If you’d like to be more cool, calm and collected in the office and you haven’t taken a leaf out of The Buddha’s book, you’re flat-out missing a trick.

Here’s what I mean:

Before the Buddha became the Buddha, he was just Siddhartha Gautama.

Siddy G to his chums.

Things took a turn during seven days when Siddy G sat under the Bodhi Tree and resisted all sorts of distractions, temptations and illusions sent by his mortal enemy (a demon called Mara) until he made the jump to enlightenment.

That’s when he became known as The Buddha and accidentally spawned a cottage trade of chubby Buddhas in souvenir shops all over the world.

So how did Siddy G stay so level-headed despite the distractions all around him?

Well, there were a few ways.

First off, Siddy G had to deal with an army of arrow-shooting dementors which Mara had sent on their day off from the Harry Potter set.

But Siddy G didn’t flinch. Instead of panicking, he simply sat there with the confidence of a man who knows it takes two to tango and that the arrows couldn’t touch him unless he started to react. Just like an offhand comment in a meeting which only stings when we replay it 23 times. 

So Siddy G held steady and guess what?

The arrows turned into beautiful flowers. 

So far, so calm.

But the demon had more tricks up his devilish sleeve. 

Next up, Mara sent his three beautiful daughters to try to seduce Siddy G. 

But Siddy G handled this the same way the corporate dynamos can read a spiky two line email and instantly sense the frazzled colleague behind it. And by that I mean, he saw the source, not the surface. He saw the daughters as Mara’s frantic attempt to derail him.

So Siddy G was unmoved. He knew what was afoot.

That’s when Mara pulled out his most sly and devious weapon:

Instilling doubt.

Thus the thought arising in Siddy G’s mind “Who do you think you are, Siddy? Are you sure you’re REALLY meant to become enlightened?”. 

It’s no different to the nagging question “is this job REALLY the job for me?”

A burrowing, creeping, mind-gremlin of a question for sure.

But Siddy G knew he didn't have to take these questions seriously. He knew that entertaining every question that wanders into our mind is well and truly barking up the wrong Bodhi Tree.

Instead, we can simply rest in the truth beneath our thinking.

So yes.

I can’t help think that anyone who wants to avoid distractions, temptations or self-doubt could learn a thing or two from this legendary and lightly embellished story. 

After all, my Buddha of Banking moniker isn't just a quirky title I gave myself. It's also the path to having your bowl of rice and eating it. It's how you can show up to the office day after day, do a good job, keep your sanity and actually be HAPPY with the way your career and life is going. 

Perhaps that sounds too good to be true. 

But I've come to see that the truth is always much simpler than the stories we spin. 

For more simple workplace truths, keep an eye out for my soon-to-be-published book Don't Quit Your Job. 

To fulfilment, 

Tom