Taking a Detour

The Hotpot | January 2026 | By Lisanne

23.1

Sometimes, wandering is the way to move forward.

If we’re too close to our own work, we can get blinded. We can get stuck in the daily grind of the “how” and lose sight of the “why.”

Sometimes the shortest route to our goal actually requires a detour to regain sight over the horizon. Distance can be the lens to see the bigger picture again.

Just like children, we sometimes need to let go of everything that seems “useful.”
Sometimes, play is exactly what our brain needs to be creative.
Sometimes, being inefficient is the fastest way to be efficient.

We shouldn’t treat our brains as factories. A factory produces on command, but our brain is an ecosystem that also needs downtime to flourish.

In that sense, play isn’t the distraction from work, but the state in which the mind is free enough to make connections that logic alone wouldn’t find.

It takes courage to be inefficient in a world obsessed with speed.
It can feel unnatural to stop when the pressure to accelerate increases.

But isn’t the most daring act of ambition precisely to seek out stillness, to play, and to trust that wandering will bring us home faster than blindly running?

Sometimes the detour gets us home faster than the straight line.

Thank you for reading! The question of today:

Is standing still a defeat for you, or a necessary strategy?

Let me know in the comments.

Curious to see more reflections like this? Click through to see the rest of the series on success. I’d love to hear what resonates with you.