The most valuable business strategy might be stillness

This thought came to me while playing a game of chess.

As I sat there looking at the board, I realised how much life and business resemble the game.

We're constantly making moves. Planning. Strategising. Reacting. Trying to stay three steps ahead.

Yet sometimes we become so focused on the next move that we forget to step back and see the bigger picture.

You matter

Innovation matters. Technology matters.

But there is something many people are forgetting.

You matter. The ability to hear your own thoughts.

Move after move, without going inward

Many people spend their lives making move after move. Meeting after meeting. Email after email. Task after task.

Then wonder why they keep ending up in the same position.

Not because they're making the wrong moves. Because they're making them without first going inward.

Where the greatest ideas come from

The greatest ideas I've seen in business didn't come from forcing.

They came from space. Reflection. Stillness.

What some call intuition. What others call creativity. What I call a download.

If you feel disconnected from your own thinking

If you spend most of your day behind a screen and feel disconnected from your own thinking, try this:

• Spend 2 minutes each morning visualising how you want your day to unfold

• Before bed, replay the moments that went well

• Take a few conscious breaths before meetings and after them

• Journal your thoughts instead of carrying them around in your head

Your greatest advantage

The world is becoming noisier.

Your greatest advantage may not be learning how to consume more information.

It may be learning how to hear yourself again.

The next breakthrough might not come from your computer.

It might come from the quiet space between your thoughts.