2021-05-04
Smith, who serves as Ernst and Young America’s Mindfulness Leader, offers a pragmatic version of its practice for working professionals in this debut motivational guide.
Mindfulness has become a fairly common idea in modern life, but, as the author notes in his introduction, it “has been nearly exclusively associated with spirituality and/or wellness…for so long it might seem that mindfulness is only for the spiritually inclined, or for people with challenging medical issues.” However, the practice of mindfulness need not be reserved for people who use it to mitigate major difficulties in life, the author notes; indeed, he argues that it can be particularly useful for those looking to simply optimize their abilities in their professional lives, just as career coaching does. Indeed, Smith’s book seems intended for a very specific audience: ambitious, results-oriented people who are turned off by the mysticism that features heavily in many mindfulness workshops. In these pages, he presents an eight-week course that aims to help people incorporate mindful perception into their daily lives, eliminate mental obstacles, and unlock their full potential. He describes his own journey into mindfulness practice, which began when he was in the U.S. Army, and he discusses its physical and mental processes. He then outlines each week of his course, which introduces specific areas of interest, such as building awareness and solidifying one’s mindset, and provides concrete exercises for readers to begin their own journeys. By the end of the eighth week, he says, they will have the tools to continue the practice on their own and apply such habits toward their personal and professional goals. Over the course of this self-help work, Smith’s prose style is smooth and authoritative, as when he compares a feeling of dread about a future presentation to a herd of antelopes dealing with the threat of an attacking tiger: “First, they probably weren’t chewing on their little antelope hooves nervously a few weeks before facing the tiger. The threat appears in the present, the animals’ stress response jumps into action, and they bound away en masse.” The author is also adept at breaking down concepts into simple, relatable exercises. For example, early on, he encourages the reader to take a “mindful shower” in order to help them perceive each step in the everyday process in a new way. As noted, this book is intended for those who are curious about mindfulness but skeptical of the idea that it’s about “being blissed out, seeing rainbows and butterflies everywhere, and being happy all the time,” and Smith succeeds in keeping his regimen pared down and practical. He also largely removes its common associations with inner peace, solidly framing it instead as a tool for success. Overall, the book’s concept is a strong one, and so is its execution; it’s easy to imagine this book appealing to people in ways that more traditional works on the subject—or self-help guides, in general—might not, and they’re likely to find it illuminating.
A polished, matter-of-fact introduction to mindfulness concepts.
