Islands of mindfulness

Good for me and good for business

Running a solo-preneur business presents unique challenges. At a basic level, one person needs to complete all the functions of a business: business development, sales, marketing, operations, product, and finances. 

This is a stressful task for a team let alone one person. As someone who is currently in this position, I’ve discovered that developing “ islands of mindfulness” in my life and more broadly attempting to live life with full attention has led to enormous personal and business benefits. 

An island of mindfulness is a distinct time of the day you are not working. You are not responding to emails, creating marketing content, improving your product, or doing any work at all.  During this time you have also removed inputs. That includes digital media (music, podcasts, TV, Tiktok, Twitter) and digital communications (email, texts, etc). Instead, you’ve created an “island” of time to practice mindfulness of yourself and your surroundings. Practically speaking this could look like a 10 minute mindful walk each day or a 20 minute meditation session. 

These islands of mindfulness may be useful for everyone but they seem especially important for entrepreneurs. Despite what some others may say, the point of this time is not to give you a chance to “connect the dots” and be more creative about new business ideas. Rather, it is a chance to deepen your relationship with yourself and become a kinder, wiser and more aware human being. 

For the past 8 months I’ve been creating an island of mindfulness every Friday evening, similar to a sabbath. At first, I didn’t really know what to do during that time, nor did I really know why I was doing it. As time has gone on, I have come to relish that time each week.

During each “island of mindfulness” session, I feel more in tune with my self. In between the sessions, I feel more creative and level headed. That lingering fear of failure that haunts me starts to fade away and is replaced by an energy to create something earnestly and without apologies.

I’m encouraged to have discovered the initial benefits of mindfulness. By cultivating this time every day or every week, I think many entrenepreneurs (hopefully me included) will be able do just about anything the world throws at us.