While mindfulness meditation is a personal undertaking, adoption of some of the principles of mindfulness in the workplace allows us to run a smarter business. What’s more, we become able to achieve more with less effort.
Here are five examples of simple things you can do today, that will make your business more abundant, in all senses of the word.
(1) Give stuff away
This is one of the easiest tips to implement and it is the best way to share your intention, wisdom and business tips with clients.
Examples of what you can give away:
- A report or white paper
- A sample chapter of a book
- An audio recording e.g. podcast, meditation, music track
- A video tutorial e.g. access to a webinar
The obvious reason you would think to do this is to grab people’s emails so you can upsell them some stuff. This should not be the prime motivation. When we share freely, we find that we end up with stuff coming back from other unexpected sources to us as what goes around, comes around.
(2) Shout quietly
It’s not a good idea to market your products and services by being disparaging about your competitors. Neither is it a good strategy to push your products in people’s faces if you want to embrace mindfulness.
A much better way is to share valuable content that others can use and then to only mention your own products and services in passing and in context.
My way of shouting quietly is by posting content on my blog and also by interviewing like-minded people on my podcast. These days it is my main marketing tool and it seems to generate all the business I need.
Examples of how you can shout loudly:
- Start a blog
- Write and syndicate content for other sites
- Start a podcast
- Launch a video channel
In addition, when posting on social media, my policy is to only be positive and to share good advice, successes and celebrations. Avoid gossip, nay saying and denigrating others.
(3) Share your wisdom
The writing and publishing of my books has not only opened many doors for me but it has also opened the hearts and minds of many readers. As an unexpected spin-off, it also led to a career I didn?t plan as an author’s mentor. As an author, you find it becomes relatively easy to get interviewed by the press and the media.
These days, print on-demand technology means you only have to publish as many books as you need. At less than £5 a book, they make great giveaways to clients too.
As many books are read on ereaders while commuting, books don’t have to be big these days and short concise chapters are more easily digested. Often less is more.
Read on the next page for the way to live timefully and what you can for give and take in your business.
(4) Live timefully
It is not exactly true that the only time we have real control over is each moment, right now.
We can also reminisce about the past and draw on past learnings and mistakes. We can also imagine something in the future, right now, such that it arrives at our doorstep, just in time.
The key to living timefully lies in being mindful, at all times, about where in time your thoughts are focused. The key to being super-creative and super-productive is to focus your thoughts and attention on the now. When you get more done in less time, your bottom line improves instantly.
The key to doing this is to remain in the meditative state with your eyes open, especially when you are engaged on a creative project. You then enter EMT, or Extended Me Time, where interruptions reduce and the task seems to get done in the time available. This is what is referred to as ?being in the zone .
(5) Give and take
Just around the time I wrote my book on Practical Mindfulness, I was having both my cataracts removed. As I left the operating room, the surgeon said, No more eyes to do, that’s you sorted for life .
I realised in a flash that we do have another eye and that can become clouded, our metaphorical Third Eye.
It dawned that many of my meditations clear and activate the Third Eye and that I could easily donate a percentage of their sales to help clear cataracts for people in the developing world. I discovered that it only costs £40 (around $70) to clear cataracts in both eyes via a charity called the IMPACT Foundation.
So now sales from two of my products fund the restoration of sight in someone who would otherwise go blind. At the time of writing, the campaign has been running three months and raised enough funds to restore the sight in both eyes for 30 people.
Examples of how you can give and take:
- Align sales of a product or service to a charitable cause
- Donate a percentage of net profits
- Give pro bono services for the unwaged
- Donate stock that isn’t moving or old equipment not in use
Start yesterday
Like planting a tree, the best time to start these mindfulness initiatives is yesterday and the second best time is today. The observant reader will notice how there is little or no cost to implement them and only gain. The good will fostered in clients and suppliers alone makes any investment worthwhile.
Tom Evans is author of The Authority Guide to Practical Mindfulness
Image: Shutterstock
