MBA1565 Q&A Wednesday: How do I shut off my brain so I can recharge?

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Visit Dell.com deals. Hey oh. Welcome to the $100 MBA show, the business podcast that delivers fresh business lessons every single day with our daily demo to Business Lessons for the Real World. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of $100 MBA, a complete business training and a community online and today's episode is a Q and a Wednesday episode. On our Q and a Wednesday episodes, I answer a question from one of you, one of our listeners. If you have a question you want to ask, just email me over at Omar100, MBA NET today's question is from Mehraban and Mehraban says, how do I shut off my brain so I can recharge? As entrepreneurs, our brains are moving a million miles per hour. We're thinking about business, we're thinking about the next thing, how we're going to do it, our strategy, our plan, and our brain goes into overdrive. We can't shut it off to the point that some of us can't even fall asleep. This is a serious problem for a lot of entrepreneurs, allowing their brain to shut off so they can relax, recharge even when they're not sleeping, meaning take a break from the business for a moment mentally. And it's even a challenge to fall asleep. Like I mentioned, so I'm going to share with you some strategies that have worked for me. I'm not immune to this. I'm always thinking about the business. I'm always thinking about ways we can improve problems we need to solve. But it's not healthy for you or the business if you don't allow yourself to shut off and recover. So in today's lesson, I'm going to share with you my top tips in doing exactly that. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. So Meherban emails me this great question for today's Q and A Wednesday. He says, lately I've been working a lot, most of which requires a lot of thinking. I'm a web developer. I love my job and what I do so much that I can't stop thinking about it when I'm eating, when I'm working, when I'm playing games, even when I'm hanging out with my friends and family. And I just don't want to do that. I want my brain, my mind to shut off so I can recover, so I can recuperate. Love the show, love the podcast. Thank you so much, Mehraban. Thank you so much for that Great question, Meherban, and you are spot on. Many entrepreneurs, many professionals deal with this issue and, and I'm gonna give you my strategies when it comes to dealing with this. Number one, it's good that you recognize you have the self awareness to understand that you're doing something that is maybe not the best for you, where your mind is racing constantly. Some people think, hey, that's great, you should be thinking about your business, you should be caring about all these things, you should be thinking about what you're doing. Why shut it off? Well, there's a big reason. There's actually a real biological reason why you should do it. It's scientifically proven that your brain works at at its subconscious meaning. Have you ever noticed that you might have a problem in life or in business and you slept on it? You get this chance to sleep, to rest, or you stepped away from it for a little bit, you went for a walk and it gets solved. Why you come up with great ideas. Well, how does it happen? It's because your subconscious brain allows itself to work on it, but you have to allow your brain to shut off a little bit. You need to stop thinking about it in your conscious mind. This is why it's actually good for your business to stop thinking about your business or whatever you do. Your subconscious mind is going to allow yourself to solve problems to think of better ideas. There's only so much your conscious mind can do. So there are a few things I want to mention. These are the things that have worked for me. Number one, it's very hard when you're awake, when you're actually in the daytime, when you're spending your days, when it's the weekend, to kind of just shut off your brain.

You're not sleeping, right.

