Recognize that external pressures are objective reality, but whether they turn into stress is a choice. View every challenge as an opportunity to gain objective perspective and grow stronger, understanding that ‘friction is polish’.
Understand that achieving a goal is an invitation to new problems, not an end to challenges. Avoid thinking that happiness is binary or solely tied to future achievements; instead, enjoy the present journey and recognize that setbacks are not ‘killers’.
Utilize meditation or other practices to slow down and foster reflective time, helping you understand the world objectively. Achieving this clarity and objective perspective is crucial for making the best decisions in any situation.
After an initial period of ’taste testing’ different meditation forms, choose one practice and stick with it for a sustained period. This focused approach allows you to gather meaningful data on your own mind and assess if the practice is making you ’less of a jerk to yourself and others'.
Avoid telling others they ‘ought to meditate’ as it is often annoying and can backfire, making people feel you perceive them as ‘broken’. Instead, model the skills gained from your practice, such as being a good listener and handling life with grace, allowing others to naturally become interested.
For beginners, combine basic mindfulness (watching the breath) with loving-kindness meditation (metta) as complementary practices. Dedicate 5-10 minutes daily to mindfulness, then add a short round of metta, either immediately after or at another point in the day.
Perform loving-kindness meditation, systematically picturing people and sending well-wishes, with your head on the pillow before bed. This practice is suspected to have a salutary effect on your ability to fall asleep and on your dreams.
While meditation may work for you, approach its potential for others with humility, as it is not a panacea and may not work for everyone. Avoid the assumption that your positive experience guarantees the same for someone else.
If practicing Vedic meditation, aim for 20 minutes twice a day, especially ensuring the morning session is completed. This consistent regularity is key, as the feelings of relief and contentment from meditation may not be predictable or consistent.
Avoid treating meditation as an investment with a measurable return, especially in a business context. Instead, dedicate yourself to the regularity of the practice, trusting that positive feelings and benefits will emerge as they do.
Engage in conversations about technology use with your partner or others without lecturing them about meditation. Discuss ’tech hygiene’ directly if you believe it is impacting your relationship, focusing on the specific issue rather than a perceived ‘fix’.
For leaders, consider designing your company’s mission and culture by imagining you’re designing a religion, providing a connection to something bigger than oneself, a sense of community, meaning, beliefs, texts, and standards of behavior.
Recognize that ‘people are the secret ingredient’ and that all company results and successes stem from your team. Use this as a core value to guide decisions, especially in ‘people challenges,’ ensuring you think deeply about what that means.
Adopt a ’think long-term’ value to consider not only the first-order implications of a decision but also the second and third-order effects. This helps ensure that current actions are repeatable, buildable, and contribute to future success, impacting both strategy and how you treat others.
In business, ensure your company is ‘only as good as the companies we keep’ by treating suppliers and customers with a focus on relationships rather than mere transactions. This fosters good partnerships and reflects a values-led approach.
For product development, adhere to the value ‘if we don’t love it, we don’t launch it.’ This means creating products from a sense of personal authorship and genuine excitement, rather than solely relying on consumer group testing or market trends you don’t believe in.
When developing or selecting food products, prioritize the value ‘if it’s not food, it doesn’t belong in our food.’ This means avoiding chemicals, synthetic sweeteners, or highly processed ingredients to ensure the product is closer to its natural state and supports human health.