How Practicing Mindfulness Can Help You Grow Your Business

Mindfulness shouldn’t be seen as a passing phase, as it offers several long-lasting benefits to entrepreneurs. Here’s how being aware of how you think – and why – can help you make better decisions and also cut your stress levels.

Key Takeaways: Mindfulness and Business

• Mindfulness is the practice of always being aware of your thoughts.
• It lets you focus on the here and now in order to gain more control over your mind.
• Mindfulness is especially beneficial to entrepreneurs and business leaders.?
• Practicing mindfulness can:
• Improve mental ability
• Reduce stress and anxiety
• Result in better decisions
• Boost creativity
• Enhance communication
• Increase resiliency

How many things do you do without even really thinking about them? If you drive to work, for example, you most likely take the same route every time. You don’t need to think about the street names, when to turn, or even the speed limit because you know it so well. This is a journey you’ve probably driven so often that you can basically put your mind (if not your actual car) in cruise control. Before you know it, you’ve arrived and are at your desk and ready to work.

Doing things of little importance in a routine manner is fine, but you have to pay much closer attention to your thoughts when the items in question carry more weight. Major decisions, sales pitches, partnership meetings, personnel challenges, and other higher-level business-related activities require your full consciousness.?

This is where practicing mindfulness comes in. This article covers everything you need to know about it, including what it is, how it applies to business, and how it can help your company and team achieve the growth it needs.

What is mindfulness?

You’ve almost surely heard the term “mindfulness.” It’s been a bit of a buzzword in the world of business for a number of years. Mindfulness shouldn’t be written off as another passing phase, as it can be a very valuable personal and professional skill. Here’s what to know:

• Mindfulness is essentially the practice of being cognizant of what you are thinking and why.?
• It involves focusing on the present moment and being self-aware of your thoughts.?
• The idea is that gaining increased awareness will give you better control over your mind.?

Practicing mindfulness can benefit anyone, but perhaps especially entrepreneurs. On any given day, you probably have numerous things to think about and decisions to make. It can be easy to get overloaded when you have so much on your mind, and often leads to mistakes, stress, and burnout.?

Mindfulness can help prevent this.?

What practicing mindfulness can mean for your business

While mindfulness is often associated with meditation, you don’t have to get out candles and soothing music to practice it. The goal is to calm yourself to better focus on your thoughts and keep them from wandering. It’s up to you to determine the best way to do this, however, because every person has their own factors that help with stress relief. And once you do, you may immediately notice these benefits:?

A boost in brain power

Mindfulness has the power to improve your mental ability and functioning. Being able to tune out distractions dramatically hones your focus, which leads to more clarity. And when your mind is clear, it is able to process information better and faster.

Less stress and anxiety

It can be very easy to get overwhelmed when you have much to do and are bombarded by information. This can cause stress, which often results in negative thoughts. A study found that practicing mindfulness can dramatically help reduce anxiety, because it stops your brain from rushing through thoughts. It helps you instead focus on just the present moment.??

Better decisions

If you’re one of the decision-makers in your company – or perhaps the only decision-maker – you need to think about the best interests of your business. But this is easier said than done. Mindfulness lets you stay in the here and now and improves your focus. You’re thus not worried about the mistakes of the past or the uncertainty of the future, which can help you make thoughtful and decisive conclusions.?

More creativity

Chances are good that at one point, you were bursting with creative ideas for your business. But once things were up and running – and you were ensconced in the daily grind of actually running the business – the creative well may have dried up. By practicing mindfulness, your mind can be less cluttered. This can help unblock that creative spring again.

Improved communication

As a business leader, you need to be able to effectively communicate to your team. This is particularly important when things are hectic. Being fully present for every interaction and focused on both what you’re saying and what others contribute dramatically improves communication. This also has a direct relationship with boosting engagement and motivation.

Resiliency

Failure is a part of being an entrepreneur. Even very successful business owners have had failures, and sometimes major ones. This is not something to dread, however. Being overly fearful of the unknown and the what-ifs only hurt a business. Practicing mindfulness can help you stop dwelling on the bad stuff and focus on the positive. This will also let you dust yourself off and try again when you don’t succeed.??

MetaGrowth Ventures is focused on helping company founders grow their businesses. We do this by finding the top salespeople, providing them with the right training, and monitoring their performance. Get in touch with us to learn how we can assist your organization.