~bring your inner monk to work~

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The Key to Effecting Change in the Workplace is Practicing Mindfulness

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If you’re unhappy with the culture of your workplace or the general level of professional behavior in your office, there is no better way to initiate the change than to start with yourself and consistently be the best version of yourself each and every day.

In my opinion, the only way to effect change is to first become the change.

When you bring your inner monk to work, you show up as the same person you are when you’re on the meditation cushion. I realize that just by possessing a positive outlook and modeling positive behavior isn’t often enough to bring about changes in others, but as a Buddhist practitioner, it’s the place you must start.  [Read more…]

Anti-Awareness and The Miracle of Mindfulness, Revisited

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I’ve been re-reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Miracle of Mindfulness on my Kindle. I’m having a beautiful experience revisiting this volume that I read so many years ago.

You’ve probably had this same experience whereby you begin reading a book you read years ago and suddenly remember how lovely it was the first time, right?

I’ve recently experienced a heavier weighted reliance on mindfulness: In part because of work pressure, in part due to personal issues, and partly because I want to cultivate more awareness on a moment-by-moment basis.

It’s too easy to slip into the lazy habit of being somewhere else. I want to be here now…and now…and now. It is a positive way for me to be in the world and it reminds me, especially in times of challenge, to remember the faithfulness of my breath and how it supports me both physiologically as well as spiritually. [Read more…]

A Real Life Example of Compassionate-Kindness in Action

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This morning I awoke and made coffee. That’s not unusual. In fact, you might call it a ritual. Hmmm. Definitely a habit that I have no intention of breaking.

Anyway, if I’m alone, I usually use the time between pour-over pours to catch up on social media posts or read the latest New York Times and Los Angeles Times headlines. If Karen is in town, I wait until the coffee is finished and after I bring it back to the bedroom on a tray, we chat and sip our coffee while checking into the online world.

I’m often greeted by Facebook posts from my youngest son Jay, who lives here in Irvine with me. Since he’s a musician/singer/lyricist, his posts are usually about hardcore bands or upcoming shows he wants to attend.

Every now and then I’ll read a post that really gets my attention. The post below is the one I was greeted with this morning. [Read more…]

If You’re Overscheduled, Bad Task Karma Could Be Why

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Are you chronically overscheduled? Do tasks and appointments back up due to long meetings, extended conference calls, or unexpected projects? If so, you’re likely the victim of bad task karma.

Bad task karma (BTK) is when one task affects the next and the next and so on. For instance, a meeting runs long and impacts the rest of your appointments and tasks. Before you know it you’re rushing to reschedule, and you’re overscheduled yet again!

BTK will kill your productivity, but it’s not your fault

That’s because most analog planning systems tell you to schedule tasks according to their urgency. Unfortunately, that leads to unrealistic expectations and lots of bad task karma. [Read more…]

Work as a Practice for Awakening

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I’m currently reading Zen of Business Administration: How Zen Practice Can Transform Your Work and Your Life by entrepreneur, Zen monk, and former Zen Center Director, Marc Lesser.

The premise of the book is that Zen practice can lead to the dissolution of the often self-placed boundaries between work and play.

At the heart of Zen is the absence of a separate sense of self. I have to admit that this is a concept that I’ve yet to fully understand.

I’m only about one-fifth of the way into this delightful read, however, I hope that by the time I get to the end I’ll have a clearer understanding of it. [Read more…]

How You Can Rapidly Switch Between Sections in Your Zen-Journal Even Without a Ribbon Marker

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There are times when you want to find the Quarterly Look-Ahead (QLA) or your Discipline Task Lists (DTL) in a hurry. With a lot of hardbound notebooks, that’s easy because they come equipped with one (Moleskine) or two (LEUCHTTURM1917) bookmarks.

But what if your notebook doesn’t come with a ribbon marker? What if you’re using a spiral-bound notebook or another markerless hard or paperbacked notebook?

I have a suggestion… [Read more…]