MUSTER 013

 My husband and I listen to audiobooks on leadership together and then like to have discussions about them: how we can implement strategies, what our biggest weaknesses are, what might be difficult about the strategy we are listening to, etc.  One of the leadership books we listened to was Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin who are both former Navy Seals.  Well, those two incredible gentlemen took what they learned from the military and their book and started their own leadership consulting business called Echelon Front.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend their MUSTER conference in Dallas, Texas.  It is a two-and-a-half-day leadership conference where you are immersed in extreme ownership and get to meet other leaders from various industries around the country.  In my honest opinion, this was the best leadership seminar/conference I have ever been to.  Their principles of extreme ownership are impactful and one of the parts that really made me think was "tactical victory, but strategic loss".

When we are thinking strategically, we are thinking big picture: the purpose, goal, or mission that you have in your work or home.  When we are thinking tactically, we are thinking about the little things that pop up and cause chaos in our lives, and they are not necessarily key in advancing the overall mission/purpose.  They even gave an example of this happening in your personal life: when you bring work home and focus on it so much, that it is at your family's expense: hard work pays for a good and solid lifestyle, but if you are doing that at the expense of missing out on your kids' life, is it a strategic or tactical win?

For some reason, that just hit home for me and it made me analyze what I do and work on that help propel me to the goal (graduate with my doctorate and take over the world...kidding on that last part) and what are things that are white noise and distractions.  

Overall it was so empowering and I made not only great connections but great friends!  Below are a few photos from the event; I normally do not post photos, but when you take pictures with former Navy Seals, it is worth sharing.

Me with Jocko Willink

Me with Leif Babin

*They look super intimidating but were some of the nicest people I have ever met*

Time Management

I have always been under the assumption that multi-tasking was the way to be; I can focus on and complete multiple things at once and get twice as much accomplished in half the time.  Even if I am not performing multiple tasks at once, I am usually thinking about more than one task at a time.  I attended the Women's Assembly Zoom from Echelon Front this month and this was actually one of the things they recommended steering away from...color me shocked!  But why?  Why focus on one thing when I can focus on two?

One hostess of the Zoom talked about how she would have 15 things on her list to get done and only manage to get 3 of them accomplished; she couldn't believe it!  So she did an audit on her time and found that she spent the majority of her day wasting time versus actually getting after her to-do list.  She said that one of the reasons she wasted her time was that she wasn't prioritizing tasks, she was multi-tasking and trying to get everything accomplished at the same time.

This made sense to me and made me reflect on my own To-Do list that I have; and in thinking about priority, I re-wrote it to have the higher priority items towards the top and then rank the rest of the list.  Normally, I don't even list them numerically, I just put a dash and write and item and do that for the entire list.  Basically, all levels of priorities are a jumble and there wasn't any formal organization-everything was listed in the order it came into my brain.  

For this upcoming week, I am going to try and be more intentional with my To-Do list: I am going to break it down by day of the week and prioritize my items by importance and day.  This way I am not overwhelmed by completing all necessary and high ticket items on one day and fluffing the rest; my goal I to have more order and structure to my lists and therefore, less wasted time.  

We shall see how it goes! Does anyone else find that they get scattered when they try and multi-task?  Any other good planning tips?

For more information on the Women's Assembly, please check out their website here

“Mindfulness” Has to Go

Mindfulness is a transformative quality—I truly believe that. I have seen what mindfulness can do firsthand in my work with college students, teachers, and others. It can bring focus, peace of mind, productivity, agency, calm, stress-reduction, and other positive change.

            I use the term in my teaching (I teach an undergraduate course called Mindfulness & Learning), in meditation workshops, and in my writing (dissertation, journal articles). I’m guilty of relying on the word since society has become so familiar with it. It’s purely for marketing reasons, I suppose.

            But I don’t like the word, “mindfulness.”

First, things are often lost in translation. The word, mindfulness, a practice originating within Buddhism in about 500 B.C.E. comes from the Sanskrit word, smrit, which means to remember.  Funny how that word is never associated with current notions of mindfulness. For instance, remember what? One’s cell phone number (good luck with that). 

Popular definitions of mindfulness generally describe it as a quality of present-moment, centered awareness or as mindfulness pioneer, Jon Kabat Zinn added, “paying attention on purpose” and in a “non-judgmental manner.” I particularly like Buddhist psychotherapist Miles Neale’s version, the idea that mindfulness gives us “recognition and choice.” This has an empowering ring.

            Maybe so many definitions have emerged around mindfulness because the word itself was not a good one to begin with in the West. Consider how it sounds: mind—ful. The mind is full of something, it’s occupied. That’s actually not it at all. 

