It’s difficult to be Mindful when you have a mind full of stuff to do, so here are some ideas based on the 4C’s Mental Toughness model.
Firstly, stay in Control of what you are doing; it’s very easy to get caught up in the frenzy of never ending Zooms, Teams, Webex, or writing reports that never get looked at. Decide what you want to be doing; don’t let your environment decide for you.
Sure, there will be some meetings that you will “have” to attend even if you don’t want to, there will be reports that you “have” to complete even if they have no use and there will be project reviews where you will “have” to be there; but these should be kept to a minimum; I try to keep to the 80:20 rule – 80% of the stuff I am involved in, is because I want to be involved.
Secondly, stay Committed, stay in focus, it’s easy to start thinking about the next meeting or the next interview or the next whatever; but that’s not where you are now. If something does come into my head that I have forgotten, I quickly find an opportunity either to send myself a text message or make a note somewhere – that way I can forget about it without forgetting it.
What is important is delivering what needs to be delivered “here & now”; not what was delivered last time or what will be delivered next time.
Thirdly, stay in the flow. Take Challenges as an opportunity to grow and learn; don’t try to avoid “difficult” situations but at the same time be aware as to when you are clearly outside your comfort zone.
Some say that “great things happen outside the comfort zone”; getting out of your comfort zone should help you to grow it and hence feel more comfortable in difficult situations.
For that growth to happen you need to take time afterwards to reflect and learn on what you experienced.
Fourthly, stay Confident. Don’t attack others or defend yourself when attacked; build cohesion with others. They may know more than you about some subjects, but that’s not a problem – as long as you are sure about what you are supposed to know.
Be affirmative (without being aggressive) with regards to what you know; if you are sure about what you know, avoid phrases like, “I think”, “to the best of my knowledge”, “it’s just my opinion”, etc.
It’s not easy to stay Mindful and we can all lose it on occasions but reflecting quickly on the 4C’s can help bring us back to the “here & now”
Why am I here?
What am I doing?
What am I learning?
What am I talking about?
I help people to develop their interpersonal skills, usually within a leadership or teamwork context. If you are looking to develop your leadership, I might be able to help. I’ve been doing this for 35 years; roughly three and half thousand days of seminars, workshops, conferences, coaching, offsites, etc. – put back-to-back that makes almost ten “full” years.