By Wendy Watson
In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, where decisions are made on the fly and challenges arise at every turn, maintaining a sense of calm amidst the chaos can be a game-changer. Mindful entrepreneurship transcends mere business strategies; it’s about cultivating awareness and intentionality in every aspect of our lives, particularly in how we approach our mindset, emotions, nutrition, physical, and spiritual energies, and leading with love and compassion.
Imagine starting your day by bringing your awareness to your thoughts and emotions, setting positive intentions, and nourishing your body and soul. This practice isn’t just about going through the motions; it’s about signaling to yourself and the world your commitment to operating from a place of clarity, purpose, and alignment with your values. By starting your day this way, you’re telling yourself and the world: this is how I want to operate, these are my intentions for the day, and this is what I want support with.
While seemingly simple, this practice lays the foundation for a day filled with clarity, focus, and productivity and thus takes effort and commitment. Whether you create a 2-hour routine or 5-10 minutes each morning to center yourself, the point is that you enter each day with the proper energy, intentions, and principles in mind.
But it doesn’t stop there. To truly bring calm to the chaos, mindful entrepreneurship means bringing mindfulness into every aspect of our business dealings. This includes taking 5-10 minutes before each meeting to ground ourselves, check in with our emotions, and align with our spiritual values, ethics, and morals.
What are your ethics, values, and morals; and bringing those to the forefront of your mind for the day and prior to each meeting will help you to identify the aspects of the meetings that are, or are not, in alignment with them. Checking in with our emotions will assure that we are not taking our anger from the last argument with our teenager into a meeting meant to be productive. Setting the right mindset for each meeting will assure that you’re going in to close the sale, you’re open to negotiations, activating your problem solving skills, and avoid falling into others’ drama patterns. Consuming the proper nutrition will assure we feel our best, thus performing our best. Getting a good physical exercise in will assure our body is loose and blood is flowing, so our posture is not stiff and rigid. When we lead with love for all and approach our interactions from a place of compassion and understanding, we set the stage for a most successful meeting.
As the quote goes, “It’s not about being triggered. It’s about how long you spend being triggered.” How often do we allow ourselves to be derailed by negative emotions or past grievances, carrying them into our professional interactions? Are you still replaying your argument with your teenager or spouse in your mind right before the meeting? Are you frustrated from the traffic getting to work? Has technology not been acting as your friend?
The significance of maintaining an internal calmness and being able to manage your energies cannot be overstated. No potential client or business partner wants to engage with someone exuding rigidity, frustration, r an undercurrent of anger. Such energies impede clear thinking, hinder problem-solving abilities, and jeopardize the chances of sealing deals or securing positive responses to sales pitches.
These facets of our communication, while unseen, are palpable, heard, and communicated way before our verbal communication. Our body language, facial expressions, and energetic presence convey volumes about our state of mind and emotional disposition. Before we even utter a word in a meeting, our colleagues can sense if we’re present, engaged, and aligned with the purpose of the discussion. If we enter a room with tension in our posture or a distracted demeanor, it sets the tone for the interaction, influencing the dynamics and outcomes of the meeting. Therefore, it’s essential to cultivate mindfulness not only in our words but also in our non-verbal cues, ensuring that our presence reflects our values and intentions.
It’s all about setting ourselves up for success. Do you want to have a successful negotiation? Do you want to close the deal you’ve been working on for 6 months? Do you want potential clients responding to your latest sales pitch? Then we need to prime our bodies, minds, energies, and emotions up for success, prioritizing our values, compassion, and integrity.
By practicing mindfulness, we can learn to observe our thoughts and emotions without judgment, allowing them to arise and pass away without engulfing us. This doesn’t mean ignoring our feelings or pretending everything is fine when it’s not, or feigning contentment when turmoil festers beneath the surface. Rather, it’s about cultivating a sense of inner peace and resilience that allows us to navigate challenges with grace and composure.
When we set our intentions, bring our values and morals to the surface, and set ourselves up for success, we’re less susceptible to being triggered, it’ll be easier to get yourself out of being triggered, and we find it easier to refocus on what’s really important to us.
In conclusion, mindful entrepreneurship is about bringing awareness, intentionality, and compassion into every aspect of our business and personal lives. By starting each day with mindfulness practices and approaching our interactions with love and understanding, we can create a work environment that fosters collaboration, creativity, and success.
As entrepreneurs, let us commit to cultivating calm in the chaos and leading with mindfulness, integrity, and heart. Let us commit to setting ourselves up for success!
