Hey all – sorry for the radio silence over the last few weeks but have been away vacationing in Hawaii – pretty nice I must say. Over the break I celebrated a birthday, spent a lot of time on the beach, enjoyed some great food, and had some great times.
Made me think about how sometimes people work hard their whole lives, spending so little time with their families or doing something that they love, in order to continue to strive for that huge win. This continues year after year until they eventually get successful (or not) and then can spend their retirement years doing what they really wanted to do. But in the meantime, they’ve spent very little time enjoying themselves.
This is a bad thing. We all need that break – not just for physical well being – but also to re energize that brain – and not just for rest – but also to expose ourselves to new ideas and new perspectives. We all have to spend some time every now and then in the outside world, outside of the “office” so to speak (whether your office is a cube, office, garage or coffee shop).
From an innovation perspective its absolutely essential – your brain needs new input in order to make new connections and come up with new ideas – even while vacationing the ideas never stop coming – if you are open to it – every new sensory experience – both good and bad – can lead to more ideas and product innovation.
For this reason, I never really “turn off” on vacations like some people do, and neither should you. Not only can we not really afford to, as inventors and innovation professionals, we should enjoy making new connections and generating new ideas, yes even while out of the office. Definitely not saying that you should spend your vacation working – its a mindset – a mindset of being open to new ideas and experiences and making connections. That’s what’s essential.
