Your best ideas, those eureka moments that turn the world upside down, seldom come when you're juggling emails, rushing to meet the 5 P.M. deadline or straining to make your voice heard in a high-stress meeting. They come when you're walking the dog, soaking in the bath or swinging in a hammock.
Interpretation
Great ideas often emerge during moments of relaxation rather than in stressful situations.
This quote emphasizes the importance of finding calm and solitude in order to foster creativity and innovative thinking. Carl Honore suggests that the best ideas often spring forth when we are not actively trying to force them, but rather when we are in a relaxed state, allowing our minds to wander and reflect away from the pressures of daily tasks and stressors.
In practice
In a motivational speech about work-life balance, you might use this quote to emphasize taking breaks.
You don't have to work for Google, or any of the other firms encouraging staff to pursue personal projects on company time, to use slowness to unlock your creativity. Anyone can do it. Start by clearing space in your schedule for rest, daydreaming and serendipity. Take breaks away from your desk, especially when you get stuck on a problem.
You may have heard of the Slow Movement, which challenges the canard that faster is always better. You don't have to ditch your career, toss the iPhone, or join a commune to take part. Living 'Slow' just means doing everything at the right speed - quickly, slowly, or at whatever pace delivers the best results.
We know that no algorithm can solve global poverty; no pill can cure a chronic illness; no box of chocolates can mend a broken relationship; no educational DVD can transform a child into a baby Einstein; no drone strike can end a terrorist conflict. Sadly, there is no such thing as 'One Tip to a Flat Stomach.'
Sometimes it takes a wake-up call, doesn't it, to alert us to the fact that we're hurrying through our lives instead of actually living them; that we're living the fast life instead of the good life. And I think, for many people, that wake-up call takes the form of an illness.
By slowing down at the right moments, people find that they do everything better: They eat better; they make love better; they exercise better; they work better; they live better.
In the practical use of our intellect, forgetting is as important as remembering.
It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe.
Look Upon Every Experience You've Ever Had ... as Having Been Sent to You for Your Benefit
There are so many things that we are capable of, that we could be or do. The potentialities are so great that we never, any of us, are more than one-fourth fulfilled.
If you have no eyes, do not walk blindly; take a staff in your hand. If you have no staff of insight, do not walk without a guide.
Delight in smooth sounding platitudes, refusal to face unpleasant facts ... genuine love of peace and pathetic belief that love can be its sole foundation ... the utter devotion of the Liberals to sentiment apart from reality ...though free from wickedness or evil design, played a definite part in the unleashing upon the world of horrors and miseries [WWII]
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