Without clarity, direction, and purpose, you are at the whim of the moment. With emails, text messages, voicemails, memos, meetings, and multiple projects, few of us are short on demands.

We don’t need more things to consume our time; time consumption is the nature of business. We do, however, need ways of aligning with a higher purpose, more meaningful goals, and greater levels of ingenuity.

Without clear strategy and direction, all of these vital aspects of business growth are stunted. Our minds are intrinsically wired for activity, not meaningful results. Finding and maintaining clear direction in your work isn’t complicated, but it does take discipline and training.

A 2008 FedEx Office national survey found that roughly 50% of those questioned said that work/life balance will be increasingly important in the years ahead. Amazingly, 42% of those questioned said they plan on improving their work/life balance by creating weekly to-do lists. As personal development coach Tony Robbins points out, to-do lists are dangerous. To-do lists wrap you in an endless cycle of activity without necessarily moving you towards any meaningful results.

Instead of simply creating a weekly to-do list for your business activities, start each week with a personal results planning session. Block off 15 minutes at the beginning of each week; devote this time to gain clarity and direction.

Start with questions like: What results are most important for me to achieve or make major progress on this week? Where do I need to invest my time? What projects are most important to my performance, my sense of fulfillment, and my overall business?

This line of questioning will help pull you out of the demands of the moment and open your mind to the “bigger picture.” Be sure to capture all the ideas that come to mind without judgment.

After prioritizing your answers, look at each key result you’ve identified and ask: What has to happen to achieve this result? What conditions need to be in place to realize my objectives? What is the critical next step?

Finally, block off time in your calendar—not to do a specific action item or to-do, but to make progress in realizing the results you want.

This process won’t take long and you’ll get faster at this results-oriented brainstorm with more practice. Review the prior week’s plan and craft an updated plan at the beginning of each week.

When you arrive at your desk, instead of jumping right into your email or checking your voicemail, ask these vital questions and commit to finding quality answers. Invest a few minutes in this self-reflective mindset. It won’t take very long before you begin to reap the benefits of your newfound clarity and direction.

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Consciousness is your primary—and only—capital. Your consciousness—your sense of presence—defines what you are. Without consciousness, all the money in the world is meaningless (as there’s no one to spend it).

Psychiatrist and consciousness researcher David R. Hawkins, author of the bestseller Power vs. Force, explains that consciousness is the hidden determinant of all human behavior. Consciousness is stratified into levels like a step-down transformer where higher levels have more energy than lower levels. Every level of consciousness has an energy field aligned with specific qualities like dominant emotions, world views, views about God, attitudes, and belief systems.

These energy fields hold varying levels of power. Some energy fields are life affirming: courage, willingness, acceptance, reason, love and joy. Others energy fields are destructive: shame, grief, apathy, fear, anger and pride.

The single greatest thing you can do in your lifetime is to elevate your consciousness. Elevating your consciousness will intrinsically change how you perceive the world and positively-impact everyone around you (even if you don’t notice it).

How do you elevate your consciousness?

Live by basic spiritual dictums:

• Be kind to everything and everyone, including yourself
• Revere all life in all its forms
• Approach life with humility
• Devote time to something greater than yourself—your family, a loved one, humanity or divinity.

Hawkins provides a list of ten tried-and-true basic tools to help advance one’s consciousness in his book, Transcending the Levels of Consciousness. You can also review all ten spiritual tools here.

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Try observing your internal mental and physical state right before you interact with technology, especially in the morning. Tuning in to how you feel, you may notice that your mind enters a state of expectancy as your heart rate increases, your breathing quickens and becomes more shallow, and you feel a slight rush (you may even detect a release of adrenalin).

Your attention immediately gets fragmented as you start multitasking and leaping from one application or website to another. In fact, technology is rewriting our brains each day as we adapt to digitally-driven lifestyles.

Notice how you feel when you engage with technology first thing in the morning. Do you feel calm and centered or neurotic and unfocused? If you tend to the latter, I have a radical suggestion: don’t touch technology in the morning.

I can hear you gasping for air as though I’ve spoken heresy, but you may discover important benefits as I have. By eliminating the use of technology in the morning—until a pre-set time—you’ll reduce the negative effects of digital addiction and you’ll be able to maintain a deeper level of focus throughout the day.

If you’re up for an experiment, here are a few guidelines:

1. Make a commitment with yourself to not touch any technological devices before a certain time each morning. You set the time, depending on your lifestyle. If you commute to work and tend to check email before you leave, try waiting until you get to the office. If you work from home, set a time (at least a few hours after you wake up) and stick to it.
2. Create a morning routine that you enjoy, something that empowers you and gets you focused and ready for the day. See last week’s post for more suggestions.
3. If you find this experiment beneficial, try pushing your technology “start time” later and later into the day.

The morning can be a sacred time for reflection, quietude, and peace. It can help you set the tone for the day, leaving you in a more grounded state, better equipped to handle the challenges of the day.

