Google employees registered for a 2-day SIY (Search-Inside-Yourself) program which taught them several mindfulness techniques and were coached by neuro-trainers to improve empathy, self-regulation, motivation, and learn leadership skills that helped them perform better at their job.
Many other companies like google are offering such programs to their employees to help them overcome problems that limit their productivity.
In the marketplace, every person is trying to find a competitive advantage. Imagine how incredible it would be to know and coach our brain so that it works for us. Mindfulness can help a person at their job in plenty of ways; such as reducing stress and anxiety, improving productivity, and enhancing creativity.
Why is Mindfulness Important for Advisors?
In the business world, you are faced with multiple challenging situations that require you to make various decisions. Mindfulness can help you make better decisions by reducing the stress, getting rid of insecurities, and calming the voices in your head to make a decision.
What mindfulness does in this situation is that it uses a different mindset to look at the decision-making process. The brain is peaceful and not under pressure when making a decision, so it contemplates the situation with increased focus.
As a financial, insurance, and lending advisor you have to deal with stressful situations every day when you have to solve your client’s unique problems, brainstorm new ideas and ways to prospect, and think of ways to grow your business.
Stress can easily make anyone feel scattered and overwhelmed once in a while. Mindfulness can help you reprogram your brain to calm down and get more done in a healthier and less stressful way.
Benefits of Mindfulness at Work
Adaptability
As a financial, lending, or insurance advisor, you are well aware of how changing circumstances and new challenges can stress you out. In situations when things don’t go as you planned, you need adaptability that makes you flexible to changes and enables you to respond quickly and effectively to them.
Practicing mindfulness helps you handle multiple demands by motivating you to work and enjoy the work that you are doing.
When a long meeting with a demanding client can exhaust you, and you feel running on empty for the rest of the day because you worked really hard until noon, mindfulness in such situations can help you learn to shift priorities, improve focus and adapt.
Problem Solving
The primary role of a financial, insurance, and lending advisor in their client’s life is to solve complex problems for them. To improve your concentration and become better at problem-solving you need to declutter your mind. When you are in the thick of a challenge, processing the available information and coming up with solutions can be made easier if you can improve your ability to focus.
Facilitates Creativity
Divergent thinking is the ability to think of new ideas, which is essential for financial, lending and insurance advisors. To motivate yourself to think creatively and devise great solutions for your clients, you should practice mindfulness.
There is a myriad of distractions around you all the time, you could be distracted by noises, thoughts, your phone, and whatnot. Mindfulness boosts your ability to look at things around you with concentration by liberating your brain from the distractions. Creativity is an outcome of innovative thinking which can be mastered if you can look at things with a fresh perspective.
Well-being
Your performance and job satisfaction are affected by what is going on inside your mind. Research suggests that mindfulness can impact a person’s mental health and well-being.
A study that used the data of over 2000 employees revealed that workers were stressed because of both; inside and outside factors that influenced their work lives. The factors for stress included personal life issues, job security, workload, work-life balance, and other people-related issues.
Mindfulness has numerous health benefits and a variety of psychological benefits on a person’s well-being across life dimensions. A great strategy to manage stress is practicing mindfulness from time to time.
Increased Empathy
As an advisor, you are often putting yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand their problems and challenges. To resonate with them emotionally, feel empathy for others, and build better connections, mindfulness can be extremely helpful.
Productivity
When your routine is hectic, and you need a way to clear your mind, practicing mindfulness can instantly enhance productivity. Mental and physical stress interferes with a human’s ability to be more productive. To make sure that your concentration remains squarely centered on the task that is being performed, your mind needs stress reducers. According to more than 200 studies, mindfulness has been effective in reducing stress and anxiety.
Quick Mindfulness Exercises
There are numerous ways, you can make practicing mindfulness a part of your life and benefit from it. However, during your work hours, you need a quick mindfulness exercise that can instantly improve your attention and focus.
1. S.T.O.P
When you need a break to reenergize, stop work activities and do the following:
S = Stop or pause what you are doing, momentarily.
T = Take a breath. Your breath can be used as an anchor to the present moment. Use it to reconnect yourself to your surroundings.
O = Observe your surroundings. Feel the things that are inside you, and outside you.
What is it that you are doing? Where are you? What have you been thinking?
P = Proceed or continue with what you were doing originally.
This small yet very effective mindfulness trick should give you a boost of attention, so you can proceed with the task at hand mindfully.
2. Rewire Your Brain with Mindfulness
If you can manage to take 20 minutes break from work or utilize a break to practice mindfulness, you can do the following activities to improve your performance. You can also practice mindfulness before you begin your day at home or a park.
1.To involve your physical body along with your mind when practicing mindfulness, you need your body to be relaxed and stress-free. Put a yoga mat on the floor or grass and choose a comfortable yoga posture. To practice mindfulness accept yourself, pay attention, live in the moment, and focus on your breath coming out and going into your body.
2. Set triggers regularly. To remind yourself to practice mindfulness set and update your triggers. Use a funny note on your phone, a sticky note on your desk, or anything that works for you to remind yourself.
3. Decide a Pattern. Set a pattern to take a pause, a deep breath, and observe. Tell yourself, if the bell rings or the door opens, you are going to take a moment to be mindful. Such small exercises throughout the day can help you strengthen your slow and cluttered brain.
I'm confident this article and these strategies will open your eyes and mind to the importance and benefits of mindfulness within both your practice and personal life. There's really no borders there.
Peace be upon you all, my friends!
-- Bilal Malas, Partner & Growth Consultant at LuxSalesConsulting.com
