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Micropractices that help you find stillness
The five practices described in our main story are only the starting point for developing inner agility. Without sustained commitment, it’s easy to slip back into the groove of old habits, particularly when uncertainty inspires fear. These cognitive, centering micropractices can help you stay on track.
The four-breath pause
Sometimes, when we’re afraid of not knowing, we try to rush to some kind of answer. To slow down the process and gain some perspective, count through four breaths, paying attention to nothing but your inhaling and exhaling air. That’s a quick way to give yourself a break from the chaos around you.
Grow roots
Leaders need the mindfulness to be both part of and yet separate from their context. One helpful way of doing this during a meeting is to put both feet on the floor and visualize roots extending from your soles down through the surface below. This centering practice can quiet overthinking, making you more receptive to new ideas.
Take ten minutes (or even one)
Meditation isn’t a panacea, but many executives find it helpful. Attention management is a must for executives overloaded with information. As one leader told us, “Without those ten minutes, I have no stillness.” Others make a point of grabbing one minute of stillness between meetings. “It gives me a sense of spaciousness,” one CEO explained.
Listen from a place of not knowing
Listening well is an underappreciated art and a requirement for any leader who wants to be alert to today’s widening range of threats and opportunities. You must put preconceptions and judgments aside to truly hear what someone else has to say. In conversation, Pixar president Ed Catmull never responds until the other person has finished speaking. This enables him to appreciate the other’s full thought, and to respond articulately.
Draw a bigger weather map
Feeling overwhelmed in the face of uncertainty is like looking out your window onto a thunderstorm—you’re socked in, and there’s no way you’re going to venture out. At times like this, it helps to expand the boundaries of your mental weather map to see the weather patterns (business trends) that created the thunderstorm (your current business dilemma). Taking the long view can diminish the anxiety caused by near-term worries.
Listen from a place of not knowing
Grow roots
Take ten minutes (or even one)
The four-breath pause
Draw a bigger weather map
