Chapter 6

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Maintain peak performance

‘It’s important to train your mind like you train your biceps in the gym.’

David Creswell PhD, Associate Professor, Director of Health and Human Performance, Carnegie Mellon University

In this next chapter we are going to take a look at a mindful approach to sustained well-being at work. We will consider how stress is impacting our working environment, the consequences of this and how mindfulness can not only help relieve stress in the short term, but also then translate into long-term benefits for optimum performance for you and your business.

Year on year, businesses continue to incur significant financial costs due to workplace stress and high rates of employee burnout. According to the Health and Safety Executive the total number of working days lost in the UK due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety was 9.9 million in 2014/15, which amounts to an average of 23 days per case of stress, depression or anxiety. And it’s not just absenteeism that costs: a lack of productivity while workers continue on the job despite feeling unwell (i.e. presenteeism) also does. Employers are now recognising the exceptional benefits that mindfulness can bring in reducing health-care expenses as well as increasing the productivity and sustainability of their workforce in the face of inevitable daily workplace stress.

Therefore, in the following chapter you will develop:

• Insight into the modern-day stressors that we all have to contend with while on the job.
• Understanding of how our own behaviour plays a major part in creating our stress.
• Tools to help you manage daily stress.
• Strategies to ensure that you remain resilient in the face of inevitable future stress.
• Techniques to maintain your peak performance while at work.
• The foundations to enhance your sense of fulfilment and satisfaction at work so that you can increase your endurance and reduce your chances of burnout.

Getting the balance right

You will already appreciate the importance of assessing and maintaining efficacy and well-being in the workplace if you are working in business, especially at managerial or leadership levels. The constant balancing of our own and our employees’ needs with company productivity is a fine art, much of which is learned through bitter experience rather than necessarily any coherent and useful training. This job skill has increased in challenge as the demands of modern fast-paced technologies, global communications and employee welfare policies have also exponentially increased and developed. Unfortunately, while businesses have expanded in these ways, many have been through tough economic periods, experiencing challenging mergers and restructuring with the inevitable redundancies and cutbacks, adding even more pressure. This chapter will help you to learn some invaluable skills in dealing with these challenges, without the usual futile attempts to temporarily deny the reality of your working life, without you having to make any extra demands on your time or requiring any major re-hauls in the office, and without you having to leave the country on an ‘escape to the wild’ to live amongst yetis and mountain goats just to try to eradicate the trauma. Help is at hand. You can have your cake and eat it; with mindfulness, you get to maintain peak performance and enjoy well-being while on the job.

Here’s a quick exercise to help you settle into this chapter. You may choose to incorporate this short, simple, yet effective, practice into your morning routine (rather than starting your day by habitually running through your usual morning routine, checking your phone, etc., why not take a few moments to ‘just be’ instead?). Equally you might like to use this at any point throughout the day when stress feels high, or simply to refocus your attention on the task and/or day in front of you.

Exercise 6.1: Mindful on the job

Take a moment (or two)

1. Sit, stand – either is fine.
2. If sitting, rest your hands on your lap and notice the sensation of where your hands and lap meet. If standing, notice the sensation of your feet against the floor.
3. Take a breath in; feel the lungs fill with air.
4. As you allow the lungs to naturally empty on the out-breath, also sense the tension flow out of your shoulders.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as many times as you like.
6. Now, with a new sense of calm, composure and clarity of mind, you can get back to work.

Downtime from stress is really what this chapter is all about; the benefits are enormous, and if they aren’t immediately obvious then here is a quick summary of a few supportive research studies about the impact of stress (mental, physical and emotional) on well-being and performance at work and how mindfulness can help.

So with all the amazing research to back up the efficacy of using mindfulness at work to reduce our stress and enhance our resilience, let’s now take a closer look at what we are up against (stress-wise) and just how we can implement mindfulness to maintain our peak performance, while on the job.

Running on empty

We’re sure you would agree that the way we work has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Long gone are the days when there was a very clear dividing line between our working and personal lives – and when we were in either one of these contexts it used to be so much easier to focus on one thing at one time. These days we have an endless collection of mobile devices at the ready – one in each pocket and bag and others strapped firmly to any body part that can accommodate one – yes, wearable tech is all the rage these days, have you not heard? Now, don’t get us wrong for one second; these advancements in technology are amazing, really quite extraordinary, actually, and very useful; we’re just as sold on the next iPhone upgrade as the next person and we’re also guilty of yelping like an excitable puppy, salivating in anticipation of the forthcoming release date for the latest strap-on technical device – yay! This technology allows us to order our shopping online while stuck in a traffic jam, and respond to work emails while we’re sunning ourselves somewhere on a faraway tropical beach; now what could be better than that? Nothing (right?). Well, as you will recall from Chapter 2 there is in fact a large cost to all this. The pay-off is that while we’re logged on, switched on and waiting for the next one of our limbs, bags or pockets to vibrate, we may find ourselves in a perpetual state of distraction, never really present, and our ability to sustain focus and remain productive on the job declines rapidly. But along with all this, as we are in a constant state of high alert, primed ready to respond to the next compelling ring, bleep, buzz or flashing red light, it would seem that we have actually created a great paradox in these modern times – the more we invent these smarter and faster ways of getting things done, the more it seems that we are actually caging ourselves in increasing levels of stress, using up more and more of our energy reserves, tiring ourselves out physically and mentally and ultimately risking psychological exhaustion and complete burnout.

Exercise 6.2: Work in progress

Feelin’ the burn?

See how many ‘yesses’ you answer to the following ten sets of questions:

1. Exhaustion: Do you feel (emotionally, mentally or physically) tired all or most of the time? Do you lack energy after work to do stuff in the evening like cook, go to the gym or socialise? Do you find it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep?
2. Motivation: Have you lost enthusiasm for your job, sometimes finding it hard to even get out of bed in the morning? Maybe you hit the snooze button over and over again, then frantically jump out of bed to avoid being late? Do you suffer the ‘Sunday blues’, dreading Monday mornings and the week ahead?
3. Negative emotions: Are you regularly struggling with feelings of: Impatience? Intolerance? Depression? Anxiety? Cynicism? Pessimism? Frustration? Disillusionment? Have colleagues noticed this in you? Do you constantly feel overwhelmed, even by seemingly small stressors at work?
4. Cognitive function: Do you find it hard to concentrate and stay focused at work? Is it difficult to remember stuff? Do you find it difficult to write emails and/or articulate yourself generally?
5. Performance: Has your work performance declined over the past year? Is it difficult to remember the last time you felt satisfied or a sense of accomplishment at work? Do you often feel stuck or like you are not progressing?
6. Relationships: Are you often either in conflict with colleagues or feeling increasingly isolated and withdrawn? Do you avoid lunch events, after-work drinks or other work-related networking events? Have you stopped caring about others at work? Do you disregard how you interact and treat your colleagues, clients or customers?
7. Self-care: Are you neglecting your self-care by doing any or all of the following: Drinking excessively? Over/under-using medications? Not getting enough sleep? Eating too much/little? Spending all your time indoors? Neglecting personal grooming (laundered clothes, washing, hair care, etc.)? Becoming more sedentary? Using stimulants to get through the working day (nicotine, street drugs, caffeine, so-called ‘smart drugs’, etc.)?
8. Work – life balance: Are you spending increasing amounts of time at work and/or thinking about work to the deficit of your hobbies/-relationships/leisure time? Are you constantly bringing work home and/or complaining about work to your partner, family and/or friends?
9. Satisfaction: Do you feel a lack of contentment with your life both in and outside of work? Do you ever fantasise about escaping or quitting work altogether?
10. Physical health: Have you noticed an onset or worsening of: Digestive problems? Skin rashes? Excessive sweating? Weight issues? Raised blood pressure? Lowered immune function? Heart problems and/or palpitations? Physical aches and pains? Sexual dysfunction?