A meditative mind is open, completely present—what Zen masters might call, no mind. 

But if we start calling it no-mind that doesn’t work either; people start thinking “hey, why would I want to go around without a mind. That doesn’t sound intelligent.”

Complicating matters is the word, mindfulness, has become pop-cultured thanks to capitalism. There are face creams, candles, dice, necklaces, pet food, and snacks—using the word “mindfulness” in some form. I’m personally not sure how eating bags of organic popcorn makes me more mindful (compared to eating something else), though I do enjoy it.

So what do we call this quality? What do we do about this word?

I think if we trace “mindfulness’ back to its roots, the Buddha’s significant contribution to the world was the practice of “watching.” He taught to watch the breath, to watch the sensations in the body, to watch when walking, eating, doing daily chores, to watch emotions arise and fall. To increase awareness, we develop the skill or quality of watchfulness.

The late meditation master and controversial guru, Osho, used the term, witnessing. For example, when meditating, simply sit and witness the breath, witness the thoughts without evaluating. That seems to be more of what we are doing when we practice “mindfulness.” 

We are watching or witnessing our inner dimension—without judgement—so we can know ourselves, be centered, and less reactive.

Maybe as time goes on, we will adopt a new word, a new way of describing this quality. Maybe I need to change the titles of my courses, my trainings, my future book—who knows? Let’s just watch and see what happens.

-Steve

To chat with Steve more about mindfulness and not mindfulness, please email him here.  Thank you Steve for talking with us about this topic!

Change of Scenery

 One of the prominent tips I have come across is utilizing movement in mindfulness practice.  Now that can look super regimented by a scheduled fitness class you attend weekly, a dog walk, weight lifting, etc.  However, I have found that we need movement in our work schedules as well as our off schedules, but how do we fit that in while at work?

Incorporating movement into your life sounds a little intense, and kind of like a job or chore that must be done.  Instead, I like to think of it as changing my scenery.  On your lunch and weather permitting, go outside and breathe in the fresh air and the sunshine, take a ten-minute break to walk a lap around the building, get a stand-up desk, even walk to the bathroom.  These are little ways that break up your day and give you a chance to get the blood flowing and change your scenery, even for a few minutes.  

Changing your scenery gives you the chance to mentally (and physically) step away from what you're working on and gain perspective.  When I have a problem that I am working through, I like to step away from it and think about it without it staring me in the face.  Even if that is just walking a lap or two around the kitchen table; it gives me the space to regroup and start again.  Doing this when you don't have a problem is just as effective; we all need to step away for a minute and give ourselves the chance to regroup, breathe in different air, and have a new perspective.

How do you utilize changing your scenery?

*Next week we will have a guest on the blog!  My friend Steve will be joining us and talking about what mindfulness means to him!  Make sure you stop by and check it out! 

Here is a little about him:

Steve is an assistant professor of education at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. His scholarship involves embedding meditation and mindfulness practices into teacher education and higher education. His current research focuses on introducing brief meditation with college students prior to instruction as a way to prepare the mind for learning, de-stress, and build community. Personally, Steve has been a meditator for 26 years.

Write It Down

According to research everywhere, journaling is a tool that you can use to help make sense of all thoughts and feelings that you have on anything and everything.  It gives you a sense of ownership over your thoughts and feelings, can help you put things into perspective, and help you face those harder feelings.  It is a form of expression that can also be recognized as a form of healing and purging.

 

That being said, I usually fall flat on journaling.  I will be dedicated about it when things are stressful or chaotic; I am the type of person that likes to face things and by writing them down, I can do that.  But when my life is in balance or more under control, the journaling typically stops.  Does this sound like you?

 

One of the many benefits of mindfulness is that there are so many different tricks and tactics!  You do not have to be constantly practicing all of them, simultaneously, at all times.  For me, when things are under control, I have no idea what to journal about; what I ate for breakfast?  How the dog walk went?  Why I most definitely need that coffee mug that is shaped like an elephant?  Probably not; I don’t need to purge about those things or face them or really think about them in a deeper way.  But, when I am stressed, and my brain feels too cluttered and I can’t make sense of anything, I write it down.  I journal about it, lay it all out, and then look at it again.  Occasionally, the simple act of getting the jumble out of my head and onto the page solves most of my issues, other times, it allows me to mull it over in a more orderly fashion.  

 

Don’t be afraid to journal and write things down; you don’t have to have perfect grammar or sentence structure; you just need to vent it out.  At the same time, if journaling is not your thing, that is more than okay!  Mindfulness is not a one-size-fits-all because no one is an exact copy of another.

 

Does journaling help you?