Mindful EM

Abstract

mindfulness: mindfulnessFigureFigureDo you have a vision of what your ideal life looks like? Are the actions and choices you make every day in line with that vision? Do you live with a sense of purpose? The ancient religious texts of the Upanishads, which contain the central philosophical concepts of Hinduism, offer a straightforward formula for achieving your goals: Thoughts lead to emotions, which lead to actions and then to destiny. The process of attaining your vision starts with an idea of what your ideal life looks like—the more detailed, the better. These ideas, which are formulated in the neocortex, have to be strong enough to stir up emotions in your limbic system (e.g., the amygdala). Strong emotions have the effect of pushing us into action, and actions are what lead us to achieve our goals and ultimately our ideal life. If you're not into Eastern philosophy or require a more practical approach to achieving your ideal life, we recommend the book Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, who advocate for individuals to take a more active role in constructing their lives. As Stanford professors and former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, they understand the importance of designing a process to ensure that you are living the life you want. This is done through careful consideration of how you spend your time and energy, as well as mindfulness of how you make decisions. The book includes various exercises to help you become aware of your choices. One of the most powerful involves analyzing your life in four categories: health, love, play, and work. You can visualize this like fuel gauges in a car, and ask yourself how full each is in terms of your satisfaction. Determining which gauges are full and which are empty allows you to devote more time and energy to areas that are lacking. “Living coherently doesn't mean everything is in perfect order all the time,” Mr. Burnett and Mr. Evans wrote. “It means you are living in alignment with your values and have not sacrificed your integrity along the way.” This will naturally lead you to make smarter and more mindful decisions about the way you spend your time and energy. Let It Go The authors also advise constructing alternative life plans. Design three five-year plans, and allow for as much creativity as possible to avoid narrowing your choices. “Our minds are generally lazy and like to get rid of problems as quickly as possible, so they surround first ideas with a lot of positive chemicals to make us ‘fall in love’ with them,” they wrote. “Do not fall in love with your first idea.” And don't assume your current five-year plan (if you have one) or the first one that comes to mind is the only one that will make you happy. This exercise is intended to help you adapt to unexpected change and to be comfortable with multiple alternative lives. These plans should be as imaginative as possible, especially if they allow you to consider doing something new or engage in an activity that you previously thought would be impossible. “For most people, passion comes after they try something, discover they like it, and develop mastery—not before,” the authors wrote. “To put it more succinctly: passion is the result of a good life design, not the cause.” Being a life designer is ultimately about making smart decisions, not about being perfect. It's about being proactive in thinking about lots of choices (some outlandish and outside the box), narrowing those choices, getting feedback from others, making a decision, and not second-guessing yourself. The authors wrote, “Happiness is letting go of what you don't need.” It means being an essentialist—letting go of material things you don't need and not signing up for things your heart doesn't want, but also taking a bigger view and letting go of negative feelings that suck up your energy and rarely contribute to your life design like guilt, sorrow, regret, anger, frustration, and hatred. It's critical to remember that your mental energy must stay in the right place. In the words of George Lucas, “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” This is our last article for EMN as we take a sabbatical to pursue other interests. Thank you for your support and generous feedback. Share this article on Twitter and Facebook. Access the links in EMN by reading this on our website or in our free iPad app, both available at www.EM-News.com. Comments? Write to us at [email protected].