Mindset Lessons from a Monk, physicist and scientist
A monk, a scientist, and a physicist…
We all know that life, work and business, is defined by change. However, when we look at change in a modern context, we see something different, an increased cadence of unexpected change that can be described as extreme or even a crisis.? All we need do is look back at the last 5 years (yes! Just 5 years!) to see this increased cadence: COVID, Brexit, War, Climate, Economy, Technology and more. Global and local extreme unexpected change has become the new norm. Where change was once a mild constant, now it’s more like a constant tsunami!
What does this mean for leaders and entrepreneurs? It means that our ability to be ready for the unexpected, and the unpredictable should be a part of our practice. More importantly, it should be a specific aspect of mental fitness we can leverage when required.
Think about an extreme change you have experienced and lived through. How did you, or the leaders around you think, behave and act when that event occurred? For many the answer is likely this:
·????? They react as one would in fear
·????? They rely on past data to make decisions
·????? They likely take reductive actions to close in, reduce risk etc.
These are behaviours and actions akin to survival. That’s an example of a fixed mindset, whichever way you spin it. While this might feel right in the moment, it is simply evidence of a weak mentality – weakness in what I call the Rapid Response Mental Muscle.
Just like athletes train and exercise their Fast Twitch muscles ready to kick into a completely different speed, approach or direction, leaders today must also develop a similar readiness, but mentally. The ability to respond to extreme, unexpected events with speed, courage and imagination.
At this point you might be thinking I made a mistake with this week’s blog title, but no. This is where the Monk, Physicist and Scientist come into play. If we can start to think in ways these people think, we will be exercising and building our Rapid Response Mental Muscle.
Think like a Monk
What I am talking about here is coherence. When we are Coherence between heart (emotions) and mind (thoughts) we are more likely to be calm in a crisis. This allows more oxygen to the brain for creative and imaginative thinking, it allows us to lean in with courage and be more likely to take risks than we might if we are just living life on autopilot or worse perceiving ourselves as being ‘busy’ when an unexpected event occurs.
A great exercise to start bringing more coherence between emotion and thought is to practice coherence breathing daily. You don’t even have to cave into meditation if you feel that’s a step too far for you (which I hope it’s not). Coherence breathing is a steady inhale and exhale through the nose for a minimum of 5 minutes. Every inhale and exhale each should last approximately 5 seconds. Head over to your internet browser to find a guided session.
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Think like a Physicist
This seems obvious, yet in my experience rarely do we take the time to think like this in a crisis or extreme unexpected event. What I refer to here is First Principles Thinking. If you have ever used root cause analysis, this will make sense to you. When we face extreme change the best way to respond is to get back to basics – not in terms of reducing so we survive, but in terms of going back to the basics of what’s required to achieve our vision and ambition. If we break things down to first principles, we have the foundational elements required to achieve success – very different to survival or existence. Asking yourself the following questions will help you think in first principles: Why are we doing this? What is the vision that drives us? What is the purpose that is bigger than us? What is the desired goal?
Thinking like a physicist gives us focus and guidance to keep going forward towards our goal rather than retract and stop moving until we ‘think’ the danger is over!
Think like a Scientist
My favourite mental practice for modernity is developing a scientific mind. However, what I refer to may not be what you first expect. I mean the fact that scientists conduct experiments. Experiment after experiment after experiment. Each experiment creates truth data that informs the next experiment to edge forward towards the goal. Many experiments are needed to achieve success. This is how we should be thinking in the event of an extreme change. How many right answers are there to this? How many different options do we have? Working on the premise and belief that there is always more than one right answer can greatly increase our ability to take risks in the face of uncertainty and not reduce back to survival basics.
The trick to these mental models is clear – just as the athlete must practice daily, exercising their fast twitch muscles in readiness for use – we must also practice daily, exercising our rapid response mental muscle in readiness for use.
For one thing is certain in this modern world; these more extreme and unpredictable changes are not question of if, but when.
So, how ready will you be mentally?
Mel Ross is known as the modern mindset mentor, helping leaders and entrepreneurs all over the world achieve success beyond imagination through developing the mental fitness required to thrive in this modern world.
Blending a unique combination of age old wisdom, neuroscience and technology, Mel created Modern Mindset Theory that combines tools and methodology for leaders to assess and design specific mindset shifts both conscious and habitual. There is not though that cannot be changed, no habit that cannot be broken. The hundreds of amazing mentee stories using Mel's techniques are testament to this.
If you would like to know more about my programmes 121 and group, or my work with organisations to develop modern mindset, email me at [email protected]