When mindfulness is misapplied in spaces demanding initiative and cooperation, it can inhibit our success.A drive to action must overcome a sense of smallness of the self or hope that others will do the work for us.practices. Businesses have been using it as part of a broader effort to bring humanistic thinking to management by holding space for the social and emotional needs of employees.But mindfulness is not a one-size-fits-all solution to life’s challenges.
So, the first takeaway is to be mindful of the trade-off between nonjudgement and motivation. When you are in a situation that demands action, focus your attention on sustaining an internal motivation to get the task done, to meet your goals, as opposed to celebrating the sense of calm that follows from a settled mind.Core teachings of mindfulness, like impermanence and decentring, privilege patience and acceptance of what is.
Navigating the chaos of today’s challenges often requires quick thinking and on-the-fly contingency planning. Impermanence, decentring, and contingency all emphasize the necessity of a mindset that is open to growth, learning, and change—but the latter motivates positively. There are, unfortunately, solid reasons to believe that contemplating impermanence is just as likely to lead a person to conclude “Why bother?” as it is to ethical enactment; and embracing a decentered self will probably lead a decisionmaker to ask, “Why me?” rather than assert, “I’m motivated!”in political and economic spaces.