Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am." Nowadays, we don't think enough — which can make us less than we can be. Dan Cathy, the president of Chick-fil-A, sets aside one half of a day every two weeks and one full day a month to perform what he calls intentional thinking. This allows him to focus on his most important projects.
We all have pockets of time for reflection, but we often tend to fill the minutes by pecking away at our mobile devices. My quest is to divert more of this time to focused, uninterrupted thinking, not doing. Opportunities for reflection are available every day, and I plan on taking advantage of them. For starters, I will take more walks, even short ones, without giving in to the urge to look at my cellphone. These are the times when fresh ideas, even great ones, may bubble up into our consciousness.
You may be "thinking" as you read this that you simply don't have the time for much action-free reflection. Of course you do. There are many ways to capture more think time without wasting time. While walking the dog. Waiting for a train. Jogging outside or working out on an elliptical trainer. Idling in gridlock during rush hour. Even while sitting in the waiting room before having an appointment with me!
Ironically, letting the mind drift without targeting our thoughts can also enhance our performance. As essayist/cartoonist Tim Kreider tells us in the "The Busy Trap": "The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration … "
This makes me think of what I once read about Jonas Salk. His major insight for coming up with a cure for polio didn't occur while working at the lab, but while walking on the grounds of a thirteenth century monastery in Italy. I, too, have had a number of "a-ha!" moments about difficult patient cases after meditating and making my mind go quiet for a while.
The new decade has begun. May resolutions rule during the 2020s!