This is My Favorite Method of Problem Solving
Have you ever ended a long phone conversation and realized that you spent the entire call fidgeting or pacing around? Maybe this is your go-to and you purposefully choose to move while you chat. If you do, you’re onto something. Movement is natural. It’s how we get our brains turning.
We move when we’re excited. We move when we’re bored. We move for entertainment or exercise. We even move when we’re sad or upset. It’s no wonder that fidget spinners had their moment, and it explains why your coworker (or you) taps their foot as they work. Writing this post is another way to get moving — with my fingers and my brain. Humans are creatures meant to move.
Steve Jobs helped popularize walking meetings. And if you pay attention to your social media feeds, you’ve probably seen it mentioned. It’s a method that works for many reasons. The fact that both parties are staring forward and heading in a similar direction gives each a mutual feeling of influence and input, which is useful for collaboration, but it also gives people time to think. The body is able to work in sync with the mind, and they flow together.
Moving Solves More Than Work Problems
In 1782, Martha Jefferson, the wife of Thomas Jefferson, passed away. Jefferson was struck with grief. In Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, a biography of the third president’s life, his daughter Patsy reported that her father walked incessantly night and day. Jefferson couldn’t stay still. Patsy also said of her father after Martha’s death, “When at last he left his room, he rode out, and from that time he was incessantly on horseback, rambling about the mountains, in the least frequented roads, and just as often through the woods.”
Meacham wrote a poignant line about Jefferson’s method of grieving. “He drove himself as though sheer movement could alleviate his loss.” The author states that when it came to cheeriness, “He was a long way from that point. His wanderings in the woods and his rides with Patsy were all he could manage.” That’s powerful. In a time of extreme difficulty and loss, movement was as therapeutic for Jefferson as any other grieving processes.
It isn’t to say that movement is our only bet against troubles, but this simple practice can get us upright and help our brain process what’s happening around us. Whether we need time to think about life or work problems, the simple act of moving can get us started.
Getting Started is Easy — Just Move
It’s easy. Just go outside and start walking. You don’t need a hiking trail or the perfect park, just your feet and your brain — which are coming with you everywhere you are anyways (unless you forgot them somewhere).
Walk without your cell phone and no other electronic distractions. If you’re like me and you like to play with something, try a a fidget spinner or flip your car keys around if they’re on a lanyard. The point of moving isn’t always to solve a problem — because solutions aren’t guaranteed — but to get space to clear your head and think.
I’m from Amarillo, Texas, about seven and a half hours away from Austin, Texas, where I live. I drive back and forth between the cities often, and while most people wouldn’t enjoy these long isolated car rides, I’ve found that they’re the perfect time to think. When you’re alone in a car for so many hours, the mind has no other choice BUT to think. It’s like a mobile isolation tank. (Well, almost, you still have to pay attention to danger, of course.)
In Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run he argues along with research that humans were made to run. The idea is that we’ve gotten away from our running roots and that’s often why people struggle to ease themselves. In the book he says, “You don’t stop running because you get old, you get old because you stop running.”
McDougall states, “If you haven’t solved your problems after a four hour run, you never will.” I can’t compare driving in a car or walking to the therapeutic power of pushing yourself during a four hour run — which works as a mental, physical, and spiritual test — but the point McDougall makes is important. Time spent alone, whether to think or endure a difficult task, is where some of our best solutions come from.
McDougall isn’t alone. He chose running as his tool for problem solving, but many others chose their own form of movement. Jefferson walked and moved on horseback. Steve Jobs had his walking meetings. Philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche and Soren Kierkegaard walked.
You might not care to get on the streets and run a few miles, but walking is easily accessible. Movement is always at your disposal. Try it around your neighborhood. Try it outside around the office. Try it with a coworker. Try it next time you’re at home and restless. Try it next time you’re really stressed and need to clear your mind.
It may take a few tries to enjoy your walks, but soon enough you might be struck, rather by scenery or the thoughts that are coming to you, and you’ll be on your way to solving a problem that had long sat idle without a solution.
