Rushing hinders our capacity to be intellectually and emotionally available, and capture the opportunities that surface in the present moment. When we slow down and move through our activity with greater mindfulness we are more likely to act with the full power available to us in the present moment.

The Cost of Rushing

Chronic rushing through a never ending to-do list feeds anxiety and heightens stress levels. Due to the epinephrine, also known as adrenaline, released in the brain during stressful periods, our brains get “hooked” on the stimulation of activity. Our bodies become addicted to rushing and our minds switch into autopilot with everything of high importance and needing to get accomplished quickly. We start rushing when rushing is not necessary, or multitasking ourselves into ineffectiveness. This is particularly true for type A executives and leaders who tend to get caught in the cost of time ideal, making everything time-sensitive and urgent, when in fact, only a few matters at hand take true priority.

When you need to do work two or three times over because you did not do it right the first time, you begin to see the value of patience and the cost of rushing.

Research from a publication in 2015 titled “To Multitask or Not, That is the Question” notes that multitasking can reduce effectiveness of even the most refined brains. According to Dr. John Medina, author of the New York Times bestseller “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School,” being interrupted during a task can lead to 50 percent or more errors. Juggling multiple tasks at once is ineffective compared to immersing yourself mindfully and cultivating solutions strategically and efficiently.

When you need to do work two or three times over because you did not do it right the first time, you begin to see the value of patience and the cost of rushing. Mistakes can be costly, and can trap you in a cycle of having to rush even more to make up for wasted effort, causing even greater stress. The answer? Slow down and do it right once. As a leader in your field, you are not only being paid to do things quickly, you are being paid to do things well. And if well means patiently, then you owe it to yourself and others to stay focused.

Being Gets Lost in Becoming

As a culture, we tend to value doing over being. This is especially true when we have multiple tasks to complete under pressure. Yet, while there are some things that take priority to reach our goals, there are those things we simply do to feel or be perceived as productive. Watch for these traps, triggers, and time wasters:

• excessive multi-tasking
• trying to look busy
• worrying about being judged by those engaging in office gossip and negativity
• measuring your progress simply in deadlines met
• regularly working through your lunch break

When we rush through tasks in order to feel busy or to impress, it’s easy to lose sense of why we are doing them in the first place and their importance to the direction of our lives.

Transactional versus Transformational

Some tasks that keep you busy on a daily basis are purely transactional, keeping you active so that internally you feel you are moving closer to your goals, when in reality, you get caught in an endless cycle of task completion without any real developmental progress. When you confuse task completion with value creation—or worse personal transformation—and commit to busying yourself, it is easy to neglect the importance of transformation to achieve the results you desire.

In recent years, HR departments have tried to refocus organizations and employees to engage in more transformational activities, such as mindfulness and awareness-based practices. While still results-oriented, mindfulness can help move ideas, projects, careers, and lives forward. When individuals engage in transformational activities even around strategy and goal attainment they tend to self-direct and reach goals with greater ease and more mindful effort. In my Mindful Leadership Breakthrough System, we cover important activities such as clarifying personal purpose, mindset inquiry, mental contrasting, or building trust that can all help with the urge to rush.

Using Mindfulness to Get Clear on Your Purpose

If greater and faster effort expended no longer yields improvement in results, and you find yourself rushing constantly, it’s time to slow down, reevaluate, and re-route. Instead of rushing on, create a strategy and think things through. Try these five mindful steps to keep you focused while creating a plan for success that re-aligns your activity with your desired results.

1. What’s the ideal outcome for today and for the future. Think about your ideal outcome and get clear on your vision of the life you wish to lead. Ask yourself “What does my ideal life look like? What does it feel like? Am I acting in alignment with that?” Often we chase after job titles or companies to work for because we think that’s what we should or ought to do. We don’t reflect on whether or not the details of the position or company culture are in alignment with our personalities, ethics, or life goals. We jump in at the deep end with narrow expectations: more money, more prestige, more power. Remember, the result of your uninformed decision could be your life five months from now, or five years from now. No matter the time frame, time is precious. Get clear on the result you want to accomplish, your ideal outcome, so that you can take necessary and more aligned actions to reach it.