If you have found yourself answering ‘yes’ to anything more than 1 (yes, that’s 1!) of these questions, then you are probably already feeling the strain and experiencing some degree of impairment to your well-being and level of functioning at work, and it is likely that you are feeling pretty burnt out (or soon will be). Before you head for the nearest bridge (to admire the view, obviously), you may want to try some more of the exercises listed in this chapter and repeat them as often as you can, starting with this.

Exercise 6.3: Mindful on the job

Phew!

In times of stress, when breathing is less variable, a sigh can reset the respiratory system and help loosen the lungs, easing tension in the whole nervous system, which may be accompanied by a sensation of relief: this is according to research from Belgium⁸. So look at the list above and all your ‘yes’ answers. Then:

1. Take a moment to see where tension resides in your body right now – maybe your jaw is clenched, your leg is twitching or you have a tightness across your chest or shoulders.
2. Simply and silently if you wish, repeat to yourself: ‘I am noticing tension in the jaw’, ‘I feel my leg twitching’, or label whatever tension you do notice in your body right now.
3. Let yourself experience this perfectly understandable habitual response to stress, and your body’s way of holding this physically.
4. You might now notice thoughts such as ‘I haven’t got time for this’, ‘I am overwhelmed’, ‘I have to get on’, or whatever other thoughts your mind might be giving you right now.
5. If you notice any thoughts at all just let the thoughts come up, no need to add to them, dramatise them or push them away; just see them popping up and notice this.
6. Try repeating the following few words: ‘I am noticing the thought that ...‘ before any thought/s that might be showing up. For example you might repeat: ‘I am noticing the thought that “I haven’t got time for this”’ or ‘I am noticing the thought that “I am overwhelmed”’, or ‘I am noticing the thought that “I’ve got to get on”’ or whatever your thought/s may be.
7. See these as ‘just thoughts’ and recognise them also as a perfectly understandable, habitual response to stress, which you are mentally trying to manage right now.
8. Now allow the thoughts to recede from your attention and take a nice lungful of air; as you breathe out just gently say ‘phew’, or sigh slightly, allowing yourself the possibility of dropping a couple of inches off of the ceiling. Repeat this a few times.
9. You may notice emotions arising, or thoughts and sensations in the body, or you may become distracted from time to time. Don’t worry about that; just come back to being present when you remember to, and use the breath as an anchor to this moment.
10. Allow your breathing to flow naturally for a few more in-breaths and out-breaths; you may like to close your eyes to bring your attention inwards, allowing yourself to be connected to the present moment.

Shooting yourself in the foot

The ability to soften and soothe the stress we are under daily is so often overlooked and/or traded for the time we imagine it might take. We somehow, counter-intuitively, insist that if we just do this, that and the other first, then we’ll take a break. We simply do not seem to value our well-being until we crack and then, more often than not, there’s no time to do this either, so we head to the GP for a quick fix and feel further frustration if this is not good enough, quick enough or enduring enough. In essence, we very quickly mirror the environment around us mentally. Our internal expectations align themselves with what our culture seems to demand and almost imperceptibly our sense of self is eroded; we feel lost and directionless and so strive even harder (using another quick fix) to ‘get better’. It’s so exhausting, and so utterly compelling to keep going. The striving to maintain our ‘peak performance’ then becomes the very thing which undermines it. Take Laura’s case, for example.

Mindfulness gives us a golden opportunity to see into the fallacy of these tyrannical compulsions, to recognise that they do not ease us, soothe us or bring lasting relief. In fact, the very insight into recognising that we are deluded if we think that constant pushing and striving will bring us peace and well-being, brings a relief that brings (at least a little) peace and well-being! So even the very act of seeing into the nature of ‘how things are right now’ can help us relieve stress and maintain our peak performance. It seems ironical and contradictory, but with just a sigh, we experience the truth of it.

This does take effort in a world increasingly filled with wondrous, rapid technologies full of tempting promises. Recognising that we can skilfully weave peace into our modern lives alongside modernity helps us also not to crave and idealise a radically alternative world (the ‘monk on the mountain-top’, for instance) which is not our daily reality, and can just serve to further our sense of dissatisfaction. In essence we can instead embrace the contradictions that life presents and face these with equanimity, seeing life ‘just as it is’. This does not imply that we might not skilfully discriminate, discern and take action when a situation is causing us harm, and maybe head off to that mountain-top (or to the doctor), but neither do we have to demonise our modern, hectic life. This skilful discernment is a tool which can be developed with mindfulness, when we come to rest in the reality of our present experience and not reactively try to zap it away.

For most of us it is common to act impulsively in the face of stress, and these actions are often the cause of greater distress for ourselves, whether that might be lying in bed worrying about not falling asleep or taking all kinds of medicines (licensed or not!) in the hope of staying awake and feeling more energised on the job. In a series of two large-scale studies⁹ mindfulness was shown to strengthen the ability to refrain from unhelpful impulsive behaviour even in the presence of negative emotions and high levels of stress. So with that in mind, why not try the following exercise to ensure that when you are stressed out you don’t continue to react in a way that just makes matters worse for yourself.

Exercise 6.4: Mindful on the job

Discernment over reactivity

For the following exercise we are going to offer a way of honing your skills of helpful discrimination. This will be useful in a multitude of ways and encourage the ability to tame the reactive, habitual mind. Pick a situation where there is a sense of urgency, but nothing to which a delayed response will cause harm. So, for instance, a time when you are hungry, thirsty or in mild physical discomfort would do well or, alternatively, when you are walking in a rush, speaking rapidly or waiting for something.

1. First notice your body. Scan for discomfort. Find whatever is alive in your body right now.
2. When you notice tension, hunger, stiffness, strain or any other unpleasant sensations arising in the body, do nothing.
3. If possible, still the body to increase the focus on the discomfort and allow yourself to explore the sensations with intentional curiosity for a few moments.
4. Alongside the unpleasant sensations, you will probably notice some emotions arising, such as impatience, frustration, anxiety, etc.
5. This is, at least partially, the reality of your experience right now; stay with it.
6. Now closely regard the mind’s reactions to these emotions and sensations which may take the form of ‘I must move’, ‘This is unbearable’, ‘I hate this’, ‘I want this to go away’.
7. This kind of response is reactivity. Behaviours stemming from this are reactive. These are not bad or wrong, but without discernment they are often unconscious and habitual.
8. Noticing any reactive urges, now use discernment to ask yourself, ‘What am I choosing to do with this experience?’
9. Your response could be, ‘I am choosing to now drink a glass of water’, ‘Oh, I’m not really hungry after all, I’ll put the biscuit tin away’, ‘I am going to wait patiently and, instead of fidgeting, be still’, or anything else.
10. These responses are discerning and they are now considered and ‘known’. The behaviours stemming from them are conscious choices.

With practice, the above techniques can be developed further still and we can start to inquire into the underlying motivation for our actions and see whether, when we are not reactive, we instead can find room for greater self-care, sensitivity or self-control which can reap beneficial rewards for our well-being and ability to perform well at work.

Technology race

Advancements in technology have made for very positive changes in the way we work, not to mention opened up new opportunities for 24-hour global communication. But again, there is a cost. Being present in the office doesn’t mean just being ‘physically’ there in person anymore. We’re expected to be at work 24/7, as long as our employer has been kind enough to provide us with our very own work email account and mobile smartphone and tablet. There seem to be increasing demands on our time and attention and general resources. Emails, emails, emails (and more emails) – ARGHHHH! Will they ever stop? Well, we don’t think so, and we can’t rely on the world changing to suit our internal state. And what about our capacity to deal with these increasing demands – will that suddenly and automatically just start to improve? Again, we don’t think so. So we need something to help us with all this or we’re just going to become more and more swamped!

No doubt just like ours, your working day can feel pretty overwhelming at times. Some days we feel like we’re one email away from exploding! Sound familiar? We have come up with an acronym (just in case you are missing them after the last chapter!) that we feel accurately reflects our experience of most days on the job and we wonder whether you too can relate to any of the experiences of SWAMP?

Exercise 6.5: Work in progress

Struggling in the SWAMP

Consider the following to open the inquiry into your present experience; is it one of being swamped?

