Mind to the Max: How Mindfulness Can Help You Earn More Money
Mindfulness can help improve your financial standing - and here's six ways you can use it to boost your career prospects and bank balance.
You’re working so hard that you hardly have time to stop, clear your head, and reflect on your day. You spend most of your waking hours stressed out and working on various projects. When you finally land a seat on the bus or get home from work, more often than not you go to sleep thinking about the next task on your to-do list. If you’re like most people, you want to earn more money. But the thing is you don’t really think about how to use mindfulness for that. In fact, chances are you’ve never even seen mindfulness mentioned in terms of earning more money before. Well, I can tell you for certain that it is possible for mindfulness to help improve your financial standing!
Mindfulness is a practice that focuses on how we relate to our experiences as they occur in the present moment. It's an approach to life that helps us be more aware of what's going on with us right now, and helps us make decisions based on what we're experiencing, rather than the emotional baggage we carry around from the past or anxiety about the future. It's been linked to better health, reduced stress and anxiety, and improved mental functioning. It also makes us better at making smart economic decisions—like avoiding credit card debt or saving more money.
Here's six ways to use your mind and mindfulness to attract more money and success.
Do Your Deepest, Most Meaningful Work
Earning more money is perhaps most easily achieved in your current job by performing better and getting more responsibilities. So, do your best work by giving it the attention and focus it deserves. Deep work is not just important for productivity — it's also important for our mental wellbeing. This is the work we like most and are best at. The more time we spend doing it, the more satisfied we fee
The opposite of deep work is shallow work: things that barely require conscious thought. These are tasks like answering emails, responding to comments on social media, running through checklists, and other things that take up a lot of our time but don't engage all of our mental faculties. It's easy to fill our days with these busy tasks to make ourselves feel productive, but they don't really get us anywhere.
In his book Deep Work, Cal Newport says that we should aim to do less shallow work and more deep work by following four rules:
Rule 1: Work deeply. For at least one hour each day, focus on a single task without distraction.
Rule 2: Embrace boredom. Distraction is the enemy of deep work, so eliminate all temptations to distract yourself.
Rule 3: Quit social media. Social media apps are designed to be addictive and interrupt your workflow with constant notifications and updates. If you're serious about deep work, delete them from your phone and computer, or use an app like Freedom to schedule blocks of time when you can't access the internet.
Rule 4: Drain the shallows. Make a list of all your shallow tasks — those that can be completed in two minutes or less — such as responding to emails and scheduling appointments. Do these tasks at set times throughout the day (like first thing in the morning and last thing before leaving), so they don't distract you from more important tasks.
Find a New (Better Paid) Job
If you’re looking for a new job with more salary, better conditions or more perks, then mindfulness will help you focus on the things that matter most. There’s a lot of advice out there about how to find a new job. The problem is that much of it is either too vague or simply doesn’t work. You need something that is specific and actionable. Again, mindfulness is the answer.
Finding a new job doesn't happen overnight. It is a process. Done over a period of time. One of the best ways mindfulness can help in this process is to create a morning ritual.
It’s tempting to wake up, roll over and check your phone for messages before getting out of bed. As soon as you do that, though, you are letting other people dictate your schedule for the day. It also makes it difficult to focus on the tasks at hand because you have already split your attention between several apps and websites.
Instead, create a morning ritual that lets you begin the day focused on yourself and what you want to accomplish in your new job or new situation with more money. That can be as simple as taking five minutes to sit quietly in bed after waking up or as elaborate as an hour-long routine that includes journaling, meditation and light exercise.
You may not realize it, but when you’re applying for a new job or negotiating a raise, your emotions are influencing every aspect of the process. When you feel anxious about salary negotiations, for example, you may be more likely to accept a lower offer than you deserve. You might even avoid asking for a raise at all.
But if you can harness the power of mindfulness, you’ll be better equipped to focus on the things that matter most during salary negotiations.
Earn More Money at Your Current Job
Mindfulness can help you earn more money at your current job. When we are mindful, we are actively paying attention to the present moment and not thinking about the past or worrying about the future. When we are present, we are more engaged in our daily tasks and responsibilities which allows us to complete them more efficiently and effectively. With this improved performance and efficiency, you can prove yourself as a top performer, show that you are a valuable employee, and make strides toward earning more money at your current job.
Manage Stress Proactively
Stress is an inevitable part of life, but it should not take over your entire life. A mindful approach to stress management can allow you to recognize when you are experiencing stress and provide you with strategies for managing it productively. By proactively managing stress, you can ensure that it does not negatively impact your work performance or relationships with coworkers or clients. This will help ensure that you have a positive reputation in the office which will ultimately benefit your career and earning potential.
Improve Productivity
The ability to stay focused on individual tasks is an important component of productivity. When we are mindful, we are less likely to be distracted by thoughts about other things such as errands. When you're mindful, you're more engaged in the moment. You're not thinking about what happened yesterday or what's going to happen tomorrow; instead, you're totally focused on the present. When you're able to focus your attention on what's happening right now, you become much more productive and efficient—and when it comes to getting paid to do your job, those are two things that count a lot!
Take Time Off Without Losing Momentum
You’ve heard it before: Taking time off work is essential to being productive. But how do you make sure you’re still making progress when you’re not working?
If you’re mindful of your work, it’s easier to step away from it without losing momentum. When you know exactly what your goals are, what you’ve done so far, and what needs to happen next, you can take a break without worrying that your work will fall to the wayside.
When you return from a much-needed vacation, for example, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that has built up while you were out of the office. By using mindfulness techniques you can take time off without losing momentum.
Ultimately, mindfulness won’t just help you earn more money. It can help you to get your work done faster, with less stress and greater peace of mind. It will help you to manage your career more effectively, and feel happier and more balanced in the process. Mindfulness is a skill that’s worth building, both for its financial benefits as well as its ability to promote general well-being. The key is to approach it in a way that’s sustainable for you.
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