It was the end of my quarter as the Cisco sales leader for our New York financial services business \u2013 a cutthroat, fast-paced, competitive $200 million business for our organization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was stressed beyond belief. We had started the first month of our fiscal year way under plan and were trying to climb ourselves out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The thing is, I didn\u2019t see a way of climbing out. Fifty percent of my business was data center, and most of our clients had moved their workloads to the cloud. We\u2019d literally lost 50 percent of our business overnight. Yes, it would eventually correct itself \u2013 but not in 90 days: Our sales cycles were six to 18 months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re living in highly stressful times. When I think back to the last time I experienced intense levels of stress, I knew I need to stay calm, grounded, and present as I managed up to my management and down to my team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it was one thing to know how to act; it was another thing to actually behave that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
What did my highly stressful schedule look like? Every morning, I\u2019d jump out of bed at 5:30 to hit the gym. I\u2019d set off with the best of intentions \u2013 exercise was good for my mental, physical, and emotional health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019d spend most of the time on the treadmill or elliptical machine barely breaking a sweat as I checked emails, read the news, and actually ended up way more stressed out than when I\u2019d gotten to the gym. I now know I was creating cortisol instead of the endorphins I so desperately needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d race through my shower and dressing, thinking about the day ahead, and forgetting to eat breakfast. On the way to the office, I\u2019d silently curse any commuter who got in my way \u2013 the stress response escalating even more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d sit down at my desk and bounce from meeting to meeting, to email to Slack\u2026and end the day drained and not really sure what I\u2019d gotten done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
During this time, I wasn\u2019t the grounded, present leader my team needed me to be. My life revolved around reactions and distractions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t get stupid overnight,\u201d my mentor said to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHuh?\u201d must have been written all over my face. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t get stupid overnight,\u201d my mentor repeated. Her career had included getting every business unit she ran to hit its stretch goals. \u201cYou\u2019re dealing with things that happened long before you took over, and now you\u2019ve got to figure it out. But remember: You didn\u2019t get stupid overnight. Stop doing all<\/em> the things and go back to the right<\/em> things.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Simple: I just needed to go back to what had always worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once we hung up, I resolved to pick up my mindfulness practice. I reached out to the benefits team and asked how I could get my team involved in the mindfulness program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was how I created my Performance-Based Mindfulness<\/a> methodology, and how I got my team from 67 percent of plan to 94 percent (with two headcounts open). We used my SIT method (a concentration meditation practice) that restructures the brain for focus and concentration by practicing for just 10 minutes over two weeks. During the workday, we used my Daily Deltas<\/a> to structure the day for optimized performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When you learn about how your brain works, you can see exactly how an addiction to stress and distraction holds you back. Research shows we\u2019re distracted for nearly half (47 percent) of the day. And most people have little to no awareness it\u2019s happening. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time I presented at the Peak Performance Mindset workshop, sales leader Chris Beall<\/a> of ConnectandSell had an insightful take on the power of mindfulness. \u201cMindfulness allows me to have access to what\u2019s inside of me before I go to do something that\u2019s outside,\u201d he said. \u201cSomething I used to do when I was young was mountaineering and rock climbing. I was always concerned I didn\u2019t know enough to do it safely. And it became a standard part of staying alive \u2013 to know what\u2019s inside before you do something outside. Because, if you screw up [there], you die.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\nMindfulness Reduces Stress and Yields Greater Success <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n