Stress: do you ever feel a bit on edge, anxious, irritable, a bit flat or down sometimes? Maybe you find that you are short and snappy with people? Aches, pain and tension in the body? What about a few sleepless nights here and there?

Wandering mind: does it ever feel difficult to stay focused on one task at a time? Maybe you find it difficult to concentrate with all these compelling mobile devices demanding your attention?

Always ‘on’: what about feeling as if you are always on the go, switched on, on the move, wired? Maybe you tend to arrive at destinations without any recollection of how you even got there?

Multitasking: (yes, our old friend from Chapter 2) how about doing more than one thing at the same time, juggling many tasks at once? Do you tend to gobble down your lunchtime sandwich while glaring at your computer screen? Talk to someone while checking your phone?

Pressure: what about feeling pressured to perform, to deliver, to be on time all around the clock? And maybe it’s not just in work that you feel this pressure. Maybe after a gruelling week at the office, when all you want to do is dive under your duvet for the entire weekend, your inconsiderate friend decides to throw his birthday party and you are expected to show up, put a smile on and look enthused?!

Any of this sound familiar? Good, it’s not just us then!

Why are we so ‘SWAMP’ed?

If we were to ask you ‘what is the opposite of black?’, you’d probably say ‘white’, right? If we were to tap you on your shoulder, what would you do? Well, we hope turn around immediately to pay attention. We are creatures of habit and often these habits run on autopilot and impulse. If you had a work email ping onto your phone – what would you do? Well, if we know your boss, s/he’d probably say ‘CHECK IT IMMEDIATELY’, and no doubt you often do just that. We are SWAMPED, not because the world is speeding up but because our minds are speeding up, mirroring the world around us in a frenetic attempt to keep up with ourselves. We have this endless collection of mobile devices demanding our full time and attention all day every day, and, sure, these do influence and can trigger our swamped experience, but they have nothing to do with how swamped we are or for how long we feel swamped at any given time. We seem to have forgotten one crucial element in the making of our realities – our choices and our own reactive behaviour. The reason we are so swamped is much more to do with the choices we make in any given moment, the choices that influence our behaviour. It’s our own behaviour that keeps us drowning in the swamp. We are swamped because of our impulsive reactions towards the swamp. Our relationship with the swamp and how we behave and interact with it is the real problem here. We struggle, don’t accept help, fight and flounder about and then wonder why we are sinking deeper and deeper into a gooey, smelly, stinking quagmire.

Our anxiety and overstimulation from technology fuels our compulsion to open and check our inbox for emails, our phone for messages, LinkedIn for connections, Facebook for invites, Twitter for retweets, Instagram for likes, Tinder for rejects, and probably loads of other apps and websites and things that we’re not cool enough to even know about (yet!). We feel compelled to check and respond to them all. As if once we have successfully attended to each and every one and ticked them off the to-do-list, we can then kick back and relax – ah bliss, no more swamp for me!

The problem is that this is an endless pursuit, as the emails, messages and posts keep coming in thick and fast most days (along with all the other stuff), and as soon as we’ve just ushered the last pesky email along to the trash can icon, the next fresh, compelling one arrives, exclaiming a big ‘ah hah – where do you think you’re going? Not so fast sucker!’ Doh! The thing is, no matter how fast we work to escape the swamp we never will: it’s bottomless and a real struggle to get out of – in this way, anyway. We end up exhausted, stressed, with physical aches and pains in trying to clamber out and away from all this mess, and often lose touch with all the things that really matter to us in the process of trying: like choosing a more meaningful or productive work endeavour that may even further our careers in a direction that we really want, or even hobbies, leisure pursuits, family, friends, relationships and ‘me time’ outside of work!

In our desire to escape the swamp, we have checked our mobile devices time and time again, and this behaviour has become so reinforced as a result that even in the absence of a new message alert grabbing our attention we still continue to habitually check the damn things! The research tells us that the average person checks their mobile device every 6–7 minutes. We were both shocked to read that too – surely that’s a very generous estimate and most of us are probably guilty of checking our emails more frequently than that (or is that just us?). Once you can acknowledge that you have a problem with this checking – that perhaps it is getting out of hand, dragging you away from present-moment focus in your life, maybe affecting your relationships, energy levels, etc. and at risk of taking over completely – then you can begin to tackle it mindfully and effectively, and still get the job done. Turning the tables on this obsessive and invasive technology influx are now various apps, for example ‘Checky’, ‘Quality Time’ and ‘Moment’ which summarise your daily phone use, and there is also ‘RescueTime’ for the computer. These sorts of gadgets could be just the help you need to keep a check on your digitally charged behaviour to ensure you cap it within reasonable limits and prevent a complete meltdown.

As we have mentioned, our obsession with checking and responding to messages on our digital devices is often an anxiety-fuelled behaviour, designed to escape the swamp and all the nasty stuff that goes with that (read here: fear of missing out, unworthiness, failure, being unloved). But, as we know well by now, trying to erase these unwanted feelings is a futile exercise, as they are part of our working realities, and trying to obliterate them will only lead to more stress and pressure for you.

Pressure cooker

Trying to escape your stress by clambering helplessly out of the swamp is like trying to dig yourself out of a hole – it’s just not going to happen. The only place you’re going to get is deeper and more stressed, tired and exhausted. Still don’t get what we mean? Well, try this quick exercise right now and hopefully you’ll see where we’re coming from.

Exercise 6.6: Work in progress

Resistance is futile

1. Hold your hand, palm facing, up against the wall (if you can’t do that right now, then make sure your feet, soles facing down are flat on the floor).
2. Imagine that the wall (floor) represents all the emails, stress and swamped feelings that you want to get rid of, that you want out of your life now and forever!
3. Now, as you would tirelessly attend to email after email to escape the swamp, right now push against the wall with your hand (floor with your feet) to try to get rid of all those nasty feelings.

What happens? Does the wall (floor) go anywhere? How does your body feel? Stiff, tense, tired, achy, we suspect? Now, hold that position for a bit longer and tell us, if you were to stay like that all day, would you get much else done? No, we presume not. So there it is: the more we try to eradicate the stuff that just simply is not going to vanish (completely, forever, anyway), the more we stress ourselves out in the process. In doing so we build up stress and tension, like a pressure cooker, ready to blow! Oh, and you can stop pushing against the wall (floor) now, if you haven’t already; we wouldn’t want you to explode on us right now, not before you finish reading this book, anyway.

Home work

As we know, advancements in digital communication have led to dramatic changes in the way we work as well as our work environments. Although, historically, working from home (or the local Starbucks!) was mostly done by a student, or say by a mother with small children, it is increasingly common for all of us to be working away from the office these days. But some of us may find that ‘working from home’ is not always what it’s cracked up to be. Sure, a bit of flexitime might lessen unnecessary travel or allow for a greater sense of efficiency throughout the day (to be there for the delivery any time between 6am and, oh, never), but the expectations can extend to it feeling normal to answer work calls and emails in our kitchen at lunchtime, in the bathroom in the evening, or to Skype first thing still half-dressed in pyjamas (you do that too, surely!).

