The Importance of Keeping Your Head Empty

This week I had the privilege of attending a private dinner with Elizabeth Gilbert, best selling author of the book Eat, Pray, Love. Now before you say 'huh?' let me just say I haven't read the book or watched the movie, but am aware it is a "chick flick" and that didn't prevent me from attending. You see, I find authors to have interesting perspective on the world and have often found their views helpful to me personally and in my work. I was not disappointed by Ms Gilbert.

As she discussed her experience leading up to her new book Committed she stressed the importance of a technique that I have used for years to achieve my goals: clearing your mind and keeping it empty so you can think better. I'm sure psychologists have a name for this and there are lots of theories. As I listened to Ms Gilbert tell us how for the first time in her life she suffered from writers block after the success of Eat, Pray, Love such that she called her publisher, returned the book advance on Committed and retreated to the seclusion of gardening until one day the first line of her book came to her, it reminded me that we in the business world need to take the lessons from her experience and apply it daily in our lives.

In my 20s I thought the best way to demonstrate my skills and move up the career ladder was related directly to how much work I could handle at any one time. I worked between 14 and 16 hours a day, slept on average 5 hours a night, and traveled across Europe for clients 85% of my time. In retrospect I wonder how I got anything done. But somehow I did. One day our IT manager shared the company stats on # of voicemails we left, # of emails we sent etc, and I was second only to our CEO - on average I left 90 voice mails a week and processed 300 e-mails a day. These were taken from a year's worth of stats. It was like a badge of honor I guess, demonstrating how much bandwidth I had. Today I would likely fire someone who creates that much inefficiency in the organization.

The truth is that works only for so long before something breaks down. You drop a ball, miss a deadline, over commit or your health deteriorates. I was fortunate to have a mentor teach me the rule of working smarter not harder, and in my 30s I began to develop and apply simple methods in doing so. The first rule is to think on paper. Like Ms Gilbert explained to us the other night, the words to her new book came to her one day when she was mindlessly gardening in her back yard. She reiterated the importance of emptying her head of all the things that had built up since the success of Eat, Pray, Love and how that form of meditation helped her unblock her writer's block.

I remember back in the days of limited hard disk space on our computers how frustrating it was to run out of space and have to delete old files to make room for new ones. Our mind works the same way. In my world I teach the importance of thinking on paper - write things down so you don't have to keep them in your head. This is not the same thing as keeping a to do list or taking notes at meetings. You actually need to have a system that allows you to write down actions, tasks and ideas that are assigned to you and others. This is very simple in principle but the majority of professionals lack a system like this. They prefer to keep everything in their mind. I believe this results in sub-optimal performance and results. In short underachievement.

Eastern philosophies teach the importance of meditation to your health, spirit and mind. I personally do not have experience with this, but Ms Gilbert's story reiterated my conviction that we perform better in every avenue of life if we take the time to clear our mind. My e-mail inbox is always clear - if I can't see every single e-mail in my inbox then I'm doing something wrong. My to do list is updated 3 times a day and the system that I use runs from Monday thru Sunday. I use paper and electronic - do not underestimate the importance of writing something down versus typing it on your laptop. I keep a note pad by my bed for those nights when you toss and turn because something is on your mind. And always use a system of prioritization that allows you to focus on the most important activities - the activities that have the highest impact on your goals. I have taught my system to dozens of groups over the years, including teachers, high school principals, consultants, doctors and procurement managers. It works in all fields as long as you apply it.

I also realized the importance of my workouts as a vehicle to clear my head and come up with better solutions. A 30 minute run does wonders for my business. I listen to music, I work up a sweat, and for 30 minutes I don't think. Problem solving is about having the ability to view the problem from multiple dimensions, and you can't do that if your mind is cluttered with a million things that need to get done. When we think we are being productive the reality is we are not.

I enjoyed listening to Ms Gilbert and her experiences. The story of Eat, Pray, Love is a life changing experience and I know many others who have had similar experiences. It all starts with asking yourself whether you are happy in what you are doing. If the answer is no then you have to begin the process of introspection in order to redirect your career, and sometimes your life. Career change is a process that begins with letting go of the old reality and entering into the wilderness in order to begin a process of wandering. This is a process that converts the old rules, habits and structures into chaos, confusion and crisis in order to find your path. It can be terrifying but it is ultimately rewarding.

Having gone through this process personally my advice to anyone who wants to make a change is to reach out and get advice from others. You need to begin a process of writing things down about who you are, what you are good at and when in your life you were the happiest. Depending on your age you may want to break up your life into decades and write down what you accomplished in each decade, what you were good at, what you liked and what ultimately made you happy. This process needs to happen when you cut ties with your past and are wandering the wilderness, and this ultimately will lead you to your new life.

If you would like to discuss this further with me get in touch. Your feedback is always appreciated.