Zen Mind, Business Mind

Thoughts impact your Swing

A good friend of mine, Akira Hirai who runs Cayenne Consulting, recently blogged about swing thoughts. You know, it's the thought you keep in your head to insure a smooth golf swing. Except he was actually wondering what a swing thought for a business might be.

Akira writes, "The golf swing is a tricky thing to master. There are countless moving parts that all have to work together in flawless unison, all in the span of a split second. A flaw in any part of the swing can produce erratic results. The trouble is, finding and fixing the flaw can seem like an incredible task. It's humanly impossible to remember - and then do- exactly what's supposed to happen at every moment of your swing.

"So golfers have turned to ‘swing thoughts' - simple ideas that allow you to focus on one aspect of the swing. Good swing thoughts cause a chain reaction of proper technique, so one thought can influence the dynamics of your entire swing. Golf legend Arnold Palmer's top swing thought was keep your head steady - and this thought alone has transformed the games of countless beginning players.

"You can apply the swing thought concept to your entrepreneurial venture as well, and I think it will have a similarly transformative effect. Here's one you can try: Become cash flow positive."

When Akira sent me his blog post and asked me what my swing thought was, it kind of stumped me. You see, I took lessons from this school that teaches the Zen of golf, not the mechanics of golf swings. This is Extraordinary Golf and was founded in 1990 by an amazing golf coach named Fred Shoemaker. Fred tee'd up the school by authoring Extraordinary Golf: The Art of the Possible (Perigee) .

Thoughts impact your Swing

In this remarkable program, students are not asked to adopt a particular swing style, but rather are taught how to transform their awareness and to discover their own natural swing. When I took a lesson from one of their instructors, my coach asked me to hit the ball with my eyes closed, sort of like a blindfolded Zen archer. Within a few minutes, I was chipping the ball within a few feet of the hole. It was pretty amazing. Plus, the lesson wasn't burdened by too much philosophy or psychobabble. It was a direct, simple, intuitive approach to golf, taught by someone who's mastered the both the technique and the mind game. As a result of such golf training, I didn't develop your normal run of the mill swing thought. My swing thought was not to have one - to be so filled with the experience of being that there was no room for any thoughts at all. That is, to be in a state of "no mind".

Thus, I was led by this amazing practice to a place of nonduality, where I could stop thinking and be fully present in the swing. The remarkable thing is that it worked. I started hitting better, and honestly didn't care about it.

I've realized that I approach business in the same "Zen mind, no mind" manner - to become fully present in the bliss of doing work I love, and letting go of thoughts of success and failure. In fact, over the few months, I've having so much fun developing new products, working with spectacular consulting clients, inventing the future, and fully immersed in the joy of innovation... so immersed that I forgot I even had a blog! Anyway, I've learned that if you can be in a state of genuine flow, something like being cash flow positive or focused on your core strengths is a natural development of such a state, because making lots of money and doing what you're good at is really fun. All you have to do is follow your bliss. And your adrenaline!

Also, I do have to caution that being "fully present in the bliss of business" is only possible if you work with the right partners, suppliers and customers. It's pretty tough to be in bliss when your boss is a bully or management is incompetent. And so, I thank my lucky stars for having the best customers and partners in the world, who can match my ability to be in the present moment and execute in a state of peak performance with me. That's collaboration at a higher level. This is the achievement of what I call "brandfulness", sort of the corporate equivalent of mindfulness, in which every action is imbued with absolute awareness, precision and integrity. It is the essence of being what you claim you are. Apple has mastered this, and so can you.

It begins here: what's your swing thought?