If you work from home a lot, or even only occasionally, you may find that it’s all too easy to blur the boundaries between work and home, and to get caught up in stuff that distracts you from getting on with any work that you’d plan to get done, and before you know it, most of the day is already gone. If you are not careful, working remotely can reduce your performance on the job as well as being the cause of more stress. If this sounds like you, then here are our top five tips to ensure that you maintain your peak performance while ‘working from home’:

1. Maintain a regular routine: try to stick to the same schedule that you would do (and that your colleagues might be doing) in the office. Start and finish work at the same time each day (of course, there may be some flexibility in this, depending on what needs to get done, but do try to be as strict as you can with your clocking in and out times).
2. Take regular breaks: set times for a 5–10 minute break and a longer break for lunch (away from where you are working!) and stick to this schedule. Eat a proper lunch rather than just snacking irregularly from the cupboards and fridge throughout the day. Use your breaks to gather energy and refresh your focus for when you return to work. So, go for a walk outside (you might like to use Exercise 4.5 to use this break for a mindful walk) or do something else totally unrelated to work, but ensure that you return to your work as soon as your break-time is up. You might like to use your breaks and/or the time you save on commuting to and from the office to practise some other mindfulness exercises also.
3. Design a designated office environment: choose a spot where you will work from home and keep this space just for that and nothing else. Create an office environment around you so that it looks like work. File paperwork in folders and keep the environment tidy and that way it will also appear professional for conference calls when you need to do them.
4. Create an environment that suits you: this is your space and no one else’s, so take advantage of that and set the temperature as you like it, play the music (if that helps you work!) that you prefer, and get a chair and desk that you’re comfortable with.
5. Keep in contact with the office: ensure that you remain communicative with your colleagues and manager, etc., especially if you think that your chances of promotion may be affected by working from home. Although they will be able to see the work that you are doing, it might be helpful to communicate more regularly with your team than you might do if you were in the office. So arrange daily/weekly catch-ups via email or conference calls to ensure that you remain visible. You might like to ensure that on some days you are physically present in the office.

Managing your accounts

Hopefully, you are now (if you weren’t already) beginning to become more conscious of the reality of this working life and the consequences that trying to hold it all at bay are having on you. It is not the case that this does not need addressing on practical terms as in delegating (see Chapter 5), saying ‘no’, taking regular breaks, resisting the compulsive phone-checking urges or taking the weekend off to chill out for once. However, none of this can even occur until you decide to accept and acknowledge the pressure you feel. Janice Marturano, founder of the mindfulness programme for General Mills (the food company which produces Häagen-Dazs, Cheerios, etc.) said in a recent article in the Financial Times:

‘There is no work–life balance. We have one life. What’s most important is that you be awake for it.’

Janice Marturano

That’s it. Your first step in rising out of the swamp, with the intention of improving and then maintaining your work performance is simply to acknowledge that you are in the thick of it.

Before we move on and investigate further the nature of how our minds tend to operate in ways which impair our performance at work, just consider this. Recent research (which you can read more about in an article by Stephany Tlalka listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter) from the University of Glasgow looked at London Power (a utility company) executives’ use of emails and habits around dealing with in-coming messages. They asked employees to stop and think before they hit ‘Send’. As a result, office email use was reduced by a HALF! (We know! Wow!) freeing up 11,000 annual working hours. In an article discussing these findings, researcher Karen Renaud offered three suggestions:

1. Break the chain: When people email you, consider who really needs a response. ‘Only send to people who have to see the message and act on it,’ says Renaud. ‘If you keep blasting stuff into people’s inboxes, they will just ignore you – like the boy who cried wolf.’
2. Resist speed: ‘Email begets email,’ says Renaud. If people realise you respond quickly, you’ll get more emails. Carve out intentional times to respond. Four to 12 hours is an acceptable response time.
3. Think outcome, not convenience: If someone is in the office, meet face to face or call them. While you might think it’s more productive to send a quick message and move on, an email chain inevitably follows. ‘The task comes back and in the long run takes much longer,’ says Renaud. ‘Connecting personally saves time.’

Once you become aware of the swamp, perhaps tracking your own technology use/obsessions, you may like to implement the above steps and then re-track your computer/phone use so that you see tangible results for yourself (you can read a few further articles listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter, which contain some more tips and advice about how to take control of your tech habit, conquer inevitable digital distractions and manage your email inbox). With this new-found time, why not try reading more of this, or similar books, on mindfulness, practising the techniques (maybe revisit Exercise 2.5 to get ‘Smart with your Smartphone’) and taking some really beneficial steps to maintaining your performance and well-being at work?

You might find that even with the phone off (Heaven forbid!) or away from your technological devices for more than five minutes, you are left to observe your mind, searching, yearning or fixating on anything other than the present moment. Meetings, and especially boring ones, tend to bring up this habitual tendency. So let us now look at some of these ways in which, even if we aren’t swamped by technology, the mind just keeps the chatter coming …

Get out of your head and back on to the job

Have you ever found your mind wandering in a meeting: you know, when someone is talking about this, that or the other, you have your very best listening face on, smiling and nodding away but really you’re somewhere else entirely? Yes, us too.

Now, at times we’ve found that that mental escape might have been the very thing that has kept us from getting up and giving the person speaking a forceful shake, pleading with them, ‘Oh do shut up and give it a rest, already!’ Or at the very least keeling over in absolute boredom. But at other times, that wandering mind may have taken us away from listening to important information and the opportunity to connect meaningfully with some colleagues at work. It is not uncommon to have actually tuned out for entire sections of communication and have absolutely no idea what has just been said at all (your practice of mindful speech, listening and communication as outlined in the previous chapter will help you with this)! When we feel bored it is important to recognise and name it. Boredom arises out of a lack of attention. We get bored because we either don’t like what is happening and/or we feel lost, confused, stuck or helpless in some way. Our boredom is often accompanied by a lack of enthusiasm and an increase in judgement and self-righteousness (‘Oh, this is such a waste of time!’). Becoming distracted by boredom like this can really get in the way of meaningful experiences at work, so it’s best to get to grips with it when it arises. So next time you feel boredom take its hold, bring your attention towards it, name it and explore it, curiously. Notice where you feel it in your body and what information your mind is giving you about the situation you are in. Notice how you feel beneath your boredom (confused, lost, maybe?) and what arises when you untangle from its grip. In bringing your attention towards boredom, with curiosity in this way (Exercise 6.4 from earlier in this chapter might also help you further along with this), rather than continuously trying to avoid or run away from it, you may find that it lessens its hold over you, and that wherever you are or whatever you are doing/listening to becomes interesting once again (you never know, you may even learn something new!) and your enthusiasm is rejuvenated (for some further tips on how to break out of the boredom habit while on the job, you might like to read the blog post listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter).

Attention truly is an amazing and slightly bizarre thing (to see for yourself, take a look at the ‘Awareness Test’ video listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section – it’s brilliant!). Mindfulness helps our development of focus and broad attention, but it is still up to us how and when we direct it, and for what specific purpose. As always, our first step is simply becoming aware of what our mind is up to, then we get the chance and the choice over what we may wish to do with this.

Stress monkey

Buddhism has a really great term for this thinking mind; it’s been called ‘monkey mind’. We can’t, nor would we want to, banish the monkey or our thinking mind from existence. We admire the monkey just like our thinking mind for its amazing problem-solving abilities and creativity and sometimes it can be a real hoot! Sometimes, however, our monkey mind can be mischievous, get in the way of what we are trying to do and frankly be a bit annoying. It can make a real racket and leave us feeling petty distressed in the process, and in doing so it just stops us getting on with the job in hand. So when your own monkey mind is up to no good, you might find it useful to use mindfulness to get out of your head and back on to the job. There are specific mindfulness techniques and metaphors which can be incredibly useful for this and can be incorporated into our mindfulness practice as vehicles to enable us to tune out the chatter. So, next time your monkey mind is chattering away, you might first like to consider the following two questions:

1. Does thinking these thoughts help me to do the things that I want to do? If your answer is ‘no’, then ask:
2. Am I then willing to respond differently to these thoughts when they arise? If your answer is ‘yes’, then you might like to take a look at our top eight mindfulness techniques (to help you to respond to your thoughts differently) listed below, and consider giving them a go to help you to get out of your monkey mind and back on to the job.

Exercise 6.7: Work in progress

Manic Monkey Mind Mindfulness Metaphors (say this fast ten times)

1. No, we mean it, really! If you (silently if you prefer) repeat worrying thoughts rapidly, you’ll soon notice how they become a nonsense, just a blurred sound – waking us up to the fact that that is all a thought is: a sound in our mind that we can choose to listen to or not.
2. You may also like to imagine the chatter in your mind like a radio DJ, with lots of nothing to report. Now turn down the volume and continue with your work; you may find the DJ has given up after a while, or at least switched from Radio 1 fervour to Classic FM calm – phew!
3. As we highlighted in Exercise 6.3 earlier, you might like to repeat a few mindful words before any stressful thoughts that your mind gives you; these mindful words are: ‘I am having the thought that … (insert your stressful thought here).’
4. Picture your mental chatter as if it were a monkey; now chuck a banana off into the distance and watch him/her run off with glee. Now you can work in peace.
5. Imagine your thoughts as leaves on a stream; watch them race past or drift languidly by, with no need to get caught up in them.
6. With an in-breath give your thoughts vibrancy, by either using a vivid colour or increasing the volume. As you breathe out, imagine the volume or colour fading; take a few more breaths and decrease the intensity at little more each time. As the mental noise fades, you can give more attention where it is needed for your work.
7. Sometimes the mind is referred to as being like the sky; see how the weather is (cloudy, stormy, windy, etc.) in your mind and watch your thoughts like clouds, passing. You may find that the heavens clear, and along with this you also find clarity for the tasks ahead.
8. Imagine your mind like a snow globe, all shaken up with the thoughts whirling everywhere. See your thoughts like glitter or snowflakes and watch them gradually settle, allowing you to concentrate clearly now on the day ahead.

If these techniques and metaphors either don’t work for you or you simply find them difficult to practise or picture, don’t worry. There is definitely no merit in setting up further mental struggles! These are simply suggestions which can work brilliantly well for some of us, some of the time and are offered as another potential, easily accessible tool when you are feeling overwhelmed by the monkey mind. They can be adapted in any way you like to suit you, or you might find other techniques within this chapter that are more helpful. The important feature here is to recognise the thoughts and mental chatter as activities of the mind and products of stress, and these activities of the mind are perfectly natural occurrences. We certainly would not want to be rid of them entirely; our brains rock! Where would we be without one? However, sometimes we do need to remind ourselves that it is important to train our mind and practise this training so that we are not at the mercy of a monkey. One aspect to this is in recognising mental chatter as an activity and not as ‘who we are’; this activity (racing stressful thoughts) occurs in the context of us, and is in constant flux and ever changing. While this might seem a little disconcerting, what it actually means is that we can free ourselves from any fixed view, any contracted or restrictive way of being or any ‘shoulds’, ‘oughts’ and ‘musts’ that are usually a central component of our stressed-out thinking. So, ‘I should get on with this proposal’, ‘I must work harder’, ‘I ought to have done this yesterday’, ‘I shouldn’t feel this stressed’ can be seen as mental chatter, a product of stress, and we can begin to recognise that their incessant repetition in our mind is actually not effective or beneficial.

Exercise 6.8: Work in progress

Everything is transient

In thinking about managing our stress at work, we invite you to recognise how everything is transient. Our thoughts, feelings, body sensations and behaviours are fleeting, they come and go. To see what we mean, try this quick exercise right now.

1. Just for a second, right now, bring your attention to a sensation in your body, wherever you are, whatever you are doing – this might be the sensation of your backside against the seat you’re sitting on, or even your fingers on your keyboard or on your phone, tablet or the book you’re holding.
2. Just hold that sensation at the forefront of your mind for a few seconds – got it? Good.

Now, that sensation is always there when you sit at your desk at work (tap away on your keyboard, hold your phone, tablet, this book, etc.), but until we encouraged you to focus on it just now, you probably weren’t that aware of its presence. As you keep reading and your mind becomes distracted by what you read, that sensation will pass by the forefront of your mind. That sensation is just like any thoughts, other sensations or emotions that you experience, including the stressful and painful ones. You might also try to imagine yourself like a mountain, standing firm, secure and stable and these experiences are clouds that pass by the peak of the mountain. The problem is that we lose sight of the fact that our experiences are fleeting in this way, particularly when we experience stress and other unwanted thoughts, feelings and sensations. At those times we tend to want to get rid of it straight away and usually by exterminating (in true Dalek style) the cause of our stress, as we see it anyway – like our unforgiving boss, the lazy, good-for-nothing colleagues who won’t pull their weight or those trillion emails in the inbox glaring at us for attention! The problem arises in that, although we tirelessly try, our experiences are simply not a problem to solve; they are a condition of life (as we mentioned in the previous chapter too), and the more we try to eradicate them the more they stick around, just like those weather clouds now hovering above the mountain top. It’s interesting, as there are many other conditions in life that we tend to accept day to day, like the weather, say. Just imagine believing that you would never leave your home unless the sun was shining. We’re sure that you wouldn’t get much done at all, especially when you consider the weather we tend to get here in Britain.

Swatting sweat flies

Running from stress at work is not clever, not if you want to feel more composed and calm, not to mention get the job done. Instinctively we try to rid ourselves of stress, just as we might try to swat away a fly as we lie relaxing in the sun – and the more we swat, the more we sweat and, well, we’re sure you get the picture. Take a look at Steve, for example.

We can develop our reactivity to the precision of a samurai (please see the YouTube video of a fantastic animation, listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter to see what we mean), slashing the flies with our razor sharp sword, only to find that, somehow, we now have two flies; with another couple of swift cuts, we have four, then eight, sixteen and so on. We work harder and harder, sweating away, with nothing to show except an increasingly large swarm of increasingly irritating flies. It is enough to drive anyone to the brink of sanity, and yet many of us live our daily working lives just like this, gasping for breath at the end of the day, left frazzled and furious. The fear, of course, is that if we stop, the flies (or fly) will just continue, get worse and/or never ever leave. So recall your skills already from this chapter, see the fly storm just as it is. Stop fighting with reality (you will never win). Turn down the volume of the monkey mind and be still for a moment.

Great! So now we’ve covered swamps, monkeys and flies – we hope you don’t have all three at once, but even if you are up to your neck in a swamp with a monkey on your head and a fly biting your nose, we know that you have plenty of ways of seeing that these are actually not worth the added stress of reacting to with the usual defensive, demanding or distracting habits we tend to use. The techniques above have so far called for you to acknowledge, discriminate wisely, develop mindful discipline and recognise the transience of mental experience. To master the next steps, of what begins to surface once we still the mind and see the swamp, the monkey or the fly storm, we are going to look into a recent and very successful area related to mindfulness which is often referred to as ‘emotional resilience’ …

Emotional resilience

The concept of psychological resilience began in the 1970s when studies were made of people who, despite experiencing extreme adversity in early life, were still found to thrive in later life. This was initially attributed, in the main, to hereditary traits in personality. More recent modern-day authors and researchers, such as Steven Southwick and Dennis Charney (2012), have studied resilience extensively to try to discover more about why people react so differently to adversity. Through their research, Southwick and Charney have identified ten psychological and social factors that they think make for stronger resilience:

1. facing your fears;
2. having a moral compass or ethical code;
3. drawing on faith or self-belief;
4. using social support and friendships;
5. having positive role models;
6. keeping physically fit;
7. making sure you are mentally challenged;
8. having ‘cognitive and emotional flexibility’;
9. having ‘meaning, purpose and growth’ in life;
10. ‘realistic’ optimism.

Moreover, Southwick and Charney believe that it is possible to develop these ten factors, and that this can lead to a positive change for generally healthy people in their ability to cope not just with a major trauma, but also with the day-to-day stresses of life. The technique they believe to be the most helpful? Yep, that’s right! Mindfulness.

Emotional resilience is important to you and your work because it gives you the ability to withstand emotional difficulties skilfully, to use mindfulness to your advantage and to further promote your well-being and quality of functioning at work. Moreover, through emotional resilience you demonstrate strength to your team, you recover well from setbacks, you build healthy relationships with colleagues and you and your business are able to thrive and succeed in competitive environments when others might buckle under the stress. According to research by Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin (you can watch a video of Richard Davidson and John Kabat-Zinn talking about resilience and mindfulness, listed in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter), resilient people bounce back from adversity, no matter what happens. Instead of suffering from the physical and mental symptoms of stress (such as back pain, headaches, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, etc.), they are able to return to a state of calm composure even after the most upsetting events. One of the key techniques Davidson and other researchers have found to developing emotional resilience is the rehearsal of letting go of, or letting alone (taking our ‘hands off’) our thoughts and distractions and returning our attention to a chosen topic or task (the very essence of any mindfulness practice). Davidson says ‘the wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind can exaggerate the severity of a setback, note that it as an interesting mental process, and resist getting drawn into the abyss’ is key to cultivating our emotional resilience and recovering well from stressful encounters. The more we become practised at doing this, like any skill, the better and more resilient to stress we can become. So why not try this next practice now (and repeat it as often as you can) to boost your emotional resilience.