2. What does success mean to you? Each of us has a different definition of success. For some, success is defined monetarily: I am successful because I earn a six-figure annual salary. For others success means having freedom, or having an abundance of relationships that bring happiness: I am successful because I foster close relationships and maintain a strong community of friends and family. If you don’t define success for yourself, you are more likely to rush in the race toward someone else’s version of it.

3. Identify your lack of congruence. Pay attention to the actions you take each day that either help or hinder the path to your ideal life. Try to mindfully observe and reflect on your behaviors without judging them. And don’t beat yourself up if your actions do not align with your goals just yet. It just means it’s time to start shifting your focus and re-strategize so that your actions align with the results you want.

4. Identify the strengths needed for success. What are the skills necessary to actualize your vision of success? What strengths do you already possess that you can tap into and build on? Once you break down the factors necessary to help you achieve your vision you also become more clear on the direction to take in order to acquire the new skills and behaviors you need, or further hone the skills you already have.

5. Expand those strengths in the present. Do not abandon the skills and strengths you already have for those you don’t as they can help actualize what you wish to achieve. Focus on them, nurture them, and expand them. Your mental and emotional bandwidth is correlated to your ability for refined action. Remember that all qualities you need to succeed reside in the present with you, and whoever gets to the present moment first and fully, wins.

When you consistently rush from point A to point B you miss the subtle nuances of the present moment that bring us joy, build connections, cultivate strengths, provide opportunities, and keep you focused to achieve the vision of our ideal life. Instead of getting caught rushing to nowhere devote some mindful time to slowing down and outgrowing personal habits and limitations to achieve better results.

These are just some of the self-defeating narratives that can play on repeat in our minds when we’re stressed out. In challenging times, when we feel overwhelmed and under resourced with the problems we face, we tend to fall back on negative behaviors that can feel comfortable but prevent us from focusing on solutions with a clear and stable mind.

Try this quick mindful minute practice and honestly ask yourself the following questions. You can write them down on paper if this helps.

A Practice for Discovering Your Recurrent Thought Patterns

• What behaviors do I tend fall back on when faced with adversity, pressure or uncomfortable situations?
• Do I bury my head in the sand to avoid facing the head wind?
• Do I blame, criticize, or judge the actions (or inactions) of others instead of taking personal responsibility for outcomes?
• Am I short tempered, disengaged, easily depressed or lethargic?

Mindfulness practices provide an opportunity to recognize those pesky thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that creep up during personal and professional trials and help to mediate the effects. Recent research published in April 2016 examined the efficacy of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in a study of 1258 patients with recurrent depressive symptoms. Results found that MBCT treatment is highly effective in preventing recurrent depression and curbing ongoing depressive symptoms. This is relevant news for everyone.

Five mindfulness-based tips and practices you can use if you find yourself trapped by self-defeating thoughts and behaviors:

1) Inquire and identify repetitive thoughts and behaviors.

Use the lamp of awareness. Pay keen attention to the present moment to recognize and acknowledge any negative self-narratives, defeating attitudes or repetitive behavioral patterns. Challenge your negative self-talk. Don’t identify with it or become it. Thoughts are not facts, they can always be changed. The same holds true for attitudes and behaviors. You are not defined by your behaviors. You have the power to change your actions at any time. Choose to empower yourself with clear decisions and commitment.

Thoughts are not facts, they can always be changed. The same holds true for attitudes and behaviors.

Many of us are held back by our lack of wherewithal and clear stance when it comes to habit change. While trying to change exacerbates will power and undermines motivation because of divided efforts to maintain both the current status quo and reach for a new one, committing to change sets free new resources and activates non-linear transformational processes because we have fully released our past modus operandi and are embracing a new way of being altogether. If you want to take the island, burn the boats.

• Try This Practice for Committing to Change:
  Try it for yourself, write down one habit change you want to make and are willing to fully commit to. Then call up and meet with three people you love and respect and tell them that you are unconditionally and fully committing to the change you are declaring. Repeat your commitment out loud at least three times while looking into your friends’ eyes and shaking their hand with confidence. Observe how your nervous system responds to the experience and commitment you are making. Let the commitment be total with no back door. Examine the effect on your life.

2) Get out of “I – am – ness” thinking.

