Sam called me last week.
We’ve known each other for silly years. Properly known — not just LinkedIn-known. We know what each of us does, we’ve seen each other through different seasons of life and work.
He said he’d been out for a walk one evening, trying to untangle something he’s been stuck on creatively for a while. Not something that could be a quick fix or “let’s Canva this in 20 minutes.” A proper, long-term, strategic creative problem. The kind that needs thinking, not tinkering.
And somewhere between one streetlight and the next, it clicked. “Oh wait. There’s you. There’s nuja. This is literally what you guys do.” <insert my smug look>
That’s Sam and I very happily not walking away from each other :)
I laughed, obviously. Slightly offended it took fresh air for him to remember my entire business journey & career. But also - that’s fair. He wasn’t scrolling. He wasn’t in a meeting. He wasn’t reacting to ten notifications at once. He was walking.
And in that very unproductive, very unoptimised space, his brain finally connected dots that had been sitting there quietly for months. We’ve already covered walking here before. I will never shut up about it. It’s free therapy and clarity. It’s where half my decent ideas show up. But what Sam and I also covered on that call wasn’t just that walking helps you think. It’s that sometimes walking helps you realise you need to walk away.
Not in a dramatic, burn-the-bridges way. More like: Maybe this client isn’t aligned. Maybe this brief isn’t worth forcing. Maybe this gym isn’t it and you’d rather run again. Maybe you don’t actually enjoy drinking as much as you thought. Maybe you’re done with packed weekends.
We do this all the time!
We quietly walk away from habits, dynamics, routines, subscriptions, expectations. Big things. Small things. The world doesn’t shift. There’s no announcement.
And yet it’s always slightly uncomfortable. Sometimes even labelled selfish. Or flaky. Or inconsistent. When actually it’s just… adjusting.
Anyway, if you’ve had a recent walk that turned into a realisation (about work, about people, about yourself) I’d genuinely love to hear it.
Because sometimes the breakthrough is an idea, sometimes it’s an exit. Both count.
M.
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xx
Manuja
Not for everyone. Never was.
