WOW #042: Working on Foot

Quote of the Week:
“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche wore a lot of hats during his 55 years before his passing in 1900: Philosopher. Professor. Amateur Composer. Writer.

Oh, and he walked.
A lot. 

In his early thirties (after years of frustrating alienation from the academic world that left him misunderstood), Nietzsche suffered from head-splitting migraines and debilitating bouts of nausea. 

His cure? Long, solitary walks. 

“I am walking a lot, through the forest, and having tremendous conversations with myself,” he wrote.

An hour walk every morning.
Three hours each afternoon.
Some days he’d cover 6 to 8 hours on foot.

His office was outside among the pines of the Black Forest in southwest Germany, where Nietzsche would fill notebook after notebook with penciled thoughts and diatribes. His desk? An open mind, both freed and stimulated by movement to hold his observations and thoughts in place.

By the time Nietzsche reached his mid-thirties he was walking 10 hours a day. It was during these years when he produced Beyond Good and Evil, and The Joyous Science, works that immortalized his name.

These days, the practice of working while walking faces many challenges. We’re so tethered to technology. The simple act of walking and thinking in solitude is a bit of a relic of a time gone by. In fact, we think so little of the practice of walking that we almost always pair it with something else:

• Exercising our dogs
• Listening to podcasts
• Gossiping with friends

Work is taxing. Decisions are hard. Business can be draining. Walking, on the other hand, is easy. It’s free. 

It’s one of the few things in the world that you can still do by yourself. And if the conditions are right and you do it with regularity, walking can be really good for you.

Which means it can also be good for your business.

2 Takeaways:

1. A Long Walk Won’t Solve Everything, But It Won’t Make It Worse. There are a lot of things you can do when you take a break and leave the desk and computer behind. A brisk walk outside to think about the day and ruminate on opportunities and challenges for your business is usually a good idea.
   
   
2. Think With Your Feet, Not On Your Feet. We know the phrase well, but let’s face it - not everyone is good on their feet. Even the ones that are, produce better results with adequate time to process. The mind-body connection is real and benefits both sides. 

1 Action:

Try Habit Stacking With Walking. Here’s a simple formula for you to try: “Everytime I do X (existing part of my routine), I will then do Y (new thing I want to add to my routine.”

X could be a Sales call, Y could be a 10 minute walk before the meeting to brainstorm.
X could be your weekly email campaign, Y could be a 30 minute walk to first consider how to improve from last week’s campaign.

Enjoy your walk everyone,

Hubert