Most suffering stems from problems that are associated with a limited perception of self, a perception that holds the self as separate from the rest of the world and that generally is occupied with its survival or reification. When we break through self-centered thinking and take a fresh look at problems or situations as a whole, without personal attachment to a single viewpoint or limiting self-associations, we can begin to see solutions more clearly, without the emotional prejudice that can distort or fixate a problem.

• Try this simple practice to get out of “I – am – ness” thinking:
  Imagine for a moment your friend is the one going through the crisis, not yourself. Imagine listening to your friend explain the problem, and then imagine yourself giving feedback and offering helpful solutions. You are now problem solving from a caring, altruistic and unbiased perspective, and more likely to provide helpful insights and answers to the dilemma. What would your advice be to your friend in a similar situation, what perspectives or solutions would you offer or propose?

3) Maintain focus on your goals and frame them for mastery.

Focusing on your goals will help give perspective on the situation at hand and aid in altering whatever negative self-talk presents itself. A study examining over 2,000 participants stressed that achievement goals strongly influence positive versus negative self-talk. Goals keep us focused and can emphasize ongoing improvement over perfection. Termed mastery goals, such improvement-focused goals release performance angst and stimulate motivation for personal growth. Remind yourself frequently of your mastery goals to reinforce positive traits that will mature toward your ideal outcomes.

4) Invite new thought narratives into your life.

You can be right or you can be happy. Choose happy. Do the work and begin to replace the negative self-talk, attitudes and behavior patterns with empowering, positive and learning-focused narratives instead. While new thought narratives might feel inauthentic to the more limited and conditioned self-concept at first, they eventually form the ground of effective behavior change and emotional maturity. As you begin the process of taking responsibility for your own mental and emotional conditioning, you are becoming the person you want to be, not the one you are constantly struggling with.

• Try this simple reflection exercise to take charge of your internal narratives:
  Take a comfortable seat and close your eyes. Consider your current repetitive negative thoughts. Compare them to small children sitting on a school bus. Acknowledge their disempowering and sabotaging comments, attitudes and dispositions. Welcome them onto the bus ride, but be sure to not let them behind the wheel, ever. Kids don’t drive school busses well. Be kind, be compassionate but be firm.Take a deep breath in while connecting to a positive skill or disposition you possess. You could also focus on a learning outcome you desire. Keep breathing while you let that skill or disposition emerge. Ask yourself, “if I let this more positive skill or disposition guide my life, what will it have me do?” Repeat the process until clarity about your next steps arises.

5) Bring greater feeling into the new thought narratives.

Learn how to enjoy and celebrate a newly cultivated behavior or thought to make it stick through positive reinforcement of pleasurable emotions. Research from a study published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science asserts that employees who cultivate a positive attitude tend to engage in positive behavioral change with greater ease than employees who have a more negative psychological mindset. This is not to say that a bright smile is always appropriate, but a kind and joyful internal disposition can go a long way even during trying times.

The next time you feel yourself getting bogged down by your negative thought-narratives or self-defeating habits, follow these simple tips to navigate yourself out of routine every time. And remember: you don’t have to be your thoughts, attitudes or habits. You are not your behavior. You always possess the capacity to change your mindset to navigate yourself clearly out of adversity. This inherent freedom comes at no cost. Mindfulness can provide you with the tools you need to re-program your conditioning, it takes some work, but the rewards are priceless.

If we take a look at our conversation style based on five elements, we might find valuable doors open and take us into more mindful and artful conversation.

1. Be present: “Con” means together with. If you want to have a conversation, be present, fiercely. Since the value of a conversation lies in what all parties have given and/or gained, if you’re not present, there will be no exchange.

2. Think before you speak: Take the time you need to craft your language. It’s not how quickly or slowly you respond. It’s the value you offer that matters. If no one in a conversation is offering anything of value, everyone will try to end it as soon as they can get away.

3. Make yourself heard: Saying something worth hearing helps make great conversation. We love it when we’re affected by what we hear, when words move us. If you’re not being heard, don’t blame your audience. Come up with something that engages them more. Build a bridge all the way across.

4. Be relational before being transactional: Take time to develop the relational aspect of the conversation without focusing solely on the give-and-take of thoughts. Build an opening for experiences and insights to fl ow through. Show that you care, and if you have a lot to say, make sure the opening you’ve made is big enough to handle the volume you’re transmitting.

