December 7 2017 No. 539
Spot the Difference
When I tell people that I work in the field of mindfulness-based leadership development, they think they know what I'm talking about. "Sure, all that mindfulness stuff is about meditation and being happy!" they say and, up to a point, they're right. Meditation is a mindfulness tool and, when you're in the zone, "happy" doesn't even begin to desribe it. But that's only part of what I do...
Stop and reflect on what your priorities are for today. Being mindful alone will not enable you achieve great things today (or ever) - you have to be mindful of your purpose(s) too... that's the essence of purposeful mindfulness: I'm here, I'm present, I'm in the zone, with my purpose in mind. OK, some people tell me that they don't know what they're life's purpose is - but that's not what I'm talking about... surely you have something important to do today.
You many be of the opinion that I'm splitting hairs in today's edition, talking about the difference between mindfulness and purposeful mindfulness. But the first is an exercise, the second is the deployment of that exercise when it matters - at work or at play.
Sadly, too much has been written about mindfulness and there is a general assumption that it's about being happy (and it is) - but happiness doesn't achieve great outcomes, it is a state of mind. Developing mindfulness enables us manage our state of mind - the one and only thing over which we have absolute control in life. But what we do with that state of mind is vital - we should not seek hapiness for its sake alone.
Happiness in a vacuum is dangerous. I know people who have been eminently happy in the midst of the kind of misery that nobody should tolerate - just like today's Normal Crazy People story, cultivating happiness whilst enduring highly inappropriate behaviour is avoidance or, perhaps, evasion of the reality of the moment amounting to self-delusion.
Happiness will not win you the next big contract, will not get you that promotion you're looking for, will not put bread on the table. But trying to do any of those things whilst seeing the world through a fog or miserable thought isn't living either. The secret is to deploy your m indfulness, your right state of mind, your clear state of mind, in the here and now, in the furtherance of the life that your heart desires.
Now, that really is a difference.
The Psychology of Success will take place again in Dublin on Tuesday January 16th 2018. As any of you who have participated already know, participant numbers are limited to eight and the average number is more like five or six. It's an intensive experience and is meant to be... it also happens to be a really relaxing day! So, if you know anyone who wants to come along to the IMI in Sandyford on Tuesday January 16th, share this page with them. And, if you're ready to change your own life yourself, you'll find all the details here...
What is the purpose of playing mindgames if it is not to get one up on someone else or to do someone else down... perhaps they amount to the same thing.
Mindgames are played on all kinds of fields of play or work... I once worked for a Chief Executive who assumed he could get the best out of his Leadership Team by playing us off against each other and, as a lawyer friend explained many years ago "That kind of thing ends up in one of two places: tears or court... or, often, both!"
I was talking about mindgames to an acquaintance a few days ago. They told me of one organization which, on organizing performance interviews for their most senior people, makes sure that the interviewee is left unattended but observed for up to ninety minutes beyond the appointed time and, on occasion, when the interview does start, the interview is asked to role play... in one case, they asked a male manager to imagine he was Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!
Some readers think that I either make up or embellish these Normal Crazy People stories. Not only do I do neither, I have a whole range of stories that are actually unpublishable!