As entrepreneurs, we are accustomed to wearing a variety of hats in our business. We're not just the founder or the CEO, we're also the secretary, the bookkeeper, the salesman, and even the janitor. Over time we become engulfed in the minutiae of running a business. We're so busy putting out brush fires that we lose track of the stuff that really matters, including our vision of where our company is going and the goals that we need to focus on to get there. Over time these brushfires grow larger and we begin to lose focus as the distractions in our everyday lives begin to pile up.
Cutting through these everyday distractions requires us to cultivate awareness. Doing so requires us to return to a natural state of mind that isn't clouded by inputs, emotions, and judgements that come at us each day. It's no surprise how detached and distracted the majority of us really are. How often have you arrived at work only to realize that you have no idea where the last ten minutes of your life went? I know it's an obvious observation, but we often forget that driving still requires true awareness and focus, yet we drive like we're on autopilot. It's this kind of distracted reality that makes me question how I actually get to work some days. I arrive at my office and it's like my memory of the drive is completely erased. It's scary. Many people I talk to experience this same kind of phantom driving phenomenon, this mental disconnect from reality. We're all arriving at work with no idea how we actually got there. A lack of mindfulness can be dangerous, and not just when we're driving. It's affecting the way we lead our organizations, it's complicating our work, and it's diminishing our ability to be creative.
Mindfulness is a mental state we achieve when we focus our awareness on the present moment. Even if the moment is chaotic or rushed, we calmly acknowledge and accept our feelings, thoughts, and sensations for what they are. Oddly enough, practicing mindfulness is a wonderful therapeutic technique, especially for entrepreneurs.
When you think about it, our brains are a vast sea of complexity that create every part of our reality, yet so few of us take time to explore it at greater depths. I have never understood why so many people don't make it a life-long priority to better understand how their brains work. When it comes to physical fitness many of us are willing to spend countless hours and thousands of dollars to get the body we want. Just imagine the possibilities if we put the same priority into strengthening our minds.
Over the past few years I have started to take a hard look at areas in my life where I was detached and unaware on a regular basis. After an initial period of feeling like, "It's not me who isn't present, it's everyone else," I came to the realization of how pervasive this problem of detachment has been in my life. In my efforts to get better at it I started to realize that cultivating awareness wasn't so much about creating new habits as it was about unlearning and breaking old habits.
In this era of information overload many of us find ourselves engulfed by a never-ending stream of distractions. In addition, we've created habits that block us from being present. These habits (which we think are helpful) operate under the disguise of "busyness." We use busyness as our answer/excuse for everything. "How is work going? It's good! But busy. Busy, busy, busy. You know how it goes." I feel like when it comes to busyness, I've been the king. I've worn it as a badge of honor, a rite of passage as an entrepreneur. Now thanks to smartphones (which I have a sincere love/hate relationship with) our lives are only becoming more complex, more stressful and more distracting. It's this curse of entropy that plagues entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, some of the greatest advancements in technology created to help us get sh*t done are also the ones distracting us from actually getting sh*t done. Technology is a paradox - it can be liberating, but it also imprisons us at the same time.
Technology presents us with an abundance of distractions that come at us from all directions. We have an unhealthy relationship with these distractions. They take us away from being present. They soothe us with their ability to shield us from what needs to be done. But let's face it - many of us are addicted to being distracted. We are head-over-heels for anything that pulls our attention away from the present moment. When we're in this distraction mode we are in a reactive state of mind. We are forever waiting with angst for something to do - a problem to solve, a fire to extinguish, a task to complete. As a result, we condition ourselves to live with one hand on the holster, waiting for the right moment to pull the trigger, and the other hand is scrolling through our smartphone looking for the next big (or little) thing to catch our attention. For many of us this reactive state of mind starts to breathe anxiety into our lives.
Speaking of email...I believe it's one of the most distracting activities we do that takes us away from being present. I'm not talking about checking your email a couple of times a day. I'm talking about the tendency many of us have to check it every 10 - 15 minutes (or more). Some studies report we spend an average of 6.2 hours each day checking email. And we wonder where all our times goes? What critical problems are we really solving by living in our inbox, and how much more effective could we be if we spent a little more time outside of that box?
Social media is another habit that eats away at our ability to be present. It's our human nature that causes us to not want to miss out on anything. However, our desire to be connected with others drives us away from actually being with others. Our F.O.M.O. keeps us refreshing our Facebook and Instagram feeds almost as often as we check email. What's interesting is that when our minds are stuck in the data cloud we end up missing more important events going on in our businesses, our lives, and our environment. Between our obsession with "inbox zero" and our addiction to social media, I don't know how we get anything done in this state of mind. It's a damn Christmas miracle if you ask me.
Mindfulness, like any new skill, takes time to learn, but a lifetime to perfect. With any long-term endeavor, starting with the right foundation is an obvious requirement. The right instruction will allow you to build upon your progress over time so you'll see legitimate, sustainable growth each time you practice. As part of my own mental fitness efforts, one of the most impactful areas I've worked on has been cultivating mindfulness and how to be more present in everyday life. I've found numerous tools that have helped me combat these mental addictions to help me become more mindful and aware, but it would be tough to describe them all here (feel free to contact me on Twitter @jtpo for a longer list). Activities like yoga and meditation (especially the Headspace app) have helped me tremendously. I'm definitely still learning how to really utilize these practices, but I feel like I'm making solid progress. In theory, being present is such a simple concept. In reality, it's a whole other story. Training our brains to be present, or more mindful, creates more open space in our consciousness. This space enables us to identify new and exciting opportunities. It helps us identify underlying issues that may be plaguing our organizations. It helps us notice the world around us. In its absence we lose our focus and fall into a reactive state of mind, taking orders from our emotions and our environment.
Cultivating more awareness by being present allows you to function with 100% mental clarity, something too many entrepreneurs say they wish they had more of. Applying a mindfulness practice allows you to return to a more natural, pure state of mind. Again, it's not so much about learning new tactics or habits, but more about unlearning old ones.
"To make room for something new, you must remove something old." - Anonymous
When you shift your mentality away from a reactive state of mind you end up creating a beautiful, blank canvas that allows you to be ready for new and improved opportunities and ideas. You create more time to connect with the people around you. You create opportunities to observe what's going on in your business. And you end up with more time to focus on what really matters to you in your life.
Who doesn't want more of that?