He spends an hour a day in a hot bath
Wouldn’t it be great to find one hour a day just to soak in a hot bath. Switching off from the worries of the world and slowly recharging your batteries. Surely only Hugh Hefner, retirees and the long term unemployed would be able to find one hour a day for a long hot soak. Well, you might be extremely surprised to find out one very successful and extremely busy person who does find the time and has done so since the early 1970’s.
Alan Greenspan was the chairman of the US Federal Reserve between 1987 and 2006. In the early 1970’s he suffered from a back complaint. His doctor advised him that he should take a hot bath for an hour a day for a month to provide him with some relief. He found that the hour a day in the bath was so relaxing and helped him to clarify his thinking that he still maintains the habit to this day.
Every morning at 5.30am Greenspan hops in the bath and spends the next hour reading, thinking and planning his day. In case you are wondering, yes, he does have a lot of wrinkles. Greenspan used to write speeches in the bath and searched long and hard to find a suitable water proof pen and note pad that wouldn’t smudge. His staff became adept at reading his smudged draft speeches.
If Greenspan can find an hour a day then why can’t you? We are all busy. Most of us are trying hard to juggle our careers with the well-being of our children, our health, our partners, our friends and our hobbies. What we do with our time always comes down to our priorities. If your priorities include; thinking clearly, staying relaxed and keeping clean then why not consider the daily hot bath option?
Everyone needs time each day to reflect and review the previous day. To think about what is working well and where you may be getting stuck. Before the advent of smart phones this could have happened as you stared out of the window on the bus or when you sat in a zombie like trance on the couch on your return home from work. We all know that the phones have become smarter. The question to ask is; are we becoming dumber?
If you want to be a more successful leader the first skill you need is developing the ability to say no. By saying no to more things, you give yourself more time to focus on your priorities. A good starting point could be having a one hour T (technology) break each day. Notice how energised you become when you have a T (technology) break. Notice what happens to your thoughts.
The sound you can hear now? That’s the bath water running. I’m switching off my phone and climbing in the bath to do some strategic thinking.
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