Exercise 6.9: Mindful on the job

Mind training for emotional resiliences

This is an adaptation of an exercise used by SIYLI (Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute), who work with Google. Take your time with this; we suggest ten minutes at least, but any time will be beneficial.

1. Begin by taking three breaths to bring the mind to the present. Focus on the in- and out-breaths and the spaces in-between.
2. Bring the attention into the body, becoming aware of the physical body, your posture, the ground beneath you and the air and space around you.
3. Now bring to mind an experience or event in which you experienced stress. This may be a failure, a sense of letting others down, missing a goal or target or finding a situation humiliating.
4. Observe what arises in the memory of the senses, like sounds (such as a conversation), sights (the people or places), or other sensory experiences.
5. Now attend to the emotional qualities which arise (anger, shame, regret, sorrow, etc.). Let yourself feel the accompanying sensations which arise within the body. These are likely to be uncomfortable and aversive; just stay with them.
6. Stay with the emotions and sensations arising and see if you can allow yourself just to experience these as physiological experiences. Just focus on these in this moment, allowing them to come and go as they wish. Arising and passing, try to let them alone, without interfering, adding narratives or distracting away, simply ‘take your hands off’ and allow the experience to be. Take an attitude of kindness and gentleness towards yourself.
7. Now switch to recalling an event of success, pride or achievement at work. This might be a time of receiving praise, meeting a goal or getting a promotion or bonus.
8. Again, observe what arises in the memory of the senses, like sounds (such as a conversation), sights (the people or places), or other sensory experiences.
9. Now, once more, attend to the emotional qualities which arise (joy, pride, fulfilment, satisfaction). Let yourself feel the accompanying sensations which arise within the body. These are likely to be pleasant and desirable; just stay with them.
10. Stay with the emotion and sensations arising and see if you can also let them be, just as they are, simply an experience of physiological sensations arising and passing in the body. Try to leave them alone, without interfering, creating further stories or embellishments, letting the sensations come and go with an attitude of kindness and gentleness.
11. Now return to the present and focus again on the breath for approximately three minutes. Continue to notice what happens in the body; see how it feels right now and allow yourself to breathe freely.

Getting unhooked and swimming free

Exercises like the one above train our ability to relinquish reactive and unhelpful responses to our unwanted experiences such as uncomfortable thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations which we tend to habitually either buy into or suppress in some way. For example, we may embellish a worrisome thought and before we know it we are lost in an entire story about our impending doom and failure, or equally we may attempt to push that thought away by thinking positively and reappraising its content (i.e. ‘I know deep down that I am not a failure’), which all too often is met with just another compelling counterargument (‘But what if I am wrong and I am a failure?!’).

So, neither of these reactive responses (buying into or suppressing) is usually a workable behaviour if our goal is to maintain our well-being and peak performance while on the job.

By recognising these habitual responses and labelling thoughts and feelings for what they are, instead we increase our psychological flexibility; that is we become unstuck, broaden our perspective and expand our choices, and we unhook ourselves from either becoming entirely caught up in the stress--inducing story or in energy-zapping struggles to push them away. We can then increase our willingness, choose to make room for these experiences and accept them for what they are, just as they are. Essentially, with mindfulness, we notice these experiences and our unhelpful struggle with them and instead choose to respond in a more open and flexible way. This frees up time, energy and much needed resources, which are all essential in enabling us to take actions aligned with what matters most to us in our work.

Numerous studies (some of which have been listed in this book already), from Frank Bond at Goldsmiths, University of London, Paul Flaxman at City University in London and several others, have shown that the development of this specific skill, psychological flexibility (arising from practising the mindfulness-based principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACTraining) – which includes the ability to be in the current moment, mindfully aware of thoughts and emotions, and committed to valued-based workplace goals – can help workers to alleviate stress and reduce burnout and absenteeism, as well as increasing job satisfaction and job performance. As we can see, one key element to all this is clarifying and then aligning and committing our actions to our values or, in other words, a deeper sense of purpose and what matters most to us in our work.

Similarly, in her seminal paper, ‘How resilience works’ (which you can find a link to in the ‘Useful resources’ section at the end of this chapter), published in the Harvard Business Review, Diane Coutu also highlights a sense of purpose and meaning as a fundamental characteristic in the cultivation of emotional resilience. She outlines three crucial building blocks for emotional resilience in the face of stressful experiences within the workplace:

1. Face down reality (acceptance of harsh realities): Instead of trying to remain positive or live in denial (which only lasts for a while), having a deeper sense of realism and acceptance of how life is prepares us to act in ways that allow us to endure and survive extraordinary hardship. With the practice of acceptance, we train ourselves how to survive before stressful events arise. The concept of seeing reality clearly and experiencing ourselves and our lives just as they are appears also within Buddhist teachings; it is known as ‘radical acceptance.’
2. Search for meaning (finding purpose in hardship): Instead of ranting ‘why is this happening to me’, create some sort of meaning and purpose and concrete goals that are aligned with this purpose: e.g. Viktor Frankl, the Austrian Psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor, helped himself survive the concentration camp by imagining how he would give a lecture on the psychology of the camp, following the war, to help people understand what he had been through.
3. Continually improvise (remain creative, think outside the box): Within the boundaries of standard rules and regulations, be inventive: imagine how you could use whatever resources are available, to solve problems in novel and creative ways.

So, we already know well how regular mindfulness practice helps to develop our acceptance of life, just as it is, as well as enhance our creativity, confidence, productivity and focus, but what about this other fundamental element in cultivating our resilience: finding a sense of purpose and meaning, and what really matters to us? How can mindfulness help us with that? Well, let’s take a look at that right now.

What matters most?

‘Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.’

Albert Einstein

Together with accepting our current working life, discerning when we are being reactive, and developing emotional resilience, looking at the relationship we have to our workplace can assist us to move in a direction that matters most to us, increasing our sense of fulfilment with our career and reducing the likelihood of burnout. Without a clear understanding and awareness of our values, our working life can feel as if it is at the whim of other forces (like swamps, monkeys and flies, for instance), which can leave us feeling pretty stressed out, anxious and underconfident and, like our work, lacking any meaningful substance.

Each day we are faced with making choices while on the job; work is often just a series of decisions, one after another, day after day. Some of these can be quite easy to make, and some may be based on fear, and we can act mindlessly as a result. At certain junctures we are often left paralysed, as if the road ahead looks dug up, lacking in any confidence about which way to turn, what direction to take, what decision to make or what the next step should be. ‘What role should I take? Shall I leave my current job? How shall I respond/what shall I say to my teammate, my manager, or that client? How can I maintain my performance at work?’ Our values can really be of great value at such times, as we take a moment to mindfully step back, check in with what our values might tell us about what matters most to us in that moment and situation and then act accordingly. They give us a much needed framework to fall back on, and the confidence to move forward with what we really care about in our work, even in the face of hardship and highly stressful moments.

Values refer to the way we want to interact with our work, our colleagues, superiors, customers, clients, competitors and ourselves. They are what we want to stand for in our work, how we want to behave, what sort of person we want to be, what sort of strengths and qualities we want to demonstrate. If we feel the assurance and conviction that we are acting in alignment with what matters most to us (and when these actions also happen to align with our team’s, company’s or organisation’s values and action plan, it can all become doubly energising and motivating), we will benefit from feeling more centred and connected to our role. As a result, our performance in the workplace is likely to feel more authentic (i.e. not something we are ‘trying to be’ but something we ‘are’) and our work endeavours more meaningful and satisfying. We begin to experience a greater sense of well-being, and our performance and resilience are also likely to improve further.

