I am an Empower Network blogger. I enjoy my work; sometimes a bit too much. One lesson I am learning from the Empower Network is the value of a quiet mind.
David Wood wrote a valuable blog-post “How to manage your energy when you have to work all day”: http://workwithdavidwood.com/how-to-manage-your-energy-when-you-have-to-work-all-day/. He wrote the post in response to a conversation he had with Erlinda Shen on Facebook. Erlinda had been working pretty hard to get her business started.
I can relate to what Erlinda was saying. David knows that you have to work hard to get your momentum for your business. He gave some practical tips on daily work habits so that you can get the most out of your day.
“Your mind can only focus on a single task with complete clarity for 90 minutes… Mental work needs to be balanced out by physical movement… You can reset the neurotransmitters in your brain in two ways. You need 8 hours of sleep, or 15-25 minutes of proper meditation.”
I remembered this post when I saw a head-line today, “Quick and Easy Ways to Quiet Your Mind”. Where did I read the head-line? The Harvard Business Review!
http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/12/quick_and_easy_ways_to_quiet_y.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+harvardbusiness+%28HBR.org%29
Don’t make the mistake of ignoring this article because you have heard that Harvard is for really smart people and you don’t think that you are one of them.
Matthew E. May, the author of “Quick and Easy Ways to Quiet Your Mind”) is smart. He is smart enough to know that you have to write clearly to be able to communicate with people. Here is his advice.
“Neuroscience tells us that, to be more productive and creative, we need to give our brains a break. It’s the quiet mind that produces the best insights. But it’s a challenge to take that sort of time off in the midst of a busy day
New research from the UCLA Laboratory of Neuro Imaging suggests that people who meditate show more gray matter in certain regions of the brain, show stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. In other words, meditation might make your brain bigger, faster and ‘younger’
…top performers in fields ranging from music to science to sports tend to work in approximately 90-minute cycles and then take a break. We are designed to pulse, to move between spending and renewing energy. Pulsing is the simplest, easiest, most immediate way to build breaks into your day.”
See what I mean? The similarities are astonishing. According to both David and Matthew, we are hard-wired for a cycle of work and relaxation, work and relaxation, rinse and repeat.
Think of the old expression, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” Staying on point all the time won’t help you succeed. It might even hold you back.
A quiet mind can help you succeed.
The framework of discipline can only be built on the ground set by your imagination. Success comes from using your whole brain, your logical and creative selves. I will set aside some time to relax after writing this article.
There is one other lesson I learned from comparing the two articles. That is the value in being an Empower Network affiliate. I have quoted Matthew E. May and The Harvard Business Review as a sort of social proof. I didn’t have to read either to gain the knowledge that David Wood shared.
Dave Nordella
http://www.empowernetwork.com/makingmoney4doctors/
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