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“To a mind that is still
the whole universe surrenders.”
Lao Tzu.
“It’s just the price you have to pay”.
So said the ‘successful’ business person sitting in front of me.
We were talking about the pervasiveness of busyness in the modern world – or more specifically, the pervasiveness of a busy mind.
I used to believe the same thing.
I don’t any more. I can’t from what I’ve seen with clients and with myself.
The truth is you can be busy in your world BUT have a calm mind. And that makes a world of a difference to everything. Your energy, your clarity, your mood, your communication, your thinking, your creativity and your results.
When you have relentless thinking in your mind, as most do in today’s busy world, there are some serious consequences:
1.It’s exhausting: Over-thinking drains your mental energy, which is what enables your willpower, creativity, resilience, clarity, focus, insights and confidence. In the Digital 24/7 age, our minds are relentlessly assaulted with distraction and interruptions. We are encouraging ‘Over-Think’ by the way our lives, our organisations and our world is set up. This is one of the reasons why 65% of people are on the edge of burn-out.
2. It clouds your clarity: It’s impossible to have true clarity or vision when your mind is relentlessly busy with thinking – even if it’s positive. Leaders that don’t make time for clarity will find themselves experiencing ‘brain-fog’ more and more.
3. It disconnects you: When your mind becomes blizzard like with thinking, it creates a feeling of overwhelm and usually people go into a state of paralysis. This will be an increasing challenge as the world becomes more uncertain and volatile. This state of stress disconnects you from your talent, skill and inner wisdom. It is what I’m seeing more and more with clients when I first meet them.
Having a busy mind, regardless of the quality of thoughts in that mind is not the path to mastery, high performance or better leadership. And it’s certainly not a recipe for happiness, peace of mind or fulfilment.
A busy mind is very bad for true success and it’s very bad for business.
Research has shown that one of the habits of high achievers is that they take a mental break roughly every hour. They will focus intently on something for about 50 minutes, then take a break for 5-10 minutes. But during that break they deliberately relax their minds.
Why?
Because they’ve figured out at some level, that they get the best from themselves when they build in regular moments of calm and clarity into their day i.e. they do it deliberately.
What’s the price you’re willing to pay for inner calm?
What will you do deliberately to build more moments of calm into your work day?
Shane
P.S. If you’d like to explore the above concept in more detail and learn other insightful ways of leading and living at a higher level, consider joining me for my MindShift program. You need to register soon as the program starts early October. Book your place here.
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