Lifestyle – The Mind at Play

It is easy to gloss over Lifestyle as something of lesser importance than many others of life’s responsibilities. There are reasons why it is important to plan and enjoy Lifestyle with equal diligence. Our minds could be at their creative best when at play and rest, rather than when they are striving after solutions.

Here is an example. I can remember agonising over a problem until 2am in the morning. In exasperation, I gave up my search for the answer and went for a shower. My “aha” moment came when my mind relaxed totally and warm streams of water soothed my aching brain. Suddenly all my research and tangled thoughts fell into place and I could see the answer clearly. When? When I rested from my mental labour.

It isn’t a new thought.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying “the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642 AD) discovered the law of pendulum as he watched a chandelier swing in the cathedral of Pisa.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after a two-week lifestyle break. Refreshed and mentally alert, he noticed a strange fungus on a culture that had killed off all surrounding bacteria. He had discovered penicillin and modern medicine would never be the same.

Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, was on a hiking trip in 1941 when he noticed burrs clinging to his pants and also to his dog’s fur. He found that the burr’s hooks would cling to anything loop-shaped and before long, Velcro had been created.

Sir Isaac Newton was an English mathematician and physicist who lived from 1642-1727. The legend is that Newton discovered Gravity when he saw an apple fall from a tree.

In a scholarly article by Arthur J. Cropley (Pages 167-178 | Published online: 02 Nov 2009), he states, “everyday creativity… is characterized by openness, flexibility, autonomy, playfulness, humour, willingness to take risks, and perseverance.

The Lifestyle topic has to do with hobbies, interests and lifestyle breaks. We encourage everyone to plan a year of lifestyle breaks in advance. If we have work sandwiched between lifestyle breaks full of hobbies and interests, we can accurately say we are “working to live,” rather than “living to work.” If we take a lifestyle break before we need it, we are giving ourselves maximum opportunity to think creatively about our work. Then we achieve phenomenal results and our next lifestyle break becomes a celebration of our achievements.

The lesson? We improve our purpose and performance when we do lifestyle well; we pay a big price when we don’t.