Get a job where you don’t have to think

June 30, 2016 4:30 PM

I have a friend who worked his way through nursing school washing store windows for nine bucks a pop.

It wasn’t the most glamorous or lucrative or stimulating job, but it paid in cash, it gave him a good workout and, most importantly, allowed him to do something mindless for a few hours a day.

Nursing, after all, is a deeply draining profession, both intellectually and emotionally. And so, washing windows allowed the part of his brain that controlled that function have free rein. It set him on automatic pilot. A sweet, liberating release from the bloody chaos of the clinical world.

What a nourishing gift to give yourself. Especially if you’re engaged in a lengthy, challenging, dynamic and exhausting project. If you find yourself feeling like all the demands of the world have been placed on your thin and trembling shoulders, go do something where you don’t have to think. Work perpendicular to the task at hand with an activity or a task or an action that turns off the problem solving mechanism in your brain and just lets you be for a little while.

Think of it as a field trip for your mind. A mental detour with no destination in sight. That way, when it’s time to reengage your creativity and intellect and emotions in the service of your meaning making efforts, you’ll feel rested, recalibrated, rejuvenated and ready to bite into the real work, once again.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What activity could you engage in to put your brain on automatic pilot?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…

For the list called, “99 Ways to Think Like an Entrepreneur, Even If You Aren’t One,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

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Scott Ginsberg

That Guy with the Nametag

Author. Speaker. Strategist. Inventor. Filmmaker. Publisher. Songwriter.

[email protected]

www.nametagscott.com