Unlock your best future: design your life

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7 Things about Mindfulness your Boss wants to Know

If you and your workmates were practising mindfulness, it is just what you do, what difference would it make in the workplace?

Research shows that mindfulness can:

Reduce stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms
Increase resilience and peace of mind
Enhance cognitive performance
Improve study and work performance
Improve relationships and overall wellbeing

With all the scientific research that has been done and is being done about mindfulness, and more research specifically on practising mindfulness in the workplace, your boss wants to know the answer to that question.

What is mindfulness and why would your boss want to know?

Mindfulness is becoming aware of your here and now experience, you are learning to pay attention with the objective to develop and improve who you are.
Many of my previous posts focus on designing your best life, unlocking your best future with the key idea of mindfulness, the self awareness and objective self-observation to help you change your thoughts - change your mind, build your resilience, manage your emotions, new connections in your mind and new connections in your life. Here are links to some of the posts ...

When you are not mindful it can look like this....remember if you do some or even most of these things at times, you are very much normal.

Breaking things, spilling things, clumsiness, accidents because of carelessness, inattention or thinking about something else.
Failing to notice subtle or not-so-subtle feelings of physical discomfort, pain, tension etc.
Forgetting someone’s name as soon as you hear it.
Listening to someone with one ear while doing something else at the same time.
Getting so focussed on goals that I lose touch with what I am doing right now.
Getting lost in my thoughts and feelings.
Being preoccupied with the future or the past.
Eating without being aware of eating.
Having periods of time where you have difficulty remembering the details of what happened – running on autopilot.
Reacting emotionally in certain ways – feeling like an emotion just “came out of nowhere”.
Doing several things at once rather than focussing on one thing at a time.
Distracting yourself with things like eating, alcohol, pornography, drugs.

ref: mindfulness.org

Why your boss wants to know, is that the connection mindfulness can make to a positive and productive organisational culture and climate. A workplace with improved working relationships, collaboration, less stress, more creativity, more focus and change ready individuals.

Here are 7 things about mindfulness your boss wants to know...

Mindfulness practice...

1. Can improve performance

You will notice clarity in your thoughts and a focus to the end result. No more need for time management courses, you can do away with procrastination and get on with the job. You are calm and confident and can deal with each obstacle as it comes to you.

"I get everything done I have to get done today"

2. Can lessen emotional reactivity

When you are mindful, you are in charge of your mind, you are in charge of your results. You are present in the moment and can discipline your emotions. Leadership is a part of your character, you seek collaboration and look for ways through rather than ways to block. You are developing the skill of self-observation and there is a clear, concise vision and values.

"Everything is always working out for me."

3. Can improve focus and memory

Your mindfulness practice is showing results in your short term memory. You focus more on achieving and completing. Your mind and your thoughts are not wandering as much and your attention is focused on now.

"Let go of small thoughts. See yourself succeeding"

4. Can improve observation and listening skills

Because your awareness is heightened, it stands to reason your observation and listening skills are set to improve. Your mediation skills are sharpening as you focus on alignment and building empathy.

"Win the heart to change the mind."

5. Can increase your solution focus and creativity

When you are in an anxious environment your brain does not store positives, you only recall what has gone wrong. When you practise mindfulness you create an environment of stability, an opportunity to see solutions from a creative point of view.

"Our own limitations are those we set up in our own mind." Napoleon Hill

6. Can improve your stress management

We know excessive stress and our lack of awareness of what triggers us to suffer will show up in our emotional responses, our performance and our productivity. It shows up in less work days and in our physiology. If the practice of mindfulness can take the sting out of your response to situations that cause stress, it is worth it to invest the time and improve your health and wellbeing.

"To be conscious of one's own shadow is the first step to self awareness. " Carl Jung

7. Define your own motivation

If the boss needs to motivate you, they probably don't want to hire you or keep you on.
A spin off from improving your focus and clarity is that you know what will motivate you. An extrinsic motivator, such as goals help to concentrate the mind. The vision and goals map out the why, what and how. When you match this with the intrinsic motivators of creativity and you find your work is something to pursue even in the absence of a return.

