I’m not sure if we realize how much our brains are conditioned by our environment - specifically in thinking about how we are supposed to be doing things in our lives. The messaging from our broader culture is unmistakable - do more, dig deeper, rest less.
For instance: when you are overwhelmed, how do you talk to yourself? Whose voice do you hear in your mind offering commentary?
But maybe there’s a way to change our thinking when our mind isn’t doing what we need it to do.
A Different Approach
A few weeks ago my calendar was jam packed with meetings, travel, and big project strategizing. Finally, a day showed up on my calendar when I would be able to sit down in my office and get some much needed administrative work done.
The problem: my brain couldn’t seem to find that particular gear.
Much like a new driver abusing the gear box on a manual transmission, I could not get the right combination of pressing in the clutch and successfully shifting to the right gear.
Finally, after a few hours of going through all my normal techniques for locking into a focused work session I thought, what would happen if I did the opposite?
Instead of my normal quiet ambient background music with zero words/lyrics, I cranked the volume in my headphones and kicked on my favorite track from The Killers with Calvin Harris. Instantly, all the distraction in my head was drowned out and I hunkered down cranking out my to do list with lightning speed.
Somewhere out there, someone much smarter than me can probably explain why this little trick worked, but it got me thinking: just like we all have different preferred working styles, we all from time to time might find it helpful to switch things up when we hit a wall.
During the pandemic, I found nightly dance parties with my girls in the kitchen to be wildly helpful for managing my stress levels even though I had never danced in my life (and no, you don’t want to see that).
When I went full-time with my communications firm, I found myself at home alone for long periods of time. The unusual quiet environment helped me discover my super power to hyper focus in deep work for hours at a time.
These and countless other examples are reminders to me that while I love my routine, sometimes the best thing when I hit a rut is to do the exact opposite to get unstuck.
Perhaps in this early summer moment, what we need to do to get unstuck emotionally, physically, and/or mentally is to do the exact opposite of our normal routine that we default to.
What does doing the opposite look like for you?