5. Enjoy yourself and let go: A real exchange happens when all sides are enriched. Learn to enjoy yourself throughout a conversation, not just when you got what you came for or had a chance to say your piece. You don’t sing to get to the end of the song or live to get to the end of life. Enjoyment is a choice and vital to having an artful conversation. And when you’re done, let it go.

John struggles with a common 21st century ailment: MERS. Mindless Emotional Reactivity Syndrome. Yes, I made up that term.  It is a phenomenon that erodes company culture, professional relationships and careers, and often debilitates executives from fulfilling their potential as true leaders.

Emotional intelligence Is the Cure

Emotional intelligence is a quality that sets star leaders apart from the average. Daniel Goleman affirmed what many had been thinking through his careful assessment of close to 200 global companies: truly effective leaders are distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence determines a person’s capability to monitor their own emotional states, and those of other people around them. Emotions cloud our mental acuity and quality of decision making and vice versa. And when our emotions become uncomfortable or uncontrollable, so do our thoughts and eventually our behavior.

A study published by the Clinical Psychological Review notes the interconnectedness of mindfulness and emotional regulation, especially when it comes to discerning the quality and reality of our thoughts. Are we to believe everything we think? Are all of our emotions justified?

How Mindfulness Bolsters Emotional Intelligence

Emotional regulation can be achieved through mindfulness practices. To state it another way: Mindfulness is the foundation of emotional intelligence.

By expanding our attentional focus to our present state, through mindfulness, we train the brain to become more emotionally aware. This is critical for any leader when interacting with others. Leaders need to maintain control over their own emotional state, because it affects the emotions of others.

A study in 2013 cited six specific mechanisms and neurobiological effects that result from mindfulness practices; two specific mechanisms that can benefit leaders are attention regulation and emotional regulation. Both key functions in expanding emotional intelligence.

Here are a few simple steps to take that will help you develop and increase your emotional intelligence through a mindful leadership approach:

1.  Identify the emotion. Am I angry? Am I jealous? Am I frustrated? Being able to quickly acknowledge and identify the emotion experienced requires attention to the present moment and being in-tune to what you are feeling. But once you have identified it, you have gained some freedom already.

2.  Accept the emotion.  Don’t judge yourself. Everyone has emotions; they make us human. Without emotions you’re unable to feel compassion, love, joy, and relate to others. Yet don’t let the emotion overtake your behavior. Instead, realize that you are experiencing the feeling and must still consciously make the mental effort to choose your actions.

3.  Disconnect from the event. Create a mental buffer between your emotion and the situation or person that causes the emotional distress. It is easier to work with an emotion when you can focus on it rather than the perceived cause of it. A research article from 2010 determined that practicing mindfulness for only two months can affect brain structures that alter how an emotion is processed. In as little as eight weeks, a practitioner can more readily free the experienced emotion from their own judgments, interpretation of events and self-talk.

4.  Examine the lifecycle of the emotion. Pay attention to how an emotion comes about, how long the emotion lasts, what triggers the emotion, its impact on your mental steadiness, and how and when an emotion dissipates.  It will help you reframe your relationship to emotions, and overcome or avoid further destructive emotional episodes because you know better what to expect.

5.  Take responsibility for your emotion. While the trigger of your emotions might be something external, working with your emotions is your responsibility entirely. Avoid blame or a victim mentality. Instead, learn to overcome emotional distress to gain greater stability and peace.

When you practice these simple steps regularly you begin to notice a shift in the way you perceive and experience your emotions. Your brain develops agility and capacity for greater executive function and emotional stability. Mindfulness tools and attention to the present moment enhance your self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness – three of the four components of emotional intelligence. These are prerequisites for achieving greater relationship management, the fourth component of EI, which is essential for any leader to be successful in today’s business world.

Jeff is the CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation that was in the midst of a merger. During a major board meeting, difficulties arose between Jeff and other board members due to a lack of mutual trust and the stress involved with making big decisions for the future of the company. Jeff needed to address the way his frazzled mind impacted his relationships with colleagues and undermined his influence within the company.

Understand the Difference Between Arousal and Chronic Stress

Stress can be a positive stimulator, when it arises in moderation. Under those circumstances we call it “arousal”. Higher levels of adrenaline can cause such an arousal state that motivates you to take action and tap into your survival instinct to overcome the task or challenge at hand. But when stress is persistent over long periods of time, or chronic, our system begins to shut down.

