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Fitness Training for the Brain!

What is mindfulness? According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is "paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non judgementally”.
 
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You could argue that being mindful, or using regular mindful practice, will support and ensure that you're focusing your attention on the right things. Remember the advice I gave in my recent article "Working Smarter, Not Harder!".

Mindfulness means you can better manage your thoughts. It can also support you in coming off “auto-pilot”, or in other words, simply doing what you’ve always done because that is what's easy and comfortable and gives you a certain amount of pleasure! How many of you (myself included) have had a simple thought, which then quickly becomes a sentence, a chapter in a book, a whole book and then a movie!? Being mindful means you can observe these thoughts and let them pass without getting caught up in them; remember, you are not your thoughts - thoughts are not facts or reality.

Using mindful practice can mean you learn to respond, instead of just reacting. How would increasing your focus, calmness and clarity in daily life benefit you?
 
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In my opinion, everyone can benefit from this! Especially leaders and managers in businesses, large or small, in terms of the ability to increase your:

  1. Focus - managing your attention when your mind wanders will mean you focus on those “big rocks”, in the words of Stephen Covey. Only if appropriate and time allows can you move to your pebbles and sand!
  2. Calmness - feeling less reactive to situations could prevent conflict, and avoid the need for those “difficult conversations”
  3. Clarity - see what is actually there, not what is imagined - it is about keeping things real and not allowing your inner voice to take over.
  4. Adaptability - deal with change and ambiguity by recognising what's important now, in the moment.
  5. Resilience - develop your self-compassion; be kind to yourself, then take care of others - put your oxygen mask on first!
  6. Productivity - increase your personal effectiveness. In my Working Smarter, Not Harder! blog I talk about not multi-tasking, instead focusing your attention on one thing! Although I do like to think I'm excellent at multi-tasking or "juggling", am I really..?

Realise when you're hurtling along at 100 miles an hour and not seeing or appreciating things around you;
Aspire to be “purposefully present” at least one more time each day than you are currently; and
Do train your brain - you, and those around you, will notice the difference!

Blog Posts

  • “If you do what you’ve always done; you’ll get what you’ve always got”
    This old adage is so true whether applied to recruitment methods, meetings or retaining talent to name but a few areas.

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  • One of the positives of the pandemic is that there is no longer the monopoly on leadership due to position.
  • I have previously written about "Belonging - what does this mean to you?" (http://j-w-c.co.uk/blog-display/293). I want to now build on this and consider it from a team's perspective and what it means if you are a manager leading a team currently.
  • Earlier this year, I completed my Mental Health First Aider Training (MHFA) England, something I had wanted to do for a little while.
  • Recently, I was delivering the "First 90 Days in your New Role" for LHH. This is a workshop which generates great discussion around helping people who are still interviewing to find their next appropriate opportunity and to think about how they would answer this question at interview.
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