By Philip Carty, Vice President, Eastern Area, Canada and Latin America

We are all familiar with the popular children’s song, “Row, row, row your boat”:

Row, row, row your boat
gently down the stream,
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
life is but a dream

Why do I begin my post with this? In this song, the Stream is consciousness and the Dream is our goal and our passion. In these times of challenge and bad weather it’s very easy to become less mindful, more distracted and to row furiously in no particular direction. In some cases, we’re not even in the boat.

So what are we to do?

At one of our recent company All Hands meetings, our CEO Lars asked me to take 5 minutes to share a story or insight about what we can do in times like these to be more mindful, more clear. This is a subject that I am passionate about, and I wanted to share it here on HappyFactors as well.

We all have to contend with a lot of noise these days. The papers – ugh! The news – ugh! The pundits – ugh! Recession, depression, foreclosure, job loss. Sir Allen, Thain, Geithner and Madoff. Yuck! In these times, we don’t know if we should plug in, tune out, turn off or just give up. What are we to do?

“Go gently, quietly, merrily down the stream….”

I have had the benefit of having some great teachers who turned me on to some great writers and speakers and leaders who taught me some great stuff. In particular, one who comes to mind for me these days is a guy named J. Krishnamurti. He said that meditation and mindfulness is not sitting cross legged on the floor, but rather a moment to moment thing all day long.

His view is that what comes at us, the external stimulus, is usually reacted to out of our memory. This works well with most of what we deal with every day. However, there are some things that come at us where the reaction out of memory is completely wrong. The external stimulus brings up a memory of pain, or fear, or anger or what have you. I believe a lot of what comes at us today brings up fear.

What Krishnamurti said was to “be mindful in the moment, see the reaction come up, go with it if it’s right, let it pass if it’s wrong, and if you let it pass – then act mindfully.” With quiet mind. Perhaps instead of fear, courage will come up.

Breathe deep and act mindfully in the moment. What this leads to these days is less stress, more effective communication and relationship and a knowledge that in the times of challenge great insights can be obtained, obstacles can be overcome, and our mettle is tested and affirmed. Necessity is the mother of invention; necessity can be the mother of invention – mindfully done.

I have worked for twenty years on this. It has led me to behave actively rather than reactively, most of the time. It has led me to enjoy the moments, most of the time.
This morning, I got up before dawn with my daughter and watched both the moon set and the sun rise– a great full orange moon followed by an amazing sun rise. Talk about a moment of connection both with my daughter and with the grander reality. Very inspiring and something I will carry with me all week.

I think that in these times we need to work at being mindful, at enjoying the moments and recognize our connection to each other and the grander world. I think the clearer we get, the bigger our dreams, the greater our chances are to be the outlier that wildly succeeds in this environment. Merrily, indeed, down the stream!

Good luck everyone.