Leonard Ng

How to Be Mindful When You Don’t Have Time

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hawk
Image by Adrian Kirby.

Meditation is good, but you don’t practise it.

You’re too busy, or you have too many things to do, or you’re always in a hurry to get somewhere, or you’re too tired at the end of the day.

And even when you do sit down to try and empty your mind, you feel a massive sense of guilt about everything else you ought to be doing instead.

(Oddly enough, sitting still for 15 minutes feels like a giant waste of time, while 15 minutes spent on social media doesn’t…

…because one forces you to pay painful attention to the messed-up inside of your head, while the other lets you take refuge in comforting distraction.)

Whatever your reasons, it all boils down to one thing:

You don’t have time.

So here are three ways to remain mindful even when you’re on the go — quick check-ins that will bring you back to the present moment and allow you to centre yourself before your next activity.

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The Art of Momentum: How to Actually Finish What You Set Out to Do

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waterfall
Image by Isabella Jusková.

Those who make no mistakes have policies which naturally lead to victory. — The Art of War, 4

So you’ve made your resolutions for the new year, and hopefully at least one or two of them are achievement-based goals. As I pointed out in my last entry, achievement-based goals are the ones that give you the qualities money can’t buy: discipline, resourcefulness, commitment, and skill.

So how can we make sure that we successfully achieve what we have set out to do?

The answer lies in momentum.

Momentum is nothing more or less than the deliberate organization of your goals in a way that makes success inevitable.

Momentum is about creating a process and routine that will take you to your goal in the easiest possible manner. Then, once you have crafted your process, all you have to do is commit to it.

The process will then do all the heavy lifting for you.

Creating a Process that Works

When I was in the military, the army had a very simple way to increase the number of pull-ups new recruits could do:

  1. Drop by the conveniently located pull-up bar before lunch and before dinner.
  2. Pull till you can’t pull any more.
  3. Repeat.

It worked.

This process exemplifies the four most important principles behind any successful process: simplicity, convenience, frequency, and humility.

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The Five Elements: A Systematic Approach to Holistic Living

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coloured journals
Image by Liz Weston.
A Comprehensive Approach to Personal Growth

Modern life is a pretty complicated bagful of kittens.

On the one hand, we’ve come to believe that there’s more to life than making money, having fun, raising a family, and staying out of trouble (or getting into trouble, if that’s what you prefer).

But on the other hand, there’s so much going on in life that we hardly know where to begin.

We might want to get every part of our lives running happily along and playing nicely together… but there just seems to be so much to consider. We have noble dreams of balance and fulfilment and harmony, but how can we keep track of it all?

That’s where five-element theory comes in. It’s a system I use to ensure that my days are meaningfully spent, and it works, too.

Basically, this is an old concept which uses the five classical elements as shorthand for the various aspects of life: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Void (or as I prefer to call it, Whitespace). Put together, these five cover just about every aspect of human growth and personal development.

If you’re anything like me, this approach will give you a framework that can help you shape your life more wisely and effectively than you ever thought possible.

Let’s get to it.

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