Continuing my current trend of writing about personal experiences related to Innovation.

I’m currently on a diet and fitness program.  The reason: I’ve let my weight creep up very slowly and now my clothes don’t fit, except for the stretchy waisted “fat” clothes.  I’ve made half-hearted efforts for a few months and decided last week to accelerate progress and quit fooling around.  So, I’m on a regime of daily exercise, no alcohol, and moderate (but not starvation) eating. It’s been challenging, my body is resisting, I’m sore all over, and very tired at the end of the day. As Rocky Balboa once said “I need to call a Taxi to get to the bathroom…”

And, what I’ve noticed, after only one week, is I’m getting up feeling sharper and am thinking more clearly. And I’m getting more done.  I’m also feeling more optimistic generally.

Some might think that fitness and innovation are a long way from each other.  It’s simple to think that your weight or health are immaterial to your ability to create or invent.  I would say there is a relationship. My friend Murli (@murliman) put it simply in a tweet the other day “healthy mind = healthy body, makes sense..then you have Van Gogh and other tortured geniuses.”

Murli makes a good point about the tortured creative souls. Ah, those tortured geniuses we know and love. Did they  have to be tortured to perform? The list is long, particularly in Rock music.  What might Kerouac have done if he lived another 20 years beyond his 47?  If he hadn’t drank himself to death.  I believe those tortured souls might have been even more productive as innovators without the torture.  Yes, living dangerously can have you thinking differently, but, you are less able to take action, less able to put thinking in perspective, less able generally to innovate due to pure lack of energy. There are also lots of famous artists and creators who have lived to ripe old age, for example Edison (84), and Picasso (91), Norman Mailer (84), Grandma Moses (101). While there was some controversy in these lives, I think what they had in common was a balanced lifestyle (and lack of torture) conducive to long life and a lot of creativity.

I don’t have my copy of The Owners Manual for the Brain (by Pierce J. Howard, Phd) with me here in my writing cave, but I recall reading the impact that food and exercise have on the brain.  It’s measurable. Anecdotally I can share with you two observations: 1.) I have great ideas during and just after exercise, and 2.) I notice in ideation sessions that groups generate more ideas after a physical activity.

So, “you see Timmy” if you are seeking greater personal innovation capacity, you might put your physical life into better balance.