in parting
…and more productive.
How kayaking makes you smarter
>> THERE’S A HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL and well-paid management consultant who, whenever he gets in a stressful pickle at work, solves his problems by sitting down to do needlepoint. This is according to a book I am reading to better myself.
It’s called The Breakout Principle: How to Activate the Natural Trigger That Maximizes Creativity, Athletic Performance, Pro- ductivity and Personal Well-Being. Wouldn’t you like to know the secret to all that? According to the authors, Herbert Benson and William Proc-
tor, when you get stuck with a problem at work or in life and grapple with it for a while until you aren’t getting anywhere, you can break out of that rut by doing something physically or mentally repetitive. They suggest meditation, walking, scrub- bing the toilet—it can be just about anything. The needlepoint- ing business guru supposedly solved a big problem by engross- ing himself in a particularly intricate form of embroidery called petit point. Focusing on a repetitive activity pushes the brain’s reset button, allowing you to find new thought patterns for old problems. Your mind evolves and you get smarter through suc- cessive cycles of struggle and breakout. The harder the strug- gle, the greater the enlightenment is likely to be. It’s a “work
50 | | ADVENTURE KAYAK summer 2007
hard, play hard” philosophy, coming to you from a pair of au- thors that includes a professor of medicine at Harvard—so it must be true. Before you rush out to the craft store for needlepoint sup-
plies, take it from me that kayaking has all the same breakout benefits while being a lot more fun. I find there’s no better way to get over writer’s block than to go out for a long paddle. The best escape comes in a following sea that’s big enough to make me pay attention but not so big it really scares me—the golden mean between too-easy and too-hard that produces the mental state psychologists call “flow.” After a few good hours paddling downwind in a moderate swell,
the first two things I need to do when I get to shore are 1) pee, and 2) pull out my notebook to write down all the brilliant ideas I just had on the water. Often the two are emergencies of equal urgency. If I start carrying a pee bottle in my cockpit, I will also have to rig a Dictaphone to my PFD. Sitting at a computer, though our careers often demand it, is not a great way to be inspired. I have come to think of my kayak cockpit as “The Oval Office” because it’s where I do my best work. Indoor work can nourish the mind, but it takes water to digest.—Tim Shuff
PHOTO: TARMO POLDMAA
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