"Every man is what he is because of dominating thoughts which he permits to occupy his mind. Thoughts which he deliberately places in his own mind and encourages with sympathy and with which he mixes emotion constitute the motivating forces which direct and control his every moment and deed. ' Napoleon Hill

How to practice mindfulness

Here are a few I use, please discover more practises that will work for you. There are certainly many to apply, it has been around for many centuries.

Self awareness practices like yoga and meditation are my first go to as it helps me to pay attention and to focus my deep breathing. This will quieten the mind, slow down the beta brain waves and critical buzzing thoughts and to move to the alpha state when the brain waves are slower and I appreciate the creative and imaginative mind I have. As I am in this state I am learning to acknowledge my thoughts, no judgement and then let them go, no reaction or emotion.
Wake up to gentle music, drink water before any coffee or tea. Appreciate that the day is my best day.
I give myself the space, so when the negative gets me down or the thoughts I have are not to my benefit, I use the word change as the trigger to observe my thoughts. This usually catches me to raise my empathy.

It doesn't matter what happened yesterday what matters is what you are going to do today.

Unlock your best future

My words are centred in the desire and intention to help people bring about their best and connect to their best future.
http://isucceed.info

Attention Seeking

You live in a universe of attraction, not in a universe of exclusion.

Give your attention to it, and that will be the result of your experience.

Embrace the contrast, the good and not so good, that is in your life.

Be more friendly about the components of your environment.
Even though they are not the way you want them.

Ease up

Be more friendly to yourself, more easy with yourself, more aware.

Approach your life acknowledging that it is all good and among the good there is that which you prefer.

If I make peace with the fact that where I am standing is the place not yet where I want to be, yet,
I know the place I want to be is stretched out before me.

Make peace with what is and what is will begin showing you.

The only thing that is necessary for me is to
continue to define what I want and believe what I want can be.

I know for sure there will be never ending evidence of getting to where I want.

You can make a better place by your standards.

You can add to this world in a very positive way but it is your concern about things that are not going well that keep you from doing that.

Never stop reaching for more, reaching for more on purpose.

Everything is always working out for me

Things are always working out for me

Apply my attention to things that are working out for me.

Define what things to be working out for me

What is the evidence.

What rings my bell.

Looking for things that we want to see

Define

Make lists

Never stop reaching for more, reaching for more on purpose.

Everything is always working out for me

Things are always working out for me

Define - Make Lists

There is a confidence about me, and the confidence guides me to where I am to go.
My timing is right for me and I am riding on momentum.
I know the Universal forces are working with me
A full sense of who I am.
Look into this world and appreciate all that has been before that has led to what is right now.
I would like to live in a constant state of appreciation.
I am an uplifter, anyone who comes into contact with me, to feel better after contact with me.
Trust in the law of attraction and trust the information it gives to me.
I want to be all that I was born to be.
I want to have fun.
I want to have clarity.
I want to wake up eager for the day.
I want to sleep well.
I want to eat well.
I want others to eat well.
I want all children to go to bed with a full belly.
I want children to know their value.
I want opportunities to help them know it.
I am a catalyst to others to feel good.
Consistently in my own joy.
I would like to control my good and not so good times better.
It is better to see the problem come in the form of a question to seek an answer.
I am going to take good care of me.
I am going to do my best to feel good more of the time.
My intention is to keep my promise to myself more of the time.

These words are from the Abraham-Hicks Meditation Video, and the wisdom in these words lit a fire in me. I am excited to share these words with you here. There are many kind and wise people in our world who are more than willing to guide us on our journey. Look out for them and be open, in turn, to be the guide for others.

Unlock your best future

My words are centred in the desire and intention to help people bring about their best and connect to their best future.
http://isucceed.info

Time Traveller

If I said to you, you are a time traveller, would you believe me?

