When Do You Get Your Best Ideas?

Good morning, welcome to the No Days Off podcast. I am Brian Gubernick, and I believe that every single day brings you a new opportunity to get better. Better at business, better at life, better at health. Just get better, and that's what this No Days Off movement is all about. Take a second to Take a minute, take 10 minutes to read, take action, say different words, whatever it may be, just get better today. I wanna talk about this morning with you, I wanna challenge you a little bit in how you're thinking. Actually, or maybe how you're not thinking, I should say. What I'm trying to talk about, or what I wanna focus on, is actually something I experienced a handful of years ago when I made a trip, a random trip, to a little town called La Conner, Washington. Population, probably 105, I don't even know. And it's pretty random how I ended up there. I'll spare you the details. Just know that I read a book called One Thought Changes Everything, and in that book it talked about this gentleman that lives up in the Pacific Northwest, and I had to go seek him out and find him to learn more, and I did. And I went up to LeConner, Washington to visit with my buddy George Pransky. And George taught me a few things during that trip. What George really taught me though was that I had to slow down my thinking. I had to decrease what George called my mental velocity. See, I'm a, I believe I'm a high achiever. I believe I'm a Type A. I believe that stress at some time, you know, at some points, is actually an advantage for me. Like many of you listening, you probably think the same thing. I run hard, I go hard, I go harder than everybody else around me, I can multitask. Hey, we all think that, a lot of us think that way, and we're guilty of what I'm describing here. And what George had challenged me to think around, what he had challenged me to consider, was that, hey, maybe running hard, maybe thinking at rapid speed, and multitasking, and charging, and doing all these things that I do, maybe that's not is not the key to success. Maybe my thought or my idea that, you know, being under pressure, being under stress was a competitive advantage of mine, maybe that was silly. And George set out over 3 or 4 days to show me or to display to me that, hey, maybe I'm wrong in my approach. See, what George said to me early in my visit with him, he said, hey, Brian, let me ask you a question. When do you get your best ideas? I'm like, "Ah, George, I don't know what you mean. When do I get my best ideas?" He's like, "What are you doing? What are you experiencing? Like when you come up with your best ideas, what's happening?" I said, "I don't know, George. I'm in the shower." He goes, "Good." He said, "Good. What else?" I said, "I don't know. I'm working out." He goes, "Okay, good." He goes, "What else?" I go, "I don't know. I'm driving." He goes, "Right. Anywhere else?" I'm like, "Well, vacation." He's like, great answers. What do those all have in common, Brian? And I said, George, I'm not really sure where you're going with this. He goes, Brian, here's what they all have in common. In every one of those scenarios you've just described, your mind is actually at its calmest. You're almost on autopilot. When you're in the shower, you're on autopilot if you've showered a number of times in your life. Sometimes when you're driving, I hate to admit it, but do you sometimes go from point A to point B and not remember how you got there? Dangerous, yes, but does it happen? Yeah, from time to time. When you're on vacation, naturally you should be a little bit calmer. When you're running or working out, do you get in a zone? Yes. George's point was that if my best ideas come when my mind is actually at its calmest, why would I not crave more of those opportunities? Why would I not want more of those periods of time where my mind is at its calmest, where I can get my best ideas. And best in my world might mean, you know, most money-making, most profitable idea, or maybe it's best approach to a relationship, or maybe it's a tweak in something I'm doing. That's what best ideas look like for me. And I'm sure many of you listening, you know what best ideas come to you as well. And I'm gonna guess they're probably occurring in some of the same spots or like spots. Like situations when your mind's at its calmest. So what I want to challenge everybody here today to do, I want to challenge you on your thinking that going at 1,000 miles an hour is what is key to success. I want you to think around, when do I get my, my best ideas? I want you to consider, how do I get more of those opportunities? How do I create that environment more frequently so that my mind can rest, if in fact you believe what I'm saying, and I can get great ideas that I can leverage in my business or my life or wherever it may be. That's all I have for you today. Remember, uh, this No Days Off movement— every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. What are you going to get better at today? See you soon.