My headphones broke.
Which meant I was on the treadmill with no music, no podcast. Nothing to distract me. Being alone with my thoughts wasn’t the workout I’d planned.
My mind went straight to the day’s calendar. The email I owed someone. The talk I needed to prep. Before I’d even gotten my heart rate up, I was adding to my To-Do list.
I can count on myself to get things done. Give me ten spare minutes, and I’ll find something important to do with them. But in all that doing, I can lose myself. Under pressure, I get so focused on what needs to happen next that I forget to ask what I’d be excited to make happen.
Somewhere in the rhythm of walking, my thoughts wandered past the to-do list. I began to wonder.
An idea came to me for a program I’m launching in January [stay tuned]. I let myself play with the theme, the product, the packaging before asking how I’d pull it off. The more I thought about it, the more I excited I got to see what it could become.
When I walked out of the YMCA, I had something to look forward to.
That surprised me. I’d gotten on the treadmill thinking about the email I owed someone and the talk I needed to prep.
Those things were still waiting for me. But now, when I thought about January, I could picture something I was excited to create. I wanted to get home and keep thinking about it.
Broken headphones have become the beginning of a new habit.
On the treadmill, Stairmaster, or the Peloton, most days of the week now you can find me without anything in my ears.
Sometimes I put a question into ChatGPT before I start, to help me explore something I want to create. Then I take that question into the workout. I let myself imagine before asking how I’ll make it happen.
In the past, I rarely gave myself that room. I'd offload my thinking to a book or a podcast. That habit of keeping your life running leaves too little room to imagine what comes next.
It’s easy to miss because you’re doing so much. You’re growing a career, caring for people, following through. But the habits that helped you build it can become the habits that keep you repeating it. You know what tomorrow requires. It’s harder to say what you want a year from now.
When you can’t quite see another possibility, you return to what you know: the calendar, the responsibilities, the next thing on the list.
Your imagination needs some attention, too.
For me, that attention began in the time I was already spending at the gym. I changed what I did with it, and I began seeing new possibilities, new ideas. New thoughts that wouldn’t have come if I had not had time to listen to them.
Even this newsletter started taking shape on the treadmill. With a little room to wander, an idea emerged, and by the time I finished, I was excited to sit down and write it.
Giving my thoughts room to wander helped me find something I want to say.
On your next walk, or over your morning coffee, give yourself a few quiet minutes with this question.
What would I love to have in my life that I haven’t given myself much time to think about?
Let yourself enjoy whatever comes to mind. You can figure out what to do with it later.
Then choose one small way to explore it.
I still leave the gym with things to do. But now I also leave with ideas that energize me and a clearer sense of what I want to create.
It feels like I’m walking into a future I’ve had a hand in imagining.
