A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my new nickname, “The Buddha of Banking”.
The “banking” part is self-explanatory. I work for a bank after all.
The “Buddha” part might need some explaining though. And it speaks directly to the methods I’ve used to go from exhausted, burnt out and tearing my hair out at my desk to finding a way to actually quite enjoy my job.
I’m talking of methods rooted in
age-old wisdom embodied by the great traditions like Buddhism, Zen, Sufism, Stoicism, Taoism, Nondual Teachings and The Inside-Out Understanding.
For instance:
*** Curiosity > certainty. Instead of pretending I have all
the answers at work, I know I don’t. So I ask lots of questions and when I don’t know the answer, I say I don’t know
*** Being guided from within. Instead of letting my boss, peers or job title steer my career, I let my inner compass lead the way
*** The power of perspective. Instead of getting tangled up in meetings and email chains, I take a step back and see them for what they are
*** Non-judgement. e.g. instead of judging my stress or my workload, I see if I can notice them without labelling them
*** Wisdom > reactivity. Instead of letting the pings and alerts call the shots, I try to choose when and whether to respond
*** Seeing through my thoughts. Instead of swallowing and believing every “urgent” thought, I check to see if it’s a thought I want to jump on or not
*** Subtraction > addition. Instead of doing more, I cut what doesn’t matter
*** Detachment. Instead of clinging to my job, my job title and my performance, I hold it all lightly wherever I can
*** Imagination vs reality. I notice meetings doesn’t usually match up with the disaster reel I imagine them to be. So I stop imagining them in the first place
*** Staying present. Instead of fretting over performance reviews or quarterly numbers, I
try to stay in the here and now
*** It’s all a game. So instead of playing to win, I play to have fun
These are just a few that came to mind.
It’s important to note too:
The HR workshops, corporate yoga sessions and free fruit are all well-intentioned and I’m not knocking anyone who organises this stuff or who gets something out of them.
If a lunchtime mindfulness session helps you find a bit more calm then more power to you.
But the wisdom of the ages isn’t something which can be reduced to a motivational slogan on a coffee mug or a stress ball branded with your company’s logo.
It’s something which needs to be internalised and understood in your bones, so to speak.
It’s the difference between trotting out a useful line like “I know this flurry of emails isn’t worth getting het up about” (i.e. trying to convince yourself that you don’t need to
be stressed) vs not trotting out that line because you ALREADY see those emails as a non-threat (just like a firework looks loud, bright and impossible to ignore, but you know it’s smoke and mirrors).
So the deadline looks different.
Work looks different.
Life itself looks different.
And I daresay as more and more of the wisdom of the ages is internalised, life doesn’t just look kinder and less scary but also
truer and more realistic.
I'm pretty sure the Buddha never reached enlightenment by colour-coding his inbox or downloading the latest productivity app. And this is exactly why my coaching isn’t weighed down by coping strategies, productivity hacks, motivational quotes or step-by-step frameworks, methods, toolkits and strategies.
If you’d like to explore how the wisdom of the ages could transform your experience at work:
https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com