We all travel into the past, at every chance we get. A smell, a word, a song can trigger your memory and you are transported back to that event in your past.

Time travelling to the past is an easy feat that we all do and we are so good at it, we go to the past as a source for what we want in our future. Your feelings can anchor you so much to the past and those past events. You can believe so much of your past that you will go out of your way to recreate it for your future.

What that can mean for us is that the past dictates how the future will be. There is a finite pattern created from past to now to ~~future~~ past, or for some, just staying in the past and believing there can be no change, no better future.

As a time traveller you have the expertise to travel in the past...why not the future? You can expand your thinking to dream of a future and imagine what it will look like. You can be attentive to new thoughts of what your future can be so well that you can believe it as an experience with emotion.

The emotion and the experience become so familiar to you that you see this as your present reality, you can now be ahead of time and move into the future you are creating.

Can you believe in a future that you can't see or experience with your senses yet? When you are ready the possibilities become infinite.

When I started to think about time travel, I knew it is a great story line for a sic-fi movie, but when you think about it, if we spend so much time in our past of how we think and behave, and that our behaviour is linked to our past, then yes, we really do time travel, it is more fact than fiction..it is just always back to our past.

We know the past is comforting, it is familiar, the past has such a strong hold on us, we keep the habits, even though we want to stop, we make the same mistakes, even though we want something better and we believe the things that limit us.

Now as the past is so real, we see it in our present and in our future, then why not use time travel to create a future. We can create in our imagination, create new beliefs and new behaviours. A future that will open us up to infinite possibilities. We can create a new reality.

To increase your ability for time travel to infinite possibilities.

The first step is to know that your mind does what it thinks you want it to do.

To prepare, consider this....

1. Use filtering for thoughts and words by letting in praise from yourself and from others. Strengthen the belief in your unique earthly footprint. Catch the thoughts and words from yourself and from others that limit you and keep you in past beliefs. Tell yourself how much you like you.

2. See yourself as bulletproof and your future is your design. When you default to doubt, this belief will hold you back and keep you stuck. Give yourself the time to create, select. design, define the new possibilities. Give it detail, give it emotion. Stretch your thinking and enjoy the experience.

3. React to past thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that are not for your benefit. Become acutely aware of those actions and when you do, stop and say the word "change" . When you hear yourself saying phrases like" I am not confident", "this always happens to me"...say the word "Change" and replace that thought with, "I am always confident", "I make things happen". Change your thoughts to how you see yourself now and in the future.

So to a fellow time traveller, I see a great future for you!
Design your best future and congratulations to you and your interesting life.

Unlock your best future

My words are centred in the desire and intention to help people bring about their best and connect to their best future.
http://isucceed.info

Design your Life

Would you like to design your life, live on purpose and thrive?

Here are simple effective purposeful actions to go from reaction chaser to decision maker.

Everyday actions to set you up to design and create.

Putting you in a position to open up to your best life.

Fine tuning your everyday to make a big difference.

Here are 5 small actions that will lead you away from just being busy with a maintenance focus to directed and purpose driven.

Action 1

The first action is to focus on the words you are thinking and the words you are saying. The words that limit who you are and how you see yourself.

When you hear the words SHOULD, COULD, BUT come bubbling out from your mouth stop yourself and replace with CAN and WILL.

Yes, there are more words that will tend to hold us back from change. These two CAN and WILL do get you thinking about the words that you use regularly without a second thought. Now your intention is to focus on deliberate thought and words that will make a difference to your outlook.

Action 2

Another action is fine tuning your participation in what you do.

A good place to start is with the unconscious competent tasks, the ones you have mastered and now do without a second thought, those actions like brushing your teeth, tie your shoelace, your morning routine, driving to work, the everyday greetings to others. The skills that when you were first learning seemed difficult and now are easy.

OK, now look at them in detail, enjoy the moment, look at it with fresh eyes and see how competent and skilful you are now. You are not taking those skills for granted, you had to work at it and now you do them without your mind really participating.

