Sometimes it’s best to stop, take time out, and rest. While I often feel that stopping the activities that fill my life is a bad thing, the reality is that not stopping leads to exhaustion. Once you’re exhausted, you’re more likely to become ill. You can see the trajectory.

Busyness is a trap. When it comes to our hobbies, the sense that we “should” be doing something can become a prison for our imagination. The reality is that we get our best and most creative ideas when our minds are still and at rest. “Eureka” arrives almost universally in the bath, shower, on the drive, or when we are on a beach or similar place of inactivity.

Taking time out might be the most creative thing you can do. Once you stop and let your mind clear, stopping stirring the pot as it were, you will allow space for the clarity to give way to insight. You’ll have your next great idea when realisation is given space to emerge. You can’t force it, you have to allow it to bubble up from within.

That’s why I choose to stop more frequently. When I slow and allow clarity to emerge, I see things I am otherwise too clouded to notice. As Daniel Goleman noted:

The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice.

How can I see what is best to do next until the mind is clear?

Game on!