In fact, in a very recent longitudinal study¹⁰ carried out at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, it was found that having a sense of purpose in life, or, in other words, recognising what you want out of life and having a plan to achieve it, is a significant contributor to ageing well generally. The results showed that individuals (1,475 adults participated in this research over an 18-year period) with higher scores measuring their sense of purpose reported lower functional disability, better self-rated health and fewer symptoms of depression compared to individuals who scored lower on measures of purpose. The study also found that having a strong sense of purpose appeared to be linked to better performance on tests of short-term memory and mental speed. The researchers conclude ‘that having a strong sense of purpose allows people to set meaningful goals in life and manage their time and effort more effectively.’

It would seem that a sense of purpose can really boost our emotional resilience and provide a major buffer to the daily, as well as the more severe, experiences of stress that are an inevitable part of our working lives. Redundancy (although sometimes much welcomed) can often come as a huge blow and has left many of the executives that we have coached feeling pretty lost, directionless and pessimistic, with increasing feelings of depression and anxiety. However, following an effort to clarify deeper values and meaning in their work, many of these people have been able to find a new sense of optimism and forward direction. Many have turned their experience of redundancy (once they have unhooked themselves from the unworkable rumination and worry that tends to undermine their confidence and fuel their depression and anxiety, that is!) into a positive by using the time wisely to reflect on what they truly want their working life to be about. Some have retrained, or transferred their skills to another industry once they have identified the steps that they can begin to take to experience greater meaning and satisfaction from their work.

Values are not targets or goals

In further considering values, it’s important to differentiate between values and goals. Often when we ask our clients what their values might be in the context of their work, they often respond by running off a list of goals, what they want to achieve, etc. We really want to clear up the fact that values (as we are presenting them here, anyway) are not goals, or something that we can attain, win or gain. That promotion, new job, more money, success, respect from colleagues or the support from a manager may matter to you BUT they are all goals. These are things we can hope to attain, and then tick off a list. Once we get them they are no longer goals. Values are more to do with the qualities that we want to bring to our actions, how we want to be and what we want to stand for as a worker, employee, colleague, service provider, employer, manager, leader, business owner, etc. Values are concerned with how we want to be and act on an ongoing basis, i.e. the quality of our actions. They are best described as the ‘desired global qualities of ongoing action’ (Hayes, Bond, Barnes-Holmes and Austin, 2006, p. 16) that we want to demonstrate through our behaviour in our work. Values, unlike goals, can never be completed. For example, if you want a better job that is a goal, and once you get it you have achieved it, crossed it off the list; but if you want to be more efficient or productive at work, these are values and you can act on them in any moment, even if you don’t like your job or even if you don’t have one. Values are also about ‘the quality of our action’. So although you can ‘work’ on an ongoing basis, ‘work’ itself is not a value as it lacks any description of the quality you may bring to your work. The question to really ask yourself is: how do you want to work? What personal qualities or strengths do you want to model or demonstrate while you work? How do you want to behave in your relationships with your teammates, your reports, your manager, your clients and customers? Asking yourself these types of questions may help you connect with values such as being focused, fair, kind, competitive, cooperative, skilful, supportive, etc.; these are examples of values. Remember that values are also ‘global’, which refers to the fact that these qualities can be brought to many different behaviours and actions. So if you valued being supportive to your colleagues at work, there are many different actions you could do to be supportive towards them – i.e. spend time listening, help out with projects, etc. Values are also freely chosen by you; there is no rule book or law about which you should have; they are yours and reflect what is important to you.

Working with values

Sometimes our clients can look rather lost, anxious or frustrated when we ask them to tell us about their values, which is not surprising at all as most of us work in highly goal-oriented environments and we easily lose touch with our core values. Of course targets and goals are an essential part of successful business, but the problem is that when we live and work by these alone (losing touch with our values) our experience of work is pretty stressful and unfulfilling. Working in a purely goal-focused fashion is all well and good, but we tend to experience a perpetual state of lacking, anxiety and frustration until we reach our next goal, and when we finally get it (if we ever do) we are then left anxious about losing it and/or lost and directionless once again until we find another goal to strive towards. We always want more, assuming that the next thing/achievement will fulfil us and/or make us happy and successful. We are constantly raising the bar, striving for the next achievement, but all the while never really experiencing any lasting sense of satisfaction or stability in our work. We are not for one second saying that you should do away with trying to move onwards and upwards in your work and career, but if you were to introduce more value-driven behaviours into the mix you might find that your sense of motivation, purpose, confidence, fulfilment, contentment and resilience were more stable and hung around for a bit longer and you were therefore better able to maintain your performance, at its peak, at work. Take the case of Jon and Edward, for example.

Irrespective of our successes or failures, and of anyone or anything else, we can always choose to act on our values at work. Unlike our goals, our values are always available to us and we can act on them whenever we want. As we know all too well by now, thoughts change endlessly and emotions change like the weather, but values can be called upon at any time, in any situation. We can never guarantee that we will get that promotion, but we can always choose to work confidently and conscientiously, for example, if that is what matters to us most.

‘Your beliefs become your thoughts,’
‘Your thoughts become your words’,
‘Your words become your actions’,
‘Your actions become your habits’,
‘Your habits become your values’,
‘Your values become your destiny.’

Mahatma Gandhi

The mindful route to values

So you might be thinking, ‘this all sounds great but what’s all this values stuff got to do with mindfulness?’ Well, mindfulness and values go hand in hand. In order to identify our values we need to be present and pay close attention, moment by moment, to our feelings and behaviours and the sense of satisfaction and purpose that these may or may not bring. When we take time to notice our present moment experience in this way, we can begin to identify the behaviours and understand the underlying values that bring us a sense of satisfaction and meaning in our work. After we have recognised what is most important to us in our work, we may then wish to implement more values-based actions at work – which can be no mean feat. Working in ways that we really care about (although ultimately satisfying) can at times be a real challenge and a difficult thing to do. For example, if we want to contribute in the corporate world we need to be willing and prepared to experience the anxiety and sense of vulnerability that, say, creativity, innovation and/or public speaking may bring. So in acting on our values we need to continue to practise mindfulness as best we can. By practising present-moment focus on the here and now, we can do our best to ensure that we don’t get caught up in the inevitable obstacles (and excuses!) that our minds give us about why we just can’t do that or this right now (even though it is important to us) – at these times it is important to use your mindfulness skills and never mind your mind (Exercise 6.7 in this chapter can help you out with this) and carry on anyway. It is also important to recognise that although we can set goals to work towards that are aligned with our deepest values, we can also make an effort to work by our values in any given moment, right here and right now. So although you can plan value-based actions which you may want to take over the next six months, four weeks or during the week ahead, the other helpful questions to ask yourself (as often as you can) are:

• ‘What can I do right now, in this very moment that is aligned with my values?’
• ‘What do I want to stand for, right now, in the face of this challenging situation?’

We bet by now you are eager to get on and think about your own personal work-related values and how you might start to incorporate these into your work. OK, let’s take a closer look at all that now.

Uncovering values

Why don’t you try to identify some of your values right now with the following exercises? Remember, there are no right or wrong values; you are free to change your mind at any point or to sit with not fully knowing; these exercises are about exploration, curiosity and inquiry.

Exercise 6.10: Work in progress

Your retirement party

To identity your values it may be helpful to reflect on how you might like to be remembered and what you might hope to leave behind: in other words, your legacy (we know, deep, right?). So why not take a few moments now to try to imagine that you are at your very own retirement party and a few of your colleagues stand up to make a speech about you (imagine what you’d most like to hear them say about you) as you reflect on the following questions:

• What do they say about the sort of colleague, manager, employer, etc. you have been?
• What have you stood for in your work?
• What have you meant to them in their work?
• How do you feel as you hear them describe these qualities in you?
• Which qualities feel most important and meaningful to you?

You may like to continue your exploration into your deepest values with the following exercise now.

