The other evening I did something I haven’t done in so long, something that I really enjoy. After my 13-hour work day I got to my car, rolled down all the windows, turned on my mellow Spotify playlist called “Reflective Drives” and took the long way home.

There’s something about driving two-lane backroads in the late evening without the pressure to arrive somewhere by a certain time…something about letting your mind wander wherever it wants to as you pass by grassy fields, horse stables and open skies while listening to thought-provoking music.

By the end of the hour-long drive I felt many things:

• I felt calm and confident. I worked through some internal decisions by honestly looking at both sides of the equation, asking hard questions and looking deep within myself; because you need to be in a place of calm in order to effectively analyze next steps.
• I felt gratitude as I thought about the awesome life support team I’ve built around me to help me get closer to my grand vision goals and appreciation for their patience and presence in seeing me get there.
• I felt creative. I mocked design layouts and worked through some web coding visually in my mind.

I was super productive without doing anything but simply giving myself permission to follow my thinking no matter how sporadic it may go.

Whenever I’m stuck, taking the long way home almost always helps me recenter every time.

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Random Advice from My Advertising Instructor

When I was in college I had a fun and energetic instructor who taught a night Advertising class. I loved it. It was engaging, creatively challenging, and I learned so much. I gained many takeaways from that class that have stuck with me all these years.

One of those takeaways happened when she assigned us to do a difficult project that would be expanded upon throughout the semester. I was excited about it and gathered that my classmates were too; but you could also feel a sense of overwhelm after we were just given the rundown of all the advertising pieces we were going to be creating. It’s that kind of overwhelm as a student when you’re questioning if you can actually accomplish the project but know that you have to make it work somehow (and you feel soooo good when you complete it 💪).

In the midst of us quietly absorbing the magnitude of the work scope my instructor pierced through the silence by saying, “And take the long way home on a different route sometime this week.”

Well that wasn’t formally on the project rubric, but she technically verbally assigned this random task. She went on to explain how simply driving home a different route can rewire your brain to see new perspectives, recognize new observations and get creatively unstuck.

I did it that night after class (knocked out that to-do right away!)—and it stuck with me.

It was night so I couldn’t observe much in the dark, but the new route in taking backroads reenergized me. I thought about the class project and had it nearly all planned out in my head by the time I got home, and this drastically reduced the overwhelm of it. It felt as if I was ahead of the game by merely letting myself think about it for a bit without any expectations. I keenly observed and noted this result.

Give Yourself Space to Think without Expectations

I mean, really think about it (pun somewhat intended)…How often do people simply allow themselves to think deeply and freely within their own minds without rules? The reality is that most people are not comfortable allowing themselves the space to just think.

A 2014 study by Timothy Wilson and colleagues at the University of Virginia found that participants preferred engaging in a simple task or even administering mild electric shocks to themselves rather than sitting alone with their thoughts for 6 to 15 minutes. (science.org)

There is tremendous value in simply giving yourself the space to let your mind wander, reflect and think. I would argue that it is one of the best activities for personal and professional development that you can do.

“I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me.”

Albert Einstein

What better space to make new paths than by taking the long way home.