Keep going, look for more skills you do every day and how you now make the difficult look so easy.

You are mindful now of the tasks that you do and appreciate that the more difficult and the new require your full attention.

Action 3

Actions 1 and 2 are all about raising your attention to be deliberate in your thoughts, words and skills.

This next one is for you to create the structure in your everyday routine. The type of structure that pulls down the excuses of priority shifting, waiting for when life slows down or too busy right now, maybe later.

Schedule your day, week, month with this in mind

Know what you want and why
Know what you want to avoid and why

next

Plan, prioritise and goal set
Watch for the blindspots that cause you to be distracted
Keep the options to a minimum

then

Measure and reflect on how are you doing
Ask your critical friend or coach to help you be accountable

Action 4

Put your focus where you can make the most difference. Challenge yourself everyday with these daily questions.

What are the most important things in my life?
Did I do my best? For a great range of "Did I do my best... questions", visit Marshall Goldsmth's site.

Marshall Goldsmith "Did I do my best.." questions

Action 5

Be kind to yourself, be your own best friend.

Replace the silly stories you have about yourself with affirming life giving stories.

Your mind and body have heard and acknowledged the stories of not good enough and you will get resistance initially. Keep going, this one can be tough to break. You are now making the shift to have praise and worthiness the new familiar in your mind. Replace the fault finding with a strong self belief and a talent for finding joy.

How many times have you started out with the big idea to design your life, to live on purpose, to be deliberate in action and create something great for your life, while all the time you were feeling that it wasn't going to happen?

For change to happen there needs to be a match with your thoughts and your feelings.

For change to happen there is a strong desire, an emotional connection to want and be the change.

My hope as you use these 5 small actions, it will start you on the path of designing your life to be the best you.

Unlock your best future

My words are centred in the desire and intention to help people bring about their best and connect to their best future.
http://isucceed.info

Focus on the WHY.

I have repeated this quote over and over, because when this really sunk into my psyche, and I finally acknowledged that the circumstances I have landed myself into in the past were of my choosing, I knew I could turn it all around.

I can choose to cut out the frustration and confusion and really start designing my own life. I can make the decision to cut out the pleasing others and living up to other's expectations.

When you choose to design your life, you have made the discovery that it is not the circumstances that rule your life but it is the choices you have made to be in those circumstances. Every choice has brought you to where you are now. The choices that you will make now and in the future will be the difference to create your best life.

Good choices come from a strong belief in knowing what you want from life and why it is best for you. I realised that I had spent way too much time on the detail of what I wanted to achieve and how I would go about doing it.

I missed the most important step.

I was making choices but the focus was on the what, how and when...not giving much thought to why.

I start out with great intentions when setting up goals and the steps to make it happen only to see my goals would fall away, my motivation would come and go and I would get confused about where to concentrate my actions and my energy. This was the dark side of goal setting and the right conditions for stress levels to go up, for my motivation to go down and to lower expectations.

The most important step is to give time to think about the why for my life and how I wanted to live it. My decisions needed to be based on good foundations of what I valued and goals that would enrich my priorities. When the WHY is clear, the goals stop being mechanical.

Why Focus on the WHY? Because...

Your momentum of desire gains force and you are determined.
You have a focus on your success and your determination strengthens the belief in yourself.
Motivation now comes easily to you.
There is no wishing or wavering what you are determined to make happen.
You don't let fear run your life.
No more crash and burn.
You inspire others and they will want to support you.
There is a clearing of your path as your WHY is clear and you are determined to own your goals and make them happen.
WHY creates the emotion in your decision making.
Your reasons WHY are consistent with what you are doing and how you are doing.

Ready to design your life, create your best life?

Ready to firm your decisions with your best argument, your WHY?

Ready to set the goals of your desire?

Ready to set yourself up for your success?

Unlock your best future

My words are centred in the desire and intention to help people bring about their best and connect to their best future.
http://isucceed.info