I had one today.  I’ve been very busy recently, working at the detail level of my business, managing my family through the hectic pace of spring sports and school year’s end.  I was feeling very transactional: efficient and productive but not very creative or inspired.  I’ve been reactive and a more than a little stressed.  The pace at which I was moving caused me to feel disconnected from people and from the things that inspire me and allow me to support and inspire others.  The harder I tried to get inspired, the more disconnected and uninspired I felt.  I tried reading or writing but I came up dry.  And today, while on a long awaited vacation on the coast of Maine, I had an epiphany.  The fastest route to creative, constructive, inspiration is to stop trying.  I needed to unplug (or almost anyway, I’m still connected to my laptop but not tethered to it), unwind, stop trying to resolve the problem.  I need to listen to the quiet, get present to the beauty in nature, and allow thoughts to emerge.  During the usual, busy, multitasking day to day lives most of us lead, it is impossible for us to allow our thoughts to fully percolate, to play themselves out in all of their glory.  We are too rushed, too often interrupted, too impatient to get on to the next thing.  Allowing this time off the treadmill of life is critical to creative thinking.  Without it, we are inclined to do the same thing we’ve always done, perhaps with a bit of a unique twist but not significantly differently enough to allow for real change.  No, this sort of ‘allowing’ is  not something one can do.  It is a way we must be.   We must be quiet, be patient, be with ourselves.

Vacation time is great for such breakthrough opportunities but even if you don’t have the luxury of extended time off, you can create opportunities for yourself to have mental space.  Commit to being fully disconnected for a block of time… no internet, no email, no blackberry, no TV.  I find my best creative thinking and problem solving comes when I am physically active, engaged in something that doesn’t require thinking, for example walking, running, dare I say it…cleaning.  Others find meditation or other mindful practice to be the key.  At these times, thought gems just seem to emerge out of the space.   The common denominator is to stop trying and allow.  Stop working at it and relax.  Slow down enough so that when the right thoughts emerge, you notice and grab on to them.  Find ways to slow down, get off the grid and just be with best self.