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A Favorite Business Move

  • Writer: Christy Denman
    Christy Denman
  • Jul 18, 2023
  • 3 min read

Walking is one of my favorite business moves. It opens up space in my brain for thinking and solving, it triggers gratitude and awareness, it boosts my mood, improves my focus and makes me sweat. Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau and others have written about the clarity of mind when walking. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote, ‘I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it.’

Of course, when these folks lived, there was much more time and opportunity for walking. None of them knew the meaning of "car" and “the countryside” was right outside the front door. Today, as we’ve crowded into urban abundance and committed to a relationship with our car, walking is an activity you need to plan for, and it’s worth it!


My plan is simple. Walk three miles, on the sidewalk in my neighborhood, first thing in the morning, every day. The plan varies occasionally and sometimes fails miserably, but the plan is in place and my life and business have improved because of it. While walking my brain opens up and new ideas find fresh air. My thoughts spread out and I’m able to pluck out details I didn’t know were there. Log jams in processes are sorted and simple ideas for connecting skip to life as I walk. Conducting a business call on the move, I have focus and a memory for the details. Listening to podcasts, I’m instantly thinking of ways to apply the knowledge to my business. Fluency of thought as much as the benefits of movement are my rewards on the sidewalk.


Walking outside also rewards me with nature. I had a treadmill in my bedroom once and walking on that thing was a chore. Walking in nature is an entirely different experience. It heightens awareness and calms the emotions. I’m a witness to many experiences of nature right here in my neighborhood.



Awareness of the natural world and our connection to it is the essence of what it is to be human. We are stardust, trees and plants give us breath and nourishment, and without gravity we would all cease to exist.


The Japanese have a tradition of forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku, the practice of strolling deep into forests and using all the senses to be fully immersed in, connected to and soothed by the sounds, the sights and feel of the surrounding nature. That sounds so luxurious. To be reminded that we are nature and are connected, makes us better humans and being a better human is good for business.


With my walking plan firmly planted in my psyche, it has become a part of my identity. For as long as I am able. A daily walk. To clear the mind and stave off that inevitable physical decline. And, these days as I move down the sidewalk putting one foot in front of the other, I’m reassured that my business is moving forward, too.

[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.

BOOKS:


In Praise of Walking by Shane O'Mara


The Salt Path by Raynor Winn


BRIEFS:


"How to Do Walking Meetings Right" by Russell Clayton, Christopher Thomas, and Jack Smothers, Harvard Business Review, hbr.org



BROADCASTS:

Winner of Mesa Select Board Games and Parent's Choice Gold Award


Wild ©2014

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

Screenplay by Nick Hornsby

Based on the memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

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