance of always being connected so there is never any real downtime. And for those in positions of authority or leadership, it’s accentuated even more by the fear that success is going to elude them and they’ll wind up like Kweku Adobili…losing 2 billion dollars for their company.
Luckily most of us aren’t in positions to have such a huge failure in such a public way, and aren’t going to break the law to try and cover it up.
My thinking about those who are in such a run down state that their ability to make rational decisions decreases is…they need to take a walk. Not just any walk, a long ramble in a natural setting. If you don’t happen to be near a nice natural area, a slow, leisurely stroll around a quiet part of town is almost as good.
It seems that our brains get fatigued, particularly after work requiring sustained, intense concentration according to Michael Posner, emeritus professor at the University of Oregon. Our brains need to re-charge. They need downtime.
Downtime means without looking at your mobile phone every three seconds.
Marc Berman of the University of Michigan has shown that performance on memory and attention improve significantly after a short walk through a natural area. It turns out that even looking at pictures of natural scenes for 10 or 15 minutes improves cognitive ability although an actual walk is more effective.
So protect your brain…and keep yourself thinking at optimum efficiency. Take regular breaks and stroll around a nearby park. It really does turn out that working less and clearing your mind leads to less stress and better results.
Since the main job of executives is thinking, shouldn’t you do your best to ensure your thinking is the best it can be? Before you become so overwhelmed that you begin to make disastrous decisions…take a walk. Everyone will thank you.
I thought my walks were discretionary, until I stopped. Anxiety and aches ensued which I attributed to too many medical causes that managed to confuse too many doctors. But they agreed and I relearned, that simply walking somewhere quiet clears my mind and heals my body. A twenty minute walk makes hours and days more productive. That’s a good payback, a very high ROI.