Give what is abstract a firmer theoretical or practical basis

Getting grounded starts with simple actions.

Like breathing deeply, going for a walk, doing yoga postures, connecting with nature, attuning to our bodily sensations and so on.

My therapist always recommended focusing my attention to the soles of my feet so that I could feel strong and grounded by my connection to the earth. That was always a lovely ritual. I still use it to this day.

But what I’ve noticed about getting grounded is, once we’ve checked all the short term biological boxes, there’s also an intellectual piece.

Because grounding is far more than a ten second or a ten minute process. It can take days, weeks or even months. Consider the word itself. Grounded means becoming mentally and emotionally stable, but it also means giving something abstract a firmer theoretical or practical basis.

Like a scientist who states their research was grounded in empirical data, rigorous research and thoughtful analysis. That’s a helpful way to think about our own experience. Academics actually developed a term called grounded theory, which is quite interesting.

It’s a systematic methodology that has been largely applied to qualitative research conducted by social scientists. This process involves the construction of hypotheses and theories through the collection and analysis of data. Here’s how it goes.

Ask a question. Review the data. Allow ideas to emerge. Classify those concepts. Group them into higher level categories. Form a theory. Write a memo.

Now, this order of operations contrasts with the classic scientific method, in which the researcher chooses an existing framework and collects data to validate their new hypothesis about it.

And that’s a good thing. With no preexisting theory to bump up again, now there’s space to generate something fresh and new, stumbling across novel discoveries.

Personally, I appreciate how right brained and organic grounded theory is. It’s so emergent. It’s not necessarily focused on hard numbers, but it’s more about pulling concepts together and thinking through how each can be related to a bigger and more inclusive one.

Let me share my experience with this grounding process and how it gives the abstract parts of my life a firmer theoretical and practical basis.

Whenever I start a new job, my favorite thing to do is buy a bunch of books on the industry I’m about to jump into and take copious notes.

Like when I started working as the copywriter for an ad agency whose biggest client was the state department of health. I read books on everything from opioid addiction to the history of public service announcements. Fascinating.

Or when I landed a role as brand manager for an air passenger rights startup. I discovered books on topics like aviation law and flight compensation. Who knew that was so interesting?

Or when I worked in franchise marketing and I got books on the pizza wars and retail unit economics. Just fantastic.

The best was when I started working for a human resources tech company. I must have read a dozen books just on equitable employee compensation alone.

Point is, this process grounded me in my new professional environment. Over a period of weeks, as I’d read and write and classify and allow ideas to emerge, I felt such a firmer theoretical and practical ground beneath my feet. And eventually my understanding snapped into place.

Which didn’t suggest I was done learning, only that a solid foundation was laid, and from there I was equipped to move forward.

What’s your grounding process? What practices help you create intellectual stability?

Once at new job, I made the decision to take this process one step further. I converted my learnings from the grounding process into an actual tool. An insight library that I can reference at anytime to help me leverage all the data I’d been gathering.

This tool was nothing fancy. Just a searchable database of every note, quotation, sentence or quotation I’d documented so far in my first few weeks on the job.

But where the leverage came into place was with the searchability. See, my job was head writer a fast growing startup. There were hundreds of employees and dozens of assignments I was juggling at any given time. So whenever I needed specific content, or inspiration to create content, I simply typed a keyword into the database search bar, and it only surfaced the entries that contain my search term in the page title.

This may sound simple, but the insight library is designed for me to add as many emergent layers of information as I need to performing any of my tasks. My database ensures that the second brain is an easily searchable archive of information.

Which not only gives me leverage, but also gives my whole team leverage too. Now anybody who needs to write anything can discover quotes on everything.

That’s what you call intellectual groundedness, the critical tool that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed in a new professional environments.

The best part about this process is, there’s no right or wrong way to do it. Whatever ritual, method or system helps you create the stability you need to thrive, use it.

Do whatever it takes to give what is abstract, a firmer theoretical or practical basis.

What will help you focus your attention to the soles of your feet?