Recently I gave a talk to a group of Infusionsoft Partners and small business owners about my 10 laws of marketing and customer-centric business strategies.
One of the things I took away the most after listening to everyone and answering questions was the amount of fear people experience when trying to do something new and the fact that being mindful or being in the present is something not many people make a practice of doing or even understand how to do.
Being mindful or staying in and understanding what you're doing in the present is a practice that keeps you moving in the right direction and allows you to be conscious of when you start to fall off track, become distracted, or become aware of when your emotions take over.
How many times have you been working hard only to find yourself watching cat videos on Facebook or engulfed into a lengthy online debate that has no bearing on your professional or personal life?
Now in those instances how quickly were you able to recognize that you were sucked in and were you able to pull yourself out of it and back to what you were doing?
This is a huge piece of being mindful and you can practice this to become more aware of what you're doing in the present and when you get distracted from what you are doing.
If I'm focused for example I can keep working with people screaming and yelling around me, the entire building burning down or complete chaos happing and I won't even move a muscle or fall off track.
The point here is if you want to develop a level of mindfulness to where you can overcome distractions you have to practice it in your everyday life.
Start to make it a point to identify when you become distracted and fall off track. Stop at that moment and say:
"I'm distracted and now it's time to go back to what I was doing"
Say this every single time you fall off track and after a while, it will be a sub-conscience thought process you go through that will begin to automatically pull you back into what you were doing.
This is incredibly useful when you're trying to argue a point or when you feel emotions start to come out when working with other people.
In these situations, you work to take a step back and think about the emotions you are feeling at that very moment.
Say to yourself "Is this how I really feel or is this the product of letting my emotions take over?"
By doing this and understanding when you get distracted you will build a sense of mindfulness that allows you to understand where you are at in the present and what you are doing. From this, you can maximize your productivity and move away from letting emotions take you over in arguments.
This is not easy to do and won't happen in a day and that's why we need to follow this exercise to make sure that we are installing the process into our thoughts and minds every single day.
It doesn't take meditation or yoga to do this, but if that helps you clear your head to be more aware than add it to your routine as well!
Take this blog as a way to learn how to be more aware in the present and create a sense of awareness of who you are and what you're doing at all times.
Try this out and let me know how it goes!
