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I don’t know about you, but the reason I don’t meditate is because I’m bored. It’s late, isn’t it? It’s tough. On the other hand, it’s easy to get distracted.
Do you check your cell phone after the phone rings? It’s easy. And even if it’s just a spam text from someone looking for a “referral partner to take all the extra buyers and sellers for just 15% commission,” it still feels like scratching an itch.
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In fact, some mornings, if I don’t have a place to be, I just lie in bed and scroll until I find it. You and I both have at our fingertips the most addictive distraction device the world has ever devised at almost any time.
It’s hard to stick to a diet of Ben and Jerry’s, and it’s hard to break away from it when Candy Crush and Instagram are always around the corner.
Distractions are everywhere
For the past 20 years, the numbers have been (literally) staggering. In the early 2000s, the world generated around 0.1 zettabytes of data. By 2010, that number had increased to 2 zettabytes (20x) and by 2023 to 120 zettabytes (another 60x).
Not only is it easy to get distracted, but it’s also appealing. I know I look forward to shutting down my critical mind at the end of the day and watching Love Is Blind with my wife.
To be clear, I’m not saying mindless distractions are “bad” (in moderation). they provide value. Don’t get me wrong, I consider drinking cigars and bourbon while watching football a self-care routine.
On the other hand, mindfulness is time-consuming, boring, and difficult, and without a compelling context, it is unlikely to take hold.
We know that “easy” sells.
I know I’m swimming upstream in this regard. Selling solutions that are difficult, time-consuming, and boring is not good marketing (and that’s why coaches around the world say that while having a positive mindset is important, they don’t know how to do it. That’s why there are no coaches to tell you) to buy it — if they told you, you wouldn’t buy it).
Look at the wave of tech companies targeting our business with the sole advantage of making it easier to buy and sell homes.
We recognize that such an easy solution is not a good one when they are trying to take our business. When we look at our customers, we see that trying to turn a home purchase into a DoorDash order is an insane and possibly dangerous goal.
Sometimes it’s better to do things slowly, deliberately, and dare I say it carefully.
Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die
Come on, tell me the truth. We all want the benefits of meditation (improved focus, reduced reactivity, increased satisfaction, peace of mind, improved performance and effectiveness, etc.), but the idea of sitting for 10 minutes a day is just a bridge too far. Is it too much?
Most people don’t meditate for the same reasons they choose drugs and injections (and sometimes surgery) over diet and exercise. One is easy and the other is difficult. But easy solutions rarely last. Difficult is difficult. Because we are not yet capable of it. By doing difficult things, we become new kinds of people.
It’s hard to go from knowing you have to do something to doing it. Thinking about working out is one thing and thinking about working out (just like thinking about calling a lead is one thing and thinking about calling a lead is another). One produces more of what we already have, the other produces more of what we want.
If you already practice resistance training, aerobic training, yoga, Pilates, or other intentional physical activity, you probably already understand where this is going. You have overcome the initial resistance and experienced the growth benefits that come with it.
The brain is not a muscle, but we can talk about it as if it were a muscle. Just as we grow our muscles through physical training, we change and grow through mental training.
One way to trigger this growth (called neuroplasticity) is through mindfulness practices, including meditation.
Since the early 1970s, thousands of studies have been conducted showing that practicing mindfulness changes the brain, resulting in:
There’s a lot of public discussion about ADHD and how inattentive we are, but the science is clear. Ten minutes of mindful practice a day can make a difference. But just like diet and exercise, getting there is difficult, time-consuming, and tedious. That’s exactly what it is. At least at first.
It’s never easy. you just get better
See, meditation is certainly not complicated. I previously wrote about the myths and misconceptions surrounding mindfulness. Try sitting quietly for about 10 minutes a day.
Buddhists often joke that you should meditate for 20 minutes a day, unless you’re extremely busy, in which case you should meditate for an hour. If you can’t find 10 minutes to train, heal, develop, and grow your brain, you need more help than this article can provide.
All this requires is an interest in improving a little bit every day, accumulating wins, and harnessing the power of compound interest that occurs in your brain. Starting something is important. It is always necessary to challenge the status quo. Whether it’s starting a new habit or getting out of bed, you need to challenge the status quo and create a new habit.
Mel Robbins has a genius method called the 5-second rule that has been very powerful for me. I highly recommend this if you need a call to action. Guided meditations are easy to find on the internet.
Be patient and forgive yourself
We all have Ph.D.s. By being hard on ourselves. Most of us are masters at blaming ourselves, harshly criticizing ourselves, and holding ourselves to impossible standards. This is a break from that, and frankly, if it provides this much mindfulness, it’s worth it.
Being kind, patient, and forgiving to yourself is fundamental and the first thing you practice (and never stop). Your progress may be slow and you may become distracted. You’ll miss out on opportunities to focus, you’ll skip days dedicated to practice, and you’re 100% guaranteed to fall short of the standards you think you need right now.
This will always happen, but in actual mindfulness practice, it is important to accept these as part of the process rather than seeing them as failures.
The point of meditation is not to “empty your mind,” but to become aware of your distractions. The moment you realize you are distracted, you are there. And the more you practice, the shorter the intervals between life’s distractions will become. As the ancient sages say, every journey begins with a step.
embrace the journey
Of course, meditation and mindfulness can be challenging, and it’s all hard until it gets easy, but the long-term benefits make it worth the effort. By reframing our understanding of these practices and acknowledging their difficulties while acknowledging their impact, we can forge an easier path to incorporating mindfulness into our lives.
Incorporate both mindful and mindless activities. Find your balance and be kind to yourself.
Start with how you judge yourself and practice being non-judgmental. Meditation is a great way to practice mindfulness, but there are many other ways to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life.
Aaron Hendon’s extensive experience in real estate and entrepreneurship has given him a unique perspective on how to navigate even the most volatile market conditions. Connect with Aaron on Instagram and LinkedIn.