If you don’t honor the quiet, unplugged time in the morning, the digital addiction will dictate where you spend your time. You’ll unconsciously walk the pathway of the neurotic. Your ability to focus and concentrate will continue to weaken.

Reclaim your sacred mornings and reap the immediate rewards.

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But what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if you devoted 60 minutes each week towards who you are becoming? Would you benefit from having 60 minutes to envision the future, reflect on your progress, and strategize for the week ahead?

If you resonate with this idea and immediately see intrinsic value in such a practice, I have a question: why aren’t you doing it?

Most people would say, “I don’t have time.” But is that really true? Could a person really not have 60 minutes each week to invest in their personal growth? Even if a person was REALLY busy, couldn’t they find 30 minutes each week for this important work?

The reality is that we have the time if: (1) it’s important enough to us; (2) we’ve made an inner decision; and (3) we possess the resolve to stick with it.

If it’s imperative that you uncover this vital hour each week (or even each month), here are a few things you might include:

Reflecting: Did you learn anything of import last week? Are there any new inner decisions you want to make as a consequence?

Visioning/Goal Setting: Set goals for the week—what do you intend to achieve? What projects do you plan to make major progress towards?

Reviewing: If you maintain a purpose or vision statement or a list of core values, virtues, principles, or anything else you find uplifting, you can do a quick review to reconnect with what’s most important to you.

Strategic Planning: How are you going to make the most of the coming week? What ideas do you need to capitalize on? What do you need to watch out for (i.e. potentially difficult situations and interactions)? Overall, how can you best prepare yourself for the week ahead?

Scheduling: Have you created time blocks? Have you set aside sufficient time to work on the results you’ve established for yourself?

Praying: Not for what you want, but with a grateful spirit, you may decide to give thanks for your existence and the opportunity to learn and contribute.

The key to preserving this vital hour on a consistent basis is to plan for it—creating a time block each week that you honor as if it’s an agreement that can’t be broken.

Give yourself this sacred hour each week. You’ll be grateful you did.

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I’ve noticed that many spiritually-oriented and intellectually-minded individuals have aversions toward money and the creation of wealth. This group often vilifies money and people who have it. They may go so far as secretly harbor destructive thoughts toward money and those who value the opportunities money can bring.

What are your beliefs about money? Do you believe that money is at the root of all evil? For you, is money power? Does it corrupt? Does it buy happiness? Is it a tool? Or is it just green paper or series of electronic digits?

From Hawkins’ consciousness research, we find that the energy of money itself is neutral, neither “good” or “bad,” “positive” or “negative.” Money just is. It’s our beliefs, projections, and viewpoints of money that shapes our perception and relationship to money.

Many people have strong emotional charges around money despite its neutral energy. It’s worthwhile to evaluate your relationship with money carefully to uncover any blind spots you may have, collapsing your negative projections about money, seeing it for what it is.

Start by looking at how you relate to money:

• Are you averse to money? Do financial topics make you uncomfortable?
• Do you believe that having more money will increase your happiness?
• Are you a slave to money?
• Is the accumulation of capital a central focus in your life?
• Do you secretly believe that you don’t deserve what you have? Or don’t deserve to earn more?
• Do you secretly believe that others around you don’t deserve the money they have?
• Do you secretly believe that money isn’t spiritual and if you were really self-aware, you’d have no need or interest in money?

Once you’ve identified your current beliefs about money, re-contextualize your understanding so that money holds a neutral value for you. Here are a few ideas that may help:

• Money in and of itself has no intrinsic power; it holds no power other than the power you give it.
• Money is a representation of value. Instead of focusing on the accumulation of money, you can focus on providing more value.
• Money does not buy happiness; happiness comes from within. Money can, however, provide conveniences that aren’t available in the absence of money.

Changing your relationship to money—letting go of your attractions and aversions to it—can have a liberating effect on your creativity and your quality of life.

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Why do we do this? Why do we neglect to put into practice something we believe would benefit us?

One reason is that putting ideas into practice is hard work. We barely have sufficient time to read books so how are we supposed to find time to practice the ideas contained therein?

Ultimately, any excuses we give for not implementing ideas that have the potential to better our lives is just that: an excuse. And we’re the only ones who lose. We lose when we don’t make dietary and lifestyle changes that we know will enhance our physical well being. We lose when we procrastinate making that home improvement that will make our lives more convenient and enjoyable. We lose when we don’t change our destructive behaviors to bring harmony and greater joy and love to our relationships.

Why don’t we do what we believe is in our best interest? Here are several blocks that come to mind:

1) Lack of Self-Discipline: Most of us are severely lacking in this virtue. It doesn’t serve us to blame society or our parents. Taking full responsibility is the only solution when it comes to self-discipline. By putting your intention on being more proactive with positive change, over time, your inner discipline will strengthen.

