Instead of waiting for a ‘calling’ to appear, actively build it by finding the intersection (Venn diagram overlap) of what you love, what you’re good at, and what pays the bills. This approach helps you step into and live your purpose.
Avoid placing excessive expectations on your job or employer to provide meaning, purpose, or personal counseling, as this can lead to disappointment. Recognize that work’s primary purpose is often to make money and build a career, not to replace the role of religion or family.
Practice mindfulness to recognize and prepare for different ‘seasons’ or stages of your life, understanding that work priorities and intensity will fluctuate. This allows you to plan for periods of high activity and subsequent recovery.
Cultivate mindful self-awareness to help you distinguish between unhelpful stress that drains you and helpful stress that can be motivating. This allows for better management of your stress response.
Start your day by meditating to settle your mind and ‘hear God’ (or achieve deep listening), followed by prayer to ’talk to God’ (or express intentions). This sequence allows for clearer, more reverent prayer.
Engage in either breath-based or loving-kindness meditation practices to increase your helpfulness at work, especially if you are in a customer-facing role. Both practices were found to be equally effective in this regard.
When you make a mistake at work, engage in loving-kindness meditation to foster emotional empathy and truly feel yourself in the other person’s shoes. This practice makes you more likely to atone for your wrongs, unlike solely breath-based practices which primarily activate cognition.
Practice loving-kindness meditation to reduce bias by diminishing the sense of separation between self and other. This fosters a more inclusive and less prejudiced perspective.
When facing external chaos or complexities, practice sitting and focusing on your breath to help deal with the situation. This technique helped Professor Cameron manage stress during a deployment in a war zone.
Integrate ‘on-the-spot’ mindfulness into repetitive daily interactions, especially those involving other people, to bring more intention to them. Examples include taking three breaths before answering the phone or projecting loving-kindness before entering a patient’s room.
If you lack time for formal meditation, weave mindfulness into everyday repetitive actions like walking the dog, making coffee, or driving to work. The goal is to cultivate greater attention to the present moment without needing a formal sitting practice.
For independent or gig workers, create a ‘holding environment’ by establishing routines and connections (e.g., morning coffee ritual, professional friends, message boards) that provide a sense of grounding and support in the absence of a traditional organizational structure.
Whether you’re an ‘integrator’ (blending work and home) or ‘segmenter’ (strict boundaries), establish routines that clearly transition you into and out of your workday. This helps define when work starts and ends, allowing for winding down.
At the end of your workday, use a ‘shut down’ ritual, such as writing down the top priorities for the next day on a post-it note and placing it on your laptop. This signals to your brain that it’s time to disengage from work.
Before engaging in an interaction (e.g., with a client or students), set a clear intention for what you want to achieve or how you want to show up. Rooting this intention can guide your behaviors during the interaction.
Infuse small mindful routines each day with a clear intention. This practice will shape and influence the activity that follows, guiding your behaviors and outcomes.
Before difficult conversations with colleagues, practice a loving-kindness intervention by considering how the other person is feeling and how to approach the discussion in a way that is uplifting for everyone.
For small to medium companies, integrate mindfulness as a cultural shift by taking mindful moments before meetings and intentionally addressing conflicts by focusing on the problem, not the person. This involves reflective mindful engagement intertwined with daily business operations.
When introducing mindfulness in an organization, ensure there is buy-in from the highest levels and that participation is voluntary. Leaders modeling mindful behavior can serve as a powerful example for teams.
Actively build a strong community of support around your gig work to provide structure and make the job better, recognizing the precarious nature of gig careers. This community can include professional friends and online forums.
To grow and expand in gig work without a traditional boss, consider underbidding for jobs that allow you to develop desired skills. This strategy helps build your portfolio and advertise new capabilities for future, higher-paying work.
Conduct small ‘mini-experiments’ with different routines and boundaries to find what works best for transitioning into and out of work, especially when integrating work and home life. Examples include walking around the house before logging in.
Prepare specific routines that facilitate a ‘helpful ramp in and ramp down’ for different intense or slower periods of your life. This helps manage transitions between varying work and personal priorities.
Practice breath-based meditation to center yourself in the present moment, which can improve your ability to take the cognitive perspective of others and treat them in their highest good. This fosters cognitive empathy.
Practice loving-kindness meditation to develop emotional empathy, allowing you to feel what it’s like to be in another person’s shoes. This makes the border between self and other more porous, leading to greater understanding.
If you tend to be intellectual or ‘cold,’ incorporate loving-kindness meditation to make your ‘inner weather’ balmier, leading to warmer feelings about your own imperfections and a less active ‘selfing’ area of the brain.
Employ mindfulness to create a bit of space around your inherent biases and cognitive shortcuts. This allows for flexibility in interpretation and helps you get to know the real person underneath initial judgments.
If your job involves high emotional labor (e.g., flight attendant, Disneyland worker) where your internal state doesn’t match your external presentation, consider practicing loving-kindness meditation. Traditional mindfulness might be counterproductive in such roles due to the disconnect it highlights.
Establish a formal meditation practice (e.g., 10 minutes daily) to build a ‘muscle’ for mindfulness, then supplement it with micro-practices throughout the day. This combination can strengthen the overall positive effects of mindfulness.
When discussing mindfulness in a workplace context, consider reframing it as an emotional regulation or metacognition strategy rather than traditional meditation. This approach acknowledges its stripped-down, yet effective, nature in a professional setting.
Engage in practices that allow you to connect with your ancestors to ask for support, guidance, or knowledge for the day. This practice is rooted in African indigenous traditions and provides comfort and rootedness.
Before teaching, use repetitive actions (like walking to class) to set intentions, such as how to welcome every student and ensure all voices are heard. This helps you be fully present and inclusive in the classroom.
When stuck in views of being right or being a good person, practice the mantra ‘don’t side with yourself’ to encourage taking others’ perspectives. This can release internal suffering and reduce suffering created for others.
When considering bringing your ‘whole self’ to work, practice healthy boundary setting. While it’s important to show up authentically, recognize that a professional environment is not therapy, and not every aspect of your personal life needs to be expressed at all times.
To solve hard problems, first read and think about the problem, then engage in a different activity like running or looking at art. This allows your cognitive processes to work in the background, leading to bursts of creative insight.