Walk More Four

Health Walking strengthens our cardiovascular system, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. It helps maintain healthy blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Regular walking builds bone density and can help prevent osteoporosis. It boosts our immune system, creating resistance to illness. Walking aids digestion and helps maintain a healthy gut. It reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes by improving insulin sensitivity. Walking strengthens muscles and improves balance, reducing fall risk as we age. It helps manage chronic pain conditions like arthritis. Walking increases lung capacity and respiratory health. It reduces inflammation throughout our body.

Mental Health & Creativity Walking enhances clarity of thought. It provides a natural space for problem-solving and breakthrough thinking. The rhythmic nature of walking induces a meditative state that fosters creativity. Walking sparks new neural connections and patterns of thinking. It gives your mind permission to wander, which is when many creative insights emerge. Walking reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety. It helps process emotions and difficult experiences. Walking provides distance from daily problems, offering fresh perspectives. It creates space for daydreaming, which fuels imagination. Walking stimulates the production of new ideas and solutions.

Productivity & Focus Walking breaks up sedentary periods, preventing the afternoon slump. It increases blood flow to the brain, improving concentration. Walking meetings can be more productive than sitting in conference rooms. It helps the return to tasks with renewed energy and focus. Walking provides natural breaks that prevent burnout. It improves sleep quality, leading to better daytime performance. Walking reduces decision fatigue by giving your mind a rest. It helps us prioritise and organise our thoughts. Walking creates momentum that carries over into our work. It trains your brain to sustain attention over longer periods.

Spiritual & Existential Benefits Walking connects us to the natural rhythms of the earth and seasons. It offers time for reflection and self-examination. Walking creates space for gratitude and appreciation of simple things. It reminds us of our place in the larger world. Walking can be a form of moving meditation or prayer. It helps us feel grounded and present in our body. Walking invites moments of awe and wonder. It provides solitude in an overly connected world. Walking allows us to witness the beauty and impermanence of life. It cultivates patience and acceptance of our own pace.

Go walk!

Ideas

need (1) noticing and (2) capturing, otherwise those great breakthroughs will be lost. Stop and think regularly and carry a notebook.

Maybe It Is ‘Old-School’

but it works when you consistently show up on time; do what you say you are going to do; take responsibility; remain polite; use real grammar and structure your communications to make it easier for others; take a proper break and return refreshed; discuss face-to-face whenever reasonably possible; drop a thank you note.

Go Old-School today and surprise them.

Productivity

There’s sometimes a lurking feeling that ‘being productive’ requires one to do more, be more, adopt a new system. However, perhaps it’s as simple as being tough, saying a polite ‘no’ and doing less.

But doing that less brilliantly.

The big challenge of modern human health lies in a profound evolutionary mismatch.

We have hunter-gatherer bodies moving and thinking in a digital world, creating a disconnect that manifests in rising rates of chronic disease, mental health struggles, and declining physical vitality.

Our extraordinary brain, the very organ that enabled our species’ dominance, has become both our greatest asset and at times a dangerous liability. This remarkable 1.5kg universe evolved to allow us to be not merely animals that hunt, but strategic hunters who could outwit prey and predators alike. We became a species that does not just endure seasons but predicts and prepares for them, planning harvests and migrations months in advance. We evolved beyond simply finding shelter to actively engineering our environments, adapting entire landscapes to serve our needs.

This cognitive revolution created our capacity for imagination and innovation. Our brains learned to construct mental models of reality, to envision possibilities that did not yet exist, transforming us into the entrepreneurs and inventors who would reshape the planet. Yet there lay the trap: our success-driven brain has an inherent bias toward efficiency and energy conservation, a trait that was-literally-vital when calories were scarce, intermittent and of varying quality and simultaneously physical demands were high and constant.

What’s to be done? Walk; get outside; stop and think. Be a Human Being not simply a Human Doing.

The Best Things

-conversation, reading, a hike, solitude, live music, the desert at night, the French food market-are so often analogue. It’s the addictive screens and scrolling and software which are addictive and ultimately soul-destroying in excess.

Up your analogue. Be human.

In The Pipeline

Three new short stories are planned for mid/late October. A new non-fiction book on my MEDS, Meditation-Exercise-Diet-Sleep Strategy for November. A total revision of my Instant MBA for the new year.

Meanwhile How to Beat ChatGPT is out.

Stay tuned.