2) No Commitment to Growth: Closely tied to self-discipline, a deep commitment to improve oneself and the lives of others is required for change. When you become resolute—when you’re committed to growing and becoming more no matter what—progress begins to unfold of its own.

3) Excuses: The beliefs that “I can’t” or “I don’t have time” have to be set aside. The reality is we do have time to make the change IF it’s important enough to us. Oftentimes it’s simply a matter of values and priorities. We get done what we decide we must.

4) Resistance: Most of us have an innate resistance to self-practices that lead to inner growth. Why? Unconscious fear. Even though we intellectually know we can become more, we are comfortable with who we are now. The known is familiar and comfortable; the unknown while exciting at times is more often frightening.

We’re often so busy getting on with life that we don’t invest time in contemplating and reflecting on the meaning and significance of what we’re doing and who we are becoming. Make the progression toward positive change is a must; change is closer than you think.

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Okay, so we might read books that serve our professional development. But they aren’t designed to challenge you. They’re designed to be consumed and digested during our commute or a single plane trip—this is especially so for most business books.

Now we read to complete the book, as if finishing a book or article is an end in itself. It’s not. Reading is a skill that advances an understanding of yourself and the world around you, challenging you and fostering your growth.

For reading to accomplish these vital tasks, you have to radically alter how you perceive and approach reading. Here are a few guidelines to help transform your experience with books:

1) Seek out books that will challenge your understanding about human nature. An excellent place to start is ancient Greek philosophy with the works of Plato and Aristotle. Even if you’re not interested in philosophy per se, the ancient Greeks set the foundation upon which Western civilization is based, informing virtually every field of study including law, politics, health, psychology, and natural and social sciences.

2) Instead of reading to complete a book, seek answers to specific questions. This will give your reading more purpose and focus.

3) When reading difficult books, first try to understand the author’s central message. Then open an inner dialogue with the author, comparing and critiquing the work based on what you believe (or know) to be true. In reading the Great Books of the Western World, for example, you’re reading a historical progression of ideas. To witness the development of the understanding and challenges man has faced, read with an open mind and appreciate the context of the author’s time period as best as you can.

4) Make reading a priority. Most people claim they don’t have time to read books anymore. If you don’t consciously carve out time blocks for daily reading, who’s responsible for this lack of time? Left unchecked, life’s busyness will rob you of the joys and benefits of serious reading.

5) Highlight and mark up challenging books, taking notes, capturing ideas as you read. If your purpose in reading is to deepen your knowledge and understanding, you need to approach book reading in a more serious, active way.

As I’ve mentioned in prior posts, Adler’s How to Read a Book is an excellent guide to learn the art of reading.

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I’m not suggesting that you escape and hide from technology or the internet; the digital wave has its place in modern life. But you don’t always have to ride the wave. You can choose to let a few waves pass you by.

Instead, swim out to calmer waters, past the digital mayhem, sit, and be still. Let nature’s current guide you. Listen carefully to the silence. You can learn more from this primordial silence than you’ll ever learn mindlessly racing around in the digital world.

Then, when you’re more centered and wise, ride the next wave—if you choose.

If you engage with technology from a grounded perspective, your experience of the digital wave will be radically different. The wave won’t have such a strong hold on you. You will no longer be pulled in the direction of the current, unable to make effective, meaningful decisions.

Now, you’ll ride the wave with a sense of nonattachment, engaged with the wave, but not at the effect of the wave. Herein lies your freedom, as David R. Hawkins says, to be in the world, but not of it.

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But there’s an inherent flaw in this pervasive belief system as Watts points out: “It should be obvious that action without wisdom, without clear awareness of the world as it really is, can never improve anything.” And sitting still can lead to greater awareness and a heightened understanding of the nature of things.

Wisdom, arising from introspection and personal discovery, is difficult to attain in an age wired for speed and the accumulation of information. Wisdom, like sitting still, is elusive in the digital age. Corporations make decisions based on the short term, often overlooking long-term consequences. Individuals hold ideologies and take actions without first clearly evaluating and apprehending what’s in the common Good of all.

We’ve heard it said that wisdom comes with age. Without conscious intention and effort—without fostering the capacity for sitting still—we grow older but not wiser.

Make a practice of sitting still on a daily basis. Wisdom will ripen through this powerful practice.

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The human ego has a constant drive to control its environment. Secretly believing that it is the source of the universe, the ego willfully looks to change everything. From the ego’s perspective, it is the source of creative inspiration.

Consciousness and psychological research, however, has demonstrated that the ego actually blocks creative expression. The more humility you possess, the more you are able to get out of your own way. As the ego’s hold is minimized, your creative potential is realized.

Instead of attempting to control the creative process, let go trying to change anything.

As a Student, your job is to explore the problem from every angle. But then, the Wanderer must step in. In the state of the Wanderer, the creative genius surrenders to the problem to something beyond himself and awaits the Muse’s answer.

When confronted with a difficult problem, seek to understand the nature of the problem. But then, simply allow the problem to be there. Your creative output can soar.

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