Burnout
My mind likes to work 24/7. It probably has 15-20 of these “snippets” in the works now. It’s not nurotic it just has a good work ethic.
I learned many years ago that when an idea appears, I write it down and let my subconscious go to work. My subconscious doesn’t like having an unsolved problem. There are 86 billion neurons traveling between 156 to 270 miles per hour, and they live right next to each other. When some of those neurons have an idea, they flash it into my conscious mind. By flash, I mean a nanosecond or less!
I always have a piece of paper in my shirt pocket along with a pen. I have no idea how often I have stopped “dead” in my tracks, pulled off the road, or told someone I’ll call you back. Fortunately, my subconscious has a memory. A problem, often a design project, flows much easier if revisited a month or two later.
I have become fond of living this way, following my subconscious around. Sometimes, I appear spacey, laugh loudly, and talk to myself. However, the people I’m close to understand, and I am slowly educating them that the old wives’ tale of talking to themselves is false; it’s the other way around.
My mind, which consumes 20% of my energy, may or may not need a break; I’m not quite sure, but the peripheral areas do. Over the years, I’ve learned that I need a change of scenery and wind in my face to recharge.
When I was in my thirties and early forties, I rode my English road bike through the hills and valleys of our county roads, past forests, pastures, and fields of corn and soybeans. Along the way, I found pasture breeding quite interesting. After the initial introduction, it was the cows that initiated bovine romance, not the bull. Remember, I’m trying to redirect my mind to slow it down.
In the winter, I would bundle up in sweats, stocking hats, and scarves that would flap in the breeze. I felt a kinship to Nanook of the North. No matter how much I put on, the cold air seemed to always find a way in. In the summer, I only wore short nylon workout shorts. When I was in my full go mode, bent over the handlebars, I became the “man who rode his bike naked through the countryside.”
Now, I use a stationary recumbent bike for 40-50 minutes two days in a row, with one day off for cardio and my much beloved 23-year-old Miata for wind in my face.