You're not unconscious, right? So you want to do something else. What should you do to stop thinking about what you are constantly thinking about? This is where immersion comes in. I'm a big believer that in order for you to stop thinking about something or to take a break from something, you have to immerse yourself in something else that's totally immersive, that takes your full attention, that requires you to focus completely on it. And this can be several things. For some people, it's like snowboarding or skiing, because if you're a dad, the mountain, on skis or on a snowboard, you need to focus totally on what you're doing. You're avoiding trees, you're avoiding people, you're controlling your balance, all that kind of stuff. You're just totally immersed in that. You can't think about anything else. And the feeling that people have that had a full day of skiing or snowboarding is a sense of Zen, a sense of relaxation. How could that be? They just did physical activity for six, seven hours. Well, it's because their brain got a break. It got a break from what it normally thinks about. It pushed all your common thoughts to your subconscious, and your conscious mind was consumed with something totally different. This is just one example. I know a lot of people, they have the same experience when they're in a very intense card game, in a poker game, even in an Uno game, where it requires their total focus and concentration. Another example is sport. Like, if you play in a league, like, let's say, for example, you play soccer or basketball, like I play basketball for recreation, and you can't think about anything else. When you're in a basketball game, there's so much going on, you need to focus on what you're doing. You're dribbling, you're shooting, you're passing, you're thinking of strategy, you're thinking of the score. It really allows you to wipe your mind for a couple hours. And it's actually you come back feeling a sense of relief. For some people, it's a gripping novel that puts them in that place. You need to find your thing. Mehraban and Everybody listening. You have to think, what can I do that can immerse myself where I'm totally focused on that task? These are often intense type of activities, but that intensity allows you to focus on something totally different. And for me, this has been a game changer. This really has helped me tremendously and I actually look forward for the next time I get to have one of those activities because it's a real break. It's a real vacation from your mind. Now what's great about that is if you're doing something that's total immersion and it's also combined with physical activity, it's going to put you in a great state to go to bed. I really believe you need to take full control of your physical state to serve your mind, your diet, your health. You have to prepare yourself to make sure that you're ready to go to bed when it's time for bed, that you can actually fall asleep quickly. It just doesn't happen by itself. This includes your diet. This includes the last time you drank anything with caffeine. This includes if you're, you know, drinking alcohol consistently and it's disrupting your physical, you know, health. It also means your physical activity. If you are physically active and you're putting in physical activity on a regular basis, you're going to go to bed tired, you're going to go to bed wanting to sleep. Obviously, you know, a lot of people recommend doing physical activity as early as possible, or at least before midday, so that the adrenaline is not kind of keeping you awake at night. But physical activity is going to help you fall asleep and give yourself a break. No matter how much your mind is racing, your body is just going to take over, you know, because of the exhaustion. Some people think that, no, my mind is more powerful. Nope. The biological impulse to get some rest because it needs it so bad. It's dire for rest is going to take over. But you need to prepare yourself for that with your diet, with your exercise, and make sure you're going to bed ready to rest. Some people use a lot of herbal medicines, things like kava or melatonin, things that are maybe non habit forming. You need to speak to your doctor or your physician to see if that's a good fit for you. Something that is healthy, even something herbal, is a good idea. Something that calms you down, like chamomile tea. Everybody experiences a different effect based on their own body. Another way to clear your mind and get it to rest so you can just go to bed, fall asleep is practicing the practice of clearing your mind. And you know, this is also known as meditation. A lot of people or like, oh boy, I can't meditate. I'm too hyperactive. I'm too consumed with my thoughts. Well, it's like anything. You can practice it. You need to learn. You can tell yourself, hey, it's time to sleep. Clear your mind. Let's go to bed. And you could do that, but it takes time. It takes practice, it takes discipline. And what I learned is a good crutch to clear your mind is not literally having no thoughts because that's really hard, but to think about something else that won't keep you up, that won't make you worry, that won't make you excited. Think of a memory of a relaxing vacation before you go to bed. Think of the storyline of your favorite movie that won't keep you up. Think of your favorite day, like maybe your wedding day or the day you graduated. Or just have a good memory to reflect back on before you go to bed so you're actually thinking about something but it's not keeping you up, it's not giving you anxiety.

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To wrap up today's episode. Today's question from Mehraban how do I shut off my brain so I can recover? Use some of the strategies that I mentioned today. But remember, you're in control. You need to do a little bit of work, a little bit of planning to make this happen. No one's going to make it happen for you. And it gets easier over time, once you get into the habit of doing these things, setting up immersion tasks, immersion activities, setting yourself up so you're ready for bed, so that your body is ready to sleep, clearing your mind and focusing on other things that don't keep you up. Meherbon, thanks for the great question. If you have a question you want to ask, just go ahead and email me over at omar00mba.net and I'll answer right here on Q and A Wednesday. Thank you so much for everybody who's listening. If you want more of the show, make sure you hit subscribe by hitting subscribe on whatever you use to listen to podcasts. Whether you're using the Spotify app or Apple podcasts or Stitcher Radio or whatever, hit that subscribe button. Because by hitting subscribe, you get the next episode automatically. It also gives you access to over 50, 1500 business lessons. It gives you access to our archives. It's the only way to get access to hit subscribe right now. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I've always said that business and the success you'll have in business starts with you, starts with who you become. This is why I love this question by Meherban. Because he's trying to improve. He's trying to, you know, make sure he's doing the right thing for his mind, for his business. So the more you implement these things to improve your lifestyle, to improve the way you think and the way you recover and the way you improve your business, the better your business will be. Because you're at the helm. You influence so much of how your business grows. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

We heard you.

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