Read Part 1 of the series here.
In the previous post, we learned that mindfulness skill enables us to refresh our minds by focusing our attention to the present moment, and bearing the present with awareness, equanimity and calm. This skill allows our cognition – the sum of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, moods – to exist without being reacted to. How wonderful that we do not need to be constantly swayed – really pushed around – by the voices in our head!
But, if you engaged in mindfulness exercises recently, or even tried to apply mindfulness to the grind of a very real and very present nagging thought, you know that it is not easy. Not at all. There are reasons for this, described a bit later in this series, but ultimately it boils down to our brains rather dramatically wanting to protect us from danger and subsequently feeling rather addicted to problem-solving.
Mindfulness practice asks you to push against this intrinsic drive of your brain. This is a big ask – and probably one of the toughest asks you can ever make of your mind. While it is up to you to come to peace with this responsibility to be mindful, in this post I would like to share why and how mindfulness can improve the relationship you have with the entrepreneurial side of yourself.
Is the business of being an entrepreneur compatible with mindfulness?
One could argue that mindfulness and the business of being an entrepreneur look, at first blush, incompatible. Entrepreneurs skillfully scan, evaluate and judge their environments, looking for that squeak of an opportunity to present itself – an emerging market need, a product that up-ends how business is done, a notable gap between how we should be doing business versus the status quo. So, you may wonder, why would I intentionally ask myself to suspend judgment of my thoughts? Discernment is how I separate quack ideas from the possible! Or, why would I want to narrow my focus when I’m trying to push myself (or others) to think expansively about what my product could do? And even, why would I want to only think about now rather than what could be because my contribution to the marketplace?
First, intentionally choosing when and where to direct attention does not mean that entrepreneurs never evaluate their thoughts or let their minds wander freely in order to ideate. Mindfulness skills enable agency and choice about that attention, meaning entrepreneurs with these skills more thoughtfully and nimbly select how they pay attention. Second, entrepreneurs need mindfulness because essential elements of their occupation require that they skillfully pay attention. These elements and their implications for focus are described next.
What aspects of the entrepreneurial occupation require mindfulness skill?
Compared to those in non-entrepreneurial roles, entrepreneurs deal with more uncertainty. Uncertainty cues your mind to consider so many hypotheticals. An entrepreneur’s mind can easily become overstuffed with far-fetched, unhelpful scenarios as they try to work out how to cope with that uncertainty. Mindfulness skills return an entrepreneur’s mind to the current facts in the current context, and give an entrepreneur a little space to attune to their current assessments of the situation, without all the drama to which their brain otherwise devolves.
Entrepreneurs also tax themselves with a critical responsibility: disrupt the status quo. To disrupt business as usual, entrepreneurs need to keep laser-sharp focus on any cracks or openings in which they can wedge their solution into a crowded market. A drifting mind neglects what is present right here, right now. To build and refine that focus requires the skill of sustained attention – and mindfulness training offers just that.
Relatedly, entrepreneurs tolerate greater risk in business decisions, often preferring to explore new ideas, new methods and new approaches. Taking risks, however, does not mean being impulsive. Mindfulness certainly helps here: with mindfulness skill, an entrepreneur begins to see and separate from the vast array of thoughts, feelings, urges, and so on. When the content of their minds becomes more clear, an entrepreneur can better sort through which of their mind’s meanderings is worth listening to and which is not. Put another way, without mindfulness skill, we tend to believe that just because we think a thought means it is true. With mindfulness skill, however, we start to see that so many of the thoughts generated by our mind are not only untrue, but contradictory, unproductive, habitual and senseless.
To illustrate this, recall the three minutes we spent meditating in Part 1 of this series and recount the various thoughts that swept through your mind. Were they all perfectly useful statements about life? No, probably not! But at least now you can see that – you can see that your thoughts sweep in and out of your mind and that you don’t have to address, let alone acknowledge, the bulk of them. Mindfulness shows you that you can be more selective and intentional about which thoughts snag your attention, and this percolates down to using more appropriate, better-quality information when taking risks and exploring new ideas.
Finally, entrepreneurs often find that networking skills are paramount in their profession, given the widespread support needed to fund their endeavor. Mindfulness’s focus on paying attention applies not just to the contents of your own mind; you become more capable of directing your attention to others, with a presence and awareness that others will find comforting. Professor Kabat-Zinn, a mindfulness scholar, talks about how those of us who were lucky knew someone in childhood who really, truly, authentically accepted us just as we were. How warming, how secure we felt with that person. When skillfully applied, you can direct this same caring, welcoming attention toward anyone you meet, more easily making meaningful connections potentially important to your business.
Up Next:
As you work through mindfulness exercises, hopefully with renewed focus given its important to your work, you might find certain reoccurring patterns, such as particular thought stream that pops up again and again, or a particular emotion that comes around, unbidden, in a very certain situation. Next, we will discuss what you start to discover as you uncover the habits of the mind and how to begin to work to alleviate the suffering you expose.
Mindfulness Reflection:
Consider your entrepreneurial job responsibilities.
- What are your biggest task responsibilities?
- Apply the lessons above: how can mindfulness skill help you improve on those responsibilities?
Questions?
Reach out to Professor Grace Lemmon at glemmon@depaul.edu if you have questions about this post. Or, if your company is interested in applied mindfulness training, Professor Lemmon is happy to connect with you through collaboration with DePaul University Executive Education.
This is Part 2 in the Spring Cleaning for the Entrepreneurial Mind Series by Associate Professor Grace Lemmon.
Grace Lemmon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management & Entrepreneurship in the Driehaus College of Business. A research expert on topics related to stress management, including burnout, engagement, work detachment and work recovery, Professor Lemmon is particularly interested in how people develop more fulfilling relationships with work through value alignment. One of her most popular course is The Mindful Leader, which explores how to apply mindfulness to be a better leader of others and oneself.