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| Aug 23 2007, 11:58 AM EDT (current) | jimglab | 1 photo added |
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winning strategies
by Nancy Spears
September 2007
Training the mind can result in a stronger bottom line.
What is the consciousness of your workplace?
Does your company encourage a motivating, creative environment for employees to do good work with passion? Are you and your employees mindfully aware of your work-related intentions each day?
When employees carry a sense of commitment driven by pure intention to make a positive impact, they stimulate personal power that goes beyond the work itself. This path requires tapping into our hearts and minds to bring wisdom and compassion into the workplace.
In a rushed work environment, we often lose site of our vision and may actually get in the way of our own success. We create mental obstacles that block us from winning a new piece of business, communicating with a boss or employee, or maximizing our profitability. I call these obstacles the “hot spots.”
The hot spots include our own fears, aggression and anxiety. These thoughts usually revolve around getting what we want—right now—and they can be all-consuming. But we are the keepers of our minds, and we can decide to regulate our thoughts so they become more positive and productive, leading to successful results. With discipline and practice, we can train our minds to behave.
When we teach ourselves awareness and mindfulness, we create the space to think. By slowing down our thoughts and focusing on the space between the thoughts, we begin to expand our creativity, our productivity and ultimately our bottom-line profitability.
But how do we catch a thought as it occurs? This seems like a simple task. Yet, as intelligent and in control as we appear, we may frequently find ourselves ina neurotic state of mind, incapable of letting go of a specific thought.
For each of the three primary levels of obsession with negative thought, there is a recommended approach for handling it.
Subtle Negativity: Process and let go
The first level involves negative thoughts on a minor or subtle level. Most executives accept and deal with these thoughts daily. For example, say you’re scheduled for a potentially unpleasant meeting with an employee in which you will give critical feedback. As your day begins, you think about the meeting, and your stress level rises. These thoughts have the potential to consume your morning—but by being aware of your anxiety, you can choose to control your mind.
You acknowledge the thought and release it, knowing that you will eventually deal with the meeting in the present. This step involves processing thought as simply “thinking,” then letting it go.
“Hot” Thought: Acknowledge the situation is workable
The second form of thought, known as hot thought, is a bit stickier. This involves our minds working at a speedier pace. Our thoughts are so “hot,” or intense, that we cannot let them go. Instead, we attach to the thoughts and make them real. That is, we write the end of the story before we have experienced every chapter leading up to it. Hot thoughts have the potential to consume our mind in the moment. When we attach to our hot thoughts, the best approach is again to acknowledge the thought, then tell yourself that the situation will eventually pass, and that it is workable. Just believing that a condition may be faced and overcome will provide the relief that you need to avoid obsession.
Say you’re scheduled to meet with an employee for the purpose of terminating his job. This person has worked for you for a long time, and you care about his happiness. However, you know that this decision is best for the organization, and perhaps even for the employee. On the day of the meeting, you cannot stop thinking about it and the likely discomfort for both you and the employee. However, you can still function—and by telling yourself the situation is workable, you can focus on other aspects of your job.
Wild Mind: Ride the emotion with confidence
Occasionally, certain situations are so overtly difficult that we must turn 100 percent of our attention and efforts toward them. During such times, we must maintain focus and control our thoughts in order to achieve a positive outcome. When we do not exercise complete control and clarity of mind, we may experience the third and most intense form of thought: “wild mind.”
Wild mind is the most extreme level of how our minds can handle thoughts. Essentially, a specific thought or series of thoughts consumes us, such that we cannot think of anything else. In fact, we may experience such a neurotic spinout that it becomes difficult to control our immediate thoughts. This type of anxiety usually involves a critical situation: a stock crash, the loss of a colleague, the loss of a job or times of national terror or disaster, such as
September 11, 2001.
When confronted with wild mind, we are in a position to ride the wave of the situation, in order to experience relief and joy when change eventually occurs. By staying present with our neurosis, we feel the emotion to such a degree that our creativity and ability to solve problems meets its edge. Wild mind provides no other choice than to stay with our thoughts until the spin slows down or disappears. We are not capable of immediate rebound. Instead, we steer straight ahead with confidence that time will heal, or at least provide our minds with some relief.
When we begin to train our minds, we can usually stop negative and neurotic thoughts before they ever reach the wild mind state. This training lays the foundation for a joyful, successful life.
Mindful meditation can help us condition our minds and focus our thoughts. By setting an intention to stay in the moment, we begin to cultivate mindfulness. When we are mindful, we are aware and open. With a conscious awareness of what is happening in the moment, we move to a wiser sense of being.
The more we train our minds to concentrate without condition, the more prolific we will become at accessing our wisdom. This is where pure, effective communication begins.
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Path to Enlightening Your Workplace and Improving Your Bottom Line.
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