99of these activities increase personal creativity and in-
tellectual motivation. They are all active pursuits.
Active relaxation refreshes and restores the mind.
It keeps it flexible and toned for thinking. Great think-
ers have known this secret for a long time. Winston
Churchill used to paint to relax. Albert Einstein played
the violin. They could relax one part of the brain while
stimulating another. When they returned to workday
pursuits they were fresher and sharper than ever.
Most of us try to deaden the mind in order to relax.
We rent mindless videos, read pulp fiction, drink,
smoke, and eat until we’re foggy and bloated. The prob-
lem with this form of relaxation is that it dulls our spirit
and makes it hard to come back to consciousness.
I accidentally discovered the restorative powers of
video and computer games when I played some with my
then-9-year-old son Bobby. What began as a way to make
him happy and spend time with him became a brain-
challenging pursuit. The complexity of computer foot-
ball, basketball, and hockey games now rivals chess and
The New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle. It re-
quires stimulating recreational thinking.
“Thinking is the hardest work we do,” said Henry
Ford, “which is why so few people ever do it.” But when
we find ways to link thinking to recreation, our lives
get richer. We become players in the game of life and
not just spectators.
47. Make today a masterpiece
Most of us think our lives accumulate. We think they
are adding up to something. We think of our lives as
being strung together like a long smoky train, so that
we can add new freight cars when we’re feeling right,
Make today a masterpiece