Exercise 6.11: Work in progress

Finding true value

1. Identifying core values

Below, some of the common values that people may hold at work have been grouped into four sets; active values, values of the heart, personal development values and social values. Although these groupings are arbitrary to an extent, they may also help you place your preference in terms of how you may choose to communicate or develop the values that you have and help you discriminate more clearly how and where your actions at work meet these, or not. Not all of the values listed may resonate with you and that is absolutely fine. Also, these are not the right or correct values to hold at work – remember there is no right and wrong when it comes to values.

Run through the lists and see which, if any, fit for you. For the ones that do seem relevant to you, why not try to rank them as ‘very important’ or ‘quite important’. You may also find that one category is more dominant than another, or maybe you have a little bit of everything. After identifying some values from below, move on to part two of the exercise for some guidance on how to start acting by these values in the workplace, to help you feel more in tune with your work.

‘Active’ values: achievement, adventure, assertiveness, excitement, fun, pleasure, power, expertise, creativity, fitness, industry, order, skilfulness

Values of the heart: acceptance, authenticity, autonomy, caring, compassion, courage, forgiveness, generosity, gratitude, honesty, humility, humour, kindness, patience

Personal development values: accuracy, challenge, curiosity, encouragement, flexibility, freedom, health, mindfulness, open-mindedness, persistence, self-awareness/care/development/control, tolerance

Social values: connection, contribution, conformity, cooperation, civility, fairness, friendliness, helpfulness, independence, intimacy, respect, responsibility, safety, trust.

2. Value boost

If you found that you had values in a particular category, or even some in each, you may also reflect on how these are met by your actions while on the job. If you do feel that you could take more active steps to align yourself with your values, here are some suggestions:

Active values: Look for ways to demonstrate these values at work, either through presentations, team-building, skills development, training or other overt, concrete and definitive means. You may wish to set up new initiatives at work in order to best promote the values that are important for you to feel fulfilled at work.

Values of the heart: Show these values, even in tough-talking environments, by spending time listening to others, making space for saying ‘thank you’, ‘sorry’ or ‘well done’ or simply remembering to give yourself and others that well-deserved tea-break from time to time.

Personal-development values: Remind yourself that these values are important on a regular basis by listing the ways in which you are achieving goals, developing yourself as a person and rising to the challenges of your working life in alignment with what matters most to you.

Social values: Focus on networking, team-building and social events at work, but make time to consider how your values are being met through these activities. You might want to adjust the emphasis of particular meetings, or review work policies and team culture in order to enhance these values for yourself at work.

After identifying some of your values through these exercises, you may have found that you are already acting on your values at work. Maybe you already work hard and are supportive of others, for example, but you still feel unfulfilled. If so, that’s probably because you are on autopilot most of the time, rushing around, from one task to the next, caught up in all your thoughts, ticking off items on your to-do list, rather than actually being present to really take in and savour any of your meaningful moments on the job. If that is the case, then it’s time to get present and practise more mindfulness! In this case, maybe you could add mindfulness to your list of values (if it’s not already there). On the other hand, if you have found that there are a number of values that you aren’t bringing to your work, then maybe you are keen to start implementing them now? Try the following exercises to begin putting your values into action in more concrete ways.

What steps can you take to move towards being the worker/colleague/manager/leader/employer (delete as appropriate!) you really want to be?

Attempt the following exercises to first identify what actions and goals you can set yourself to ensure you are working by your values, and then begin to put them into actionable terms with a considered and concrete plan. You may find this a helpful tool to reflect on weekly or even daily.

Exercise 6.12: Work in progress

Identifying value-based goals

To begin to understand how your values can be connected to your actions and goals at work, try to answer the following questions (keeping your values in mind):

• What sort of things would you like to start doing more of at work?
• What would you like to stop doing?
• What are you currently doing that improves your work in the long run?
• What work-enriching goals do you want to achieve?
• What work-enhancing actions do you want to take?
• What work-improving skills would you like to develop?

Values-based goals action plan

To set specific values-based goals and ensure you implement them at work, try the following exercise (which has been adapted from Russ Harris’ brilliant modification (Harris, 2012, p. 213–17) of the widely known SMART goals acronym):

1. First remind yourself of your values and make sure you keep them in mind to ensure your actions are meaningful.
2. Now, choose a value (one at a time) that you want to set some goal/s around (e.g., ‘supportive’).
3. Now, get SMART:

   Specific (Do not set ambiguous, poorly defined goals like, ‘I’ll be more supportive at work’. Instead, be specific about your actions, like: ‘I’ll arrange a time to speak to each team member about their concerns’.)

   Meaningful (Check to make sure this goal is aligned with your values, i.e. ‘supportive’.)

   Adaptive (Is this goal likely to improve your work in some way? – ‘Yes, teamwork and group productivity will improve’.)

   Realistic (Do you have the resources available to carry out this goal – such as time, money, physical health, social support, knowledge, skills? If these resources are needed but not available, it’s best to change your goal to a more realistic one. The new goal might actually be about finding the missing resources: to create more time, or develop the skills, etc., i.e. ‘I’ll delegate some of my project so I can free up some time to talk with the team’ – remember this would still be related to the core underlying value you have identified.)

   Time-framed (Be specific about the day, date and time when you will act on your value-based goal – i.e. ‘I will speak to a different team member for 30 minutes, each morning from 10am’.)

4. Make a commitment: Research shows that if you make a public commitment to your goal (i.e. if you let at least one other person know what you intend to do), then you are more likely to follow through with it. If you’re not able or willing to do this, then try at least to make a commitment to yourself (in this case, you might find it helpful to write it down somewhere – where you’ll see it as a reminder!).

Take bold action

To end this chapter, we wanted to leave you with another acronym (which we find very helpful and which is commonly cited in the ACT literature), which we hope will serve you well in your goal of maintaining your peak performance while on the job. If you are up to the eyeballs with the whole acronym thing, then just remember this one, as, along with the ‘mindfulness of breathing’ practice, it is simple, relevant and easily accessible. So when you find yourself confronted with difficult situations at work, when stress seems to be high, try to follow these simple steps to mindfully regulate your emotion, tap back into your source of resilience and then take productive, valued-based actions to maintain your peak performance. Remember to be BOLD:

Breathe: breathe in and out slowly, slow down, focus on now.

Observe: notice what you are feeling and thinking. Allow these internal experiences to flow through you, without getting hooked up in them.

Listen: listen to your values, i.e. what kind of person do you want to be in this moment?

Decide: choose actions that will reflect your values, and make a decision to act on them.

We would also like to remind you that one of your most common methods for dealing with stress is likely to look much like this:

In the interests of health and safety, if you must revert to this technique, we are obliged to recommend attaching a cushion to your head first. This ‘anti-stress kit’ will do nothing to solve a problem, to help you radically accept a situation or find healthy ways to build confidence and emotional resilience at work. In the face of adversity, the above technique will feel oddly familiar and just might remind you that when you are stuck in a rut, trying the same old thing over and over again and hoping for some kind of miracle, banging your head against the wall just leaves you with a headache. Stop it. Perhaps, instead you could just sit down and breathe for a bit instead?

Here are our take-away top tips from this chapter.

As we draw this chapter to its conclusion, it might be helpful to remember that well-being and the ability to maintain your performance at work at an optimum are best developed through cultivating a mindful sensitivity to yourself in the moment – frequently, through simple, regular mindfulness practices. It is a skill built upon through small and, at times, seemingly irrelevant moments of contacting awareness of the breath or the body. These mindful moments, and then the further inquiry provided in many of the exercises given in this book, are to encourage deepening your understanding and reflection into mindfulness as it is applied to your working life. Practising mindfulness will hone your ability to make choices, to discern, to act from values and to notice your place and purpose in your work, your workplace and your world. With perseverance, gentleness and a stance of curiosity, gradually you will find freedom from the tyranny of habitual and unconscious thoughts and behaviours so that you are able to find a deeper sense of meaning and connection to your work and to your life. This simple process, born from the observation of one breath, one moment at a time, can flourish into a radical shift in the way you interface with your work, your colleagues and your business, bringing a refreshing and healthier glow to your performance at work and subsequently, as we will be looking at in the next chapter, to the whole ethos of the workplace.

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