By Chade-Meng Tan
Some days it’s really draining to be a senior executive. You sit in meetings for hours, and every decision you need to make is difficult—all the easy ones have been made at levels below you. You know that you could be much more effective if you could approach each meeting with a fresh perspective. To do that, you need to put down all the baggage you carry in with you from your previous meetings. But this is easier than it seems. And it can be done in just six seconds.
I led the creation of a Google training program called “Search Inside Yourself,” which was designed to help people unload their mental baggage and approach each new situation with a present, focused mind. Search Inside Yourself works in three steps. It begins with attention training to create a calm, clear quality of mind. We then focus on developing a depth of self-knowledge that can allow participants to attain self-mastery. Finally, we cultivate empathy and compassion.
These skills can be learned with fewer than 50 hours of training. But the training’s earliest benefits can come in a matter of seconds.
My colleague Karen May, a vice president at Google, developed the ability to recharge by taking one “mindful breath” before walking into every meeting. This takes her roughly six seconds, and in that time she brings her full attention to one breath, resetting her body and mind.
When you focus intensely on a single breath, you are fully present for the duration of that breath. To feel regret, you need to be in the past; to worry, you need to be in the future. Hence, in order to be free from both regret and worry, you need to be fully in the present. For the duration of one breath you can release a heavy burden, giving your body and mind a precious chance to rest and recover. Even if your company doesn’t have a mindfulness training course, you can make a positive change on your own with your first mindful breath. Try it and see how much more present, effective and productive you can be.
Chade-Meng Tan, a former Google software engineer, is chairman of the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute.