Eckhart Tolle and Sam discuss how to bring presence and mindfulness into work. They cover goal setting without ego, managing stress, and building a conscious workplace where people actually feel good.
My question is, how do you do the power of now for business? And specifically, I understand this with our personal lives, but in business, I find we're making future goals and plans and such and trying to align my team with those. And when things don't work out. So how do we sort of use what we're learning here in a business context?
Right. Well, in business, you set certain goals that you want to achieve and then you take action towards achieving those goals. And in the meantime, there's a lot of interaction with other people who are also working as a team with you. And there's probably also perhaps interaction with other business organizations. So first of all, the goal setting and the, the journey towards achieving particular goals that the organization has set itself. Before I continue, may I ask what kind of business?
It's an online. Online business.
Okay. And what does it do?
So we sell information products, business training products.
Okay. So that is potentially a helpful thing for people. Once you have a goal, you will find as you pursue your goal as a team, together continuously, obstacles arise as you go towards it. Whenever you create something new, you will find it is rarely a very smooth progression. You have to overcome obstacles on the way in the form of people or situations that go wrong. This doesn't work. Try something else. The important thing is not to place an excessive emphasis on the achievement which is the desired outcome, but to be as present in the doing as you can so that the doing does not become stressful. Almost every business people who are working in it are under stress. I believe there may be some that are not. But stress is not the way in which you want to conduct your business. Because the environment is toxic. A stressful environment is toxic. So you can always tell, is the goal something that is for the greater good or is it an ego inspired goal? Are you looking? This applies both in a business environment and it applies equally when you have personal goals. The same process is involved when an obstacle arises. To immediately face the obstacle, which comes in the form of a situation. Something not working, something going wrong, somebody trying to sabotage you, perhaps from some other organization. Who knows what happens. To never react against the obstacle as if this should not be happening. To immediately to face it and see what is the way beyond it. How can I either dissolve it, bypass it, or use it so that you don't enter a state of reactivity when obstacles appear on your path. That's important for anybody who pursues a goal. What is your relationship to difficulties and obstacles that arise as you travel towards your goal? And the only conscious way of Dealing with obstacles is not to react as if these obstacles should not be happening. So you have to look into what your relationship is with. With arising obstacles on your path. This is not just in business, but anyway, the unconscious person in business or elsewhere gets upset, angry, aggressive, despondent, very stressed every time something isn't going the way they want it to go, and immediately dysfunctional inner states arise and therefore they experience their accompanies where the entire environment is toxic because everybody lives in that way. And ego is also a thing that arises as much as possible. Be aware so that you don't seek ego satisfaction in the doing. There's a personal ego, then one person can sabotage another person in the same company because you are not free of ego identification. So it's very important to be aware so that you do not seek ego satisfaction through what you are doing. Be present in what you do so that the doing becomes joyful, rather than placing so much focus on what you want to achieve that the journey becomes very stressful. Then nothing is worth achieving. If the journey is stressful, let's say you spend a year or two years with some scheme that you want, a new business model or whatever it is. What is the state of consciousness, the collective state of consciousness while you are traveling towards your goal? Is it stressed? Is it stressful? Is there a lot of conflict? Or is it a common enterprise? And is the doing joyful? And it can only be joyful if you place more importance in what you are doing in this present moment than attempting to arrive at some future point. You know where you want to go to. But as the Bhagavad Gita says, do not be too attached to the outcome. Then it's much more likely that the outcome will be good. But if you have an excessive attachment, you need to achieve that. If you have an excessive attachment to outcome, then the journey becomes very stressful. That's something that is important. And I'm talking not from personal experience because I'm not in business, but I have spoken to people, quite a few who are in the business environment. And so I've met, I've met, been to some relatively conscious companies. They invited me. Of course, unconscious companies wouldn't invite me. And I have spoken to them. And I'm surprised that these conscious companies actually, it's a joy to be there for all the. Do the employees, whoever they are, or their partners, do they enjoy being there? That is vital. Sounds very simple. Or are they so focused on some kind of achievement that the doing is not enjoyable at all? Do they Love being there. What is the relationship between with you and your colleagues, partners. And those things are vitally important. And what. I don't know how many employees you have. Again, it's important to make the environment as pleasant for them as possible. Don't encouraging people to. I'm sure if you are in that kind of environment, that is probably more conscious than many others and you are here. That's a good sign. So I believe your company is already relatively conscious. Is there any particular problem still that you think is something that you have not been able to go beyond?
No, I. I just as I'm trying to become more present myself. Because a lot of what you talked about before, like that's when I first got into business, it was for ego satisfaction. It was because I was trying to achieve things probably to make myself feel better.
Yes.
And now I've realized that doesn't work.
Yes.
So now I'm working on it personally and I'm trying to transfer these skills into the business. So you talked a little bit about that. And I guess the biggest takeaway I had is it's okay to have goals. It's okay to project into the future as part of business and knowing what you're going. I'm the type of person that's like planning and planning everything down to the detail. And I realized that that can be counterproductive and to know where we need to go and then as challenges come up, which is normal to then become present, become more present.
Yes. Welcome the challenges rather than resent the.
Challenges with the team.
Yes. So you can teach them. I'm sure you have a lot to teach them, so it's wonderful. So you will probably grow into something big and then invite me and I'll talk to you. Thank you, Sam.
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