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Mindfulness

A career is enhanced by being thoughtful. Find time to pause during the day to evaluate the effectiveness of actions taken. That's what we used to do back then when we took lunch.

It was an opportunity to debrief the morning, often with colleagues, and then to effectively address the core concerns in the afternoon.

We've lost lunch, so what are other ways to induce this pause. Find a water cooler moment to check in with someone else--be deliberate. Go beyond "nice day out," and "how was the weekend," and introduce, if only for yourself, a moment to reflect on "how busy" it is today and one "adjustment" you might make today to ease the stress so it's channeled well instead of over-running you.

Will you breathe before returning that voicemail? Will you count silently while the client berates and demands, maybe even curses and ask the person to bring the tone down to a professional level so you can address their concerns? Will you stop before you work 10 hours today realizing that effectiveness drops significantly after we reach double digit hours worked in one day, and make note of the things to address first the next day after you've got some rest?

Mindfulness: a pause in action to focus the next actions so that you're more effective. Call it meditation, or what you will, it is the additive to our human doingness that allows our human beingness.

Work well.

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