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The Invisible Mentor Weekly Newsletter: Brain Food Fridays Number 66 – Is Lack of Sleep Preventing Your Mind from Engaging in This Activity?
Dear Reader,
The idea for the main article for this newsletter came to me Tuesday evening. I wrote it down, so I wouldn’t forget because it’s such an important topic. Getting enough sleep is important to good health.
Years ago, I practiced meditation and then I stopped. Last year shortly after the pandemic hit, I started to meditate again. People always talk about the benefits of meditation. However, I experienced the true benefits of meditation when I shifted my mindset. Meditation isn’t about doing, it’s about being.
Is Lack of Sleep Preventing You from Being Creative?
In the busyness of life people are often on the go because there’s too much to do and so little time to do it. There’s always another project to work on. I’ve been feeling like I haven’t accomplished enough in my life. And even though I know better, I sometimes compare myself to others and end up feeling inadequate.
So in my quest to catch up, I started to work longer hours pushing myself. The result? I was ineffective. I wasn’t remembering what I was learning and the information wasn’t coming together. I started lamenting the days when ideas would come to me freely.
Looking at a basic creativity model, here are a few of the steps.
- Gather information on the topic of interest.
- Read through the information, look at it from different angles, and play with it to come up with ideas.
- Take a break or work on an unrelated task to allow a period of incubation.
- When you least expect it, an idea will come to you. This is called illumination.
To be creative, you need rest to let the ideas percolate, and you need rest, so you’re alert and can spot ideas. In school, the teacher often told you to sleep on it. She knew something that we didn’t yet know. To be healthy you need exercise and you need to get enough sleep. To function fully, I’m one of those people who need at least eight hours of sleep. Now I’ve started to honor by body again, and it’s giving me what I need.
When I get enough sleep, the Ideas start to flow freely again. After I wake up in the mornings and do my devotion, I sit quietly and let my thoughts roam freely. At that moment of nothingness, I’m bombarded with ideas colliding. At this time, I want to mention that most ideas don’t come to you fully formed. You have to work with them. Sometimes that means connecting two or more ideas to get a better one.
I know there’s a belief that ideas come out of nowhere. But the reality for most of us, is that we have to feed our minds with good information. It needs something to work with to generate ideas. Join one of my reading programs for leadership development. You’ll get into the habit of generating ideas.
My main message for you today is to get enough sleep and read every day, even if it’s only for 15 minutes.
Avil Beckford in the News
AVIL BECKFORD’S BOOK READING CLUB
I pulled the information immediately below from the show notes.
“I had an interesting interview with Ms. Avil Beckford, founder of The Invisible Mentor, is a skilled writer, blogger, researcher, analyst and published author. She is a voracious reader who loves to read books off the beaten path. Because of her love for reading, Avil created leadership development programs to get more professionals reading, so they can use the knowledge in books to take their career and business to the next level. She is an advocate of continuous learning and loves to teach others what she has learned. You can find her book, Digest 30 Books in 30 Days on Amazon.”
You can watch the video here, you have to scroll down to see mine.
Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading
I’m presenting to the International Mentoring Association on April 14th, so I’ve been busy working on my presentation. I sent in the slide deck and I’m doing a dry run this Monday.
I’ve been reading, just not the books on the list below. I’m learning to be gentler with myself. I love to read, so I know I’ll read the books soon.
I’ve created a new program, Business Knowledge Accelerator and I updated the Sales Knowledge Accelerator. Besides previewing a book before reading it, I also recommend that you read a good book summary to get the helicopter view of what the book is about. With so much information online, I was surprised that I couldn’t find summaries for some books on the list.
I often participate in the Knowledge Accelerator programs, so I make sure that I choose books I haven’t read. Now I have to read the books that I couldn’t find summaries for. This act will make it easier for course participants.
Why not participate in one of the Accelerator Programs. I’m also working on the Career Knowledge Accelerator. It should be ready mid next week.
What are you reading? Hit reply to this email to let me know.
- The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy
- The Self Help Book
- Secrets to a Millionaire Mind
- Danielle: Chronicles of a Superheroine
- Making Ideas Happen
- Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself
- Delay, Don’t Deny
- How to be a Power Connector
- The Emotion Code
- Ikigai
- QBQ: The Question Behind the Question
- Bulletproof Problem Solving
- How to Be a Power Connector
- What’s Your Problem
- The Invincible Company
When I’ve read the above books, I’ll let you know. I read every day and I read different genres. Right now I’m reading Small Town Secrets. I know, I know, I should be reading books from the above list.
The Invisible Mentor Blog
This is Episode 10 of the new series, The One Problem. This week, Patricia Roberts talks about How to Graduate without Student Loan Debt. Read and watch the post, if you have children who you want to go to college. She offers some excellent strategies. Each episode is under 10 minutes.
Until Next Week,
Avil Beckford, Founder, The Invisible Mentor!