Chronic stress sustained over long periods of time deteriorates our decision making ability, increases conflict amongst coworkers, limits our ability to process information clearly, and hinders our ability to maintain emotional composure. For many, chronic stress often leads to physical and mental illness.

Studies conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasize the correlation between workplace stress and a healthy work-life balance. The American Institute of Stress found in an Integra Survey that about 25% of respondents had been driven to tears from workplace stress, and another 62% of workers routinely experience neck pain due to work difficulties. Clearly, chronic stress manifests a consistent negative impact on an employee’s emotional and physical well being. Employees recognize their condition and are seeking help to manage their job related stress.

As a leader, you are presented with two major questions: How can employee stress levels be improved? And, How Does Stress Impact an Organization’s Bottom Line?

The Role of Mindfulness in Stress Management

Mindfulness practices and company implemented mindfulness programs are growing in the workplace as a way to regulate anxiety, manage difficult emotions, improve employee relations, and increase work performance.

In fast paced work environments, employees tend to overload and overstimulate their minds, often without allowing adequate time to process the information they consume. Thus, big decisions end up being made from a crowded, cluttered mind. New innovation gets blocked from even arising. This can quickly become a self-perpetuating habit. Where the amount of information consumed does not equal the amount of information processed. And the information consumed does not actually translate into better actions and results. Meaning that even through we feel and act busier, we do not actually see an improvement in our outcomes.

How to Break the Stress Cycle

Meditation and mindfulness are important tools when dealing with workplace stress. Studies show that meditation practices may increase cognitive, sensory, and emotional processing. When we allow our minds a relief, either through mindfulness or meditation, we actually create more space for new learning, creativity, clarity, and better decision making that helps build organizational culture and success.     

Here are five simple yet helpful ways to triumph over stressful situations in the workplace and prevent future stress:

• Pay attention to how you react to a “trigger” situation. Assess the conditions and causes that brought on stress or anxiety in a specific situation. This helps you to identify stress triggers so that you can become aware of them earlier, remedy them more swiftly or prepare yourself to deal with them more effectively as they surface. A mind aware of its triggers is better equipped for making new and improved choices.

• Develop self-awareness to improve self-management. When you pay attention to the mental and physical signs and experiences that occur during stressful situations, you will be able to mindfully train to maintain greater composure in the moment. Ultimately, your emotional state at any given moment is bound to improve.

• Stay present. Pay attention to the moment at hand. Dwelling on the past prevents you from identifying important clues and information available and disclosed in the present moment. And if you do happen to get a few free moments to yourself, stop rehashing whatever stressful scenario keeps arising in your mind; instead, turn your focus to a more positive present reality or brainstorm solution-focused ways to overcome the problem.
•  Learn to Meditate. It calms the mind, and increases focus and concentration. Meditation also improves your mental agility so that when you switch back and forth between tasks you can do so quickly, deliberately, with less distraction and greater ease. You might find Daniel Goleman’s article on what mindfulness is – and isn’t useful in discerning the difference between mindfulness and meditation.

• Breathe. It’s simple, yet often abandoned or compromised when anxiety arises. A few deep breaths will oxygenate your brain and improve the clarity of your thinking. Here is a simple exercise you can do: Breathe in and count one… then breath out and count one. Breathe in and count two… then breathe out count two. Breathe in and count three… then breathe out. Keep repeating this in a steady rhythm. To ground yourself further during the process, place your hands on your abdomen or chest and observe the sensation of your abdomen or chest rising and settling. Learn to relax in the experience.

When you experiment with these simple tools or make them routine, you begin to notice transformation in the way you interact with the experience of life. Relationships with colleagues and employees improve because you are more open and receptive in your interactions. Trust strengthens. Board meetings run more efficiently. Agendas are executed more quickly. Teams act with greater collaboration and cohesiveness. And those big decisions facing the C-Suite? They are made with more clear and open minds, free of stress induced blur.

The bottom line is that when leaders and employees embrace mindfulness tools to manage their stress levels, the company as a whole develops into a healthier, happier, and more productive environment that can achieve high performance, and healthy and regenerative success.