How Can Mindfulness in Business Benefit Your Career? Discussing 3 Effective Practices

See, I came to the realization that I find multitasking to be quite unproductive, as bizarre as it may sound. We live in a culture that proclaims the person’s ability to multitask as a sacred ritual that leads us to success and prosperity. However, what it successfully manages to do is distance ourselves from mindfulness. And mindfulness in business is incredibly important.

Don’t get me wrong – oftentimes I catch myself in the middle of a multitasking frenzy. Deep down I know it doesn’t serve me justice but perhaps I’m already influenced by the culture’s prominent idea of multitaskers. We often view them as those success-driven individuals whose motto is “No pain, no gain” – and while there is ultimately a piece of truth in the saying, it doesn’t necessarily mean we all need to invest our time in doing a plethora of things simultaneously.

Because truly while we are answering emails, having that phone call and using gestures to communicate our current needs with a friend or a coworker, what we achieve is the ultimate lack of presence. So the main question is this: Without mindfulness, can we really put our best version out there, both in life and in business?

In today’s article, I’d like to address how important mindfulness in business is. Luckily, I witness more and more people coming with this same realization. So let’s get into it and see how being mindful can in fact greatly benefit and impact us in a positive way our business endeavors.

What does it mean to be truly mindful?

If we embark on a quick search and wish to check what stays behind the term ‘mindfulness’, we’d read that this is a state of being aware both of yourself and your surroundings.

To me, being aware of myself and my surroundings allows me to connect with things, people and ideas on a deeper level. So perhaps now you understand well what I mean by stating that multitasking drifts us away from being mindful. When we are preoccupied with multiple actions and tasks at once, we fail to focus since our attention is separated between a plethora of situations. What happens is that, in the end, we have little to no memory of what we’ve done, said, seen or heard. In some sense showcasing the constant behavior of multitasking places us much closer to a robotic state of existence.

When we are completely aware of ourselves and our surroundings at any given moment, we succeed at living every second of life fully. As cheesy as it may sound, it’s in fact pivotal and crucial for feeling fulfilled, constantly inspired and grateful for life as it happens. Essentially, feeling those feelings allows us to fully immerse ourselves in any given experience, gaining maximum benefit and awareness. What happens is that this way we can successfully channel our best in terms of skills and expertise since our entire attention is focused on one specific task at a time.

And that’s how mindfulness affects business as well.

Mindfulness in business – why does it matter and how can we elevate our awareness?

Imagine being completely unaware of anything in your business endeavors.

If you haven’t yet turned your business aspiration into reality, I assume you’re going to have a bad time. Why? Because when we lack awareness, it would be incredibly difficult for us to actually realize what our passion is and how can we use its fuel to launch a successful business. When we lack mindfulness in business, there’s a high chance we drift away from our initial aspirations, letting trends and revenue dictate our path.

Owning and running a business requires mindfulness too.

In a business setting, the entrepreneur needs to be fully aware not only of the business’s direction but also of their surroundings – they have plenty of employees and clients on their hands. Imagine being completely unaware of how your employees and clients feel and what obstacles they meet on a daily basis – you’d be completely incapable of addressing the matter appropriately and advocating for what’s best in every single situation.

Once we realize the importance of mindfulness in business, perhaps many people would like to come to terms with useful ways that we can use for awareness integration in our day-to-day. Below I’ve listed three strategies that can help you start your mindfulness journey right away.

3 mindfulness practices that can help you improve your business experience

• Once you begin paying attention to how you process emotions, you’d witness tremendous benefits – in business, we are certainly not immune to emotions. Quite on the contrary, in fact – oftentimes we may fall victim to strong emotions that could potentially lead to devastating consequences. Anger, frustration, disappointment, decreased motivation and burnout could all potentially kill anyone’s drive when it comes to working, business and career. Being aware of what you feel and why a certain emotion emerges is a strong asset in mindfulness – it allows you to better process what’s been affecting you and find working approaches to deal with any issue.
• Journaling is often underestimated and it shouldn’t be – there is immense power in written words. When we indulge in journaling and sharing our thoughts on paper, we tend to be more honest and open about things, people, work and triggering situations. Also, writing helps us come up with better solutions and plans – it simply clears our heads, calms our emotions and allows us to look at things from a wider and more objective perspective.
• Acknowledging that behind every problematic situation, there is a struggling individual – in business, a lot of the time entrepreneurs face unexpected and problematic obstacles and situations that require immediate attention and action. What we often miss in desperate attempts to get rid of the problem is that behind it there is usually individual suffering. Being mindful gets you to talk to people and bond with them on a deeper level asking how are they doing and if is there something you can do to help them feel better, be more productive at work or support their duties and tasks.

Mindfulness in business goes hand in hand with success and improved work-based relationships. On a personal level, it brings peace and elevates one’s motivation and willingness to achieve even better results in the future.

Although sometimes hard to maintain, mindfulness definitely deserves a shot – once you master it, you’d witness its numerous benefits. I strongly advise you to embark on your mindfulness journey right away and check for yourself where it shall take you.