Are You Just Sleepwalking to Work?

Why did you get fired, hired, or promoted? Do you know the real reason?

What does your boss - and your colleagues - actually think about you? Do you know?

In the days when I used to manage others, I was constantly surprised that many people had a distorted impression of their own actions. For example, one person who clearly was lazier than everyone else could not understand why his "hard work" did not justify a larger raise.

You might say that guy was sleepwalking through his career.

Watching the video you see below, I came across a line that stopped me in my tracks. Quoting Dōgen Zenji, the founder 800 years ago of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan, Matt Daniell said, "Awakening is intimacy with all things."

By awakening, he means learning to pay deeper attention to what is happening in each moment of your life.

By intimacy, he means fully recognizing the qualities of each person, place, or thing you encounter.

Our society teaches us to do the opposite. Here's the way we traditionally greet each other:

"Hi, Bruce. How are you?

"Great, Jim. How are you?"

"Great."

In this manner, we develop the habit of being superficial and cursory.

Sure, we could stop and more closely examine each person with whom we interact. We could pause for five or ten seconds and think: does Jim look happy? Healthy? Is there any way I can help him?

But there's a flaw in this approach, too.

Awakening doesn't necessarily mean thinking more. It doesn't mean being more analytical. To the contrary, it's more about sensing than thinking. For example...

• It's about noticing an undercurrent of tension in a room
• It's recognizing that a person's facial expressions and body language do not match his or her words
• It's being aware enough of thousands of tiny inputs around you... to sense when "something is in the air"
• It's cultivating a BS detector and the reverse, the ability to recognize authenticity

Here's the bad news

"Awakening" requires constant, daily effort. It requires a change in how you interact with the people and the world around you. Nearly everything - your job, family, obligations, and desire to be productive - pushes you in the opposite direction.

The only thing that has worked for me is my abject fear of being clueless. I don't want to be that person who misses details, lives in a fog, and notices opportunities only after they have passed me by.

Do you?

Bruce Kasanoff ghostwrites articles for innovators, investors, and professionals like you.