Too often we focus on all the “physical doings” – the tangible tasks we need to complete in order to make a change, or accomplish a goal. But we neglect the importance of mindfulness and meditation in achieving goals.

And this is how we’ve been taught in our society. This is what contributes to hustle culture – the idea that the best things come to those who work the hardest.

But I don’t think this is truth. If you’ve ever burned out, you’ve had the opportunity to reevaluate this idea: that our willpower and determination is the thing that will get us there.

Our will is only so strong. It’s about working smarter, not harder.

Having a well-trained mind is not just about learning to be more positive. It’s about being focused, centered, and getting our ego out of the way. Mindfulness meditation is the best technique we have in our modern era has for doing this.

Mindfulness and meditation is a powerful tool that can give us an advantage, and for some, it could be the missing key to achieving goals that may have seemed unattainable.

Mental Strength is Equally as Important as Physical Strength.

Okay, so it’s true that much of our goals in modern society don’t rely on our physical capability. And that should indicate to us even more that training our minds is more important than we realize.

But I like the following example as it shows the almost supernatural advantage that one can have when prioritizing the mental training and skills as equally important as physical, tangible, through mindfulness. Even for those whose jobs rely on physical strength.

Phil Jackson is considered one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time. With the Bulls and then the Lakers, he coached and developed the best of the best players: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neil.

His secret weapon was mindfulness and meditation – this was in the 90s, well before it was accepted in the mainstream culture. He was known as “the Zen Master of the NBA” and was famous for utilizing unconventional coaching methods, influenced by Eastern philosophy and spirituality. He incorporated meditation, mindfulness, and breathing exercises, and even yoga and tai chi as part of the teams’ training regimens.

Phil Jackson taught his players that, as much as we pump iron to build physical strength, we also need to equally prioritize building our mental strength to focus and be centered, and in concert with each other as a harmonious team.

Meditation builds focus

The bigger the goal in front of us, the more focus we need.

In this modern age where attention is the greatest commodity, it’s too easy to get distracted, to succumb to the negativity around us that says we can’t do it, to default to building other people’s dreams rather than following our own.

Our phones, the media, and consumerism are all designed to work against our ability to focus on what we want to be doing with our lives and attention, so we also must train to counteract that powerful force.

Meditation Gets the Ego out of the Way

At an advanced stage, meditation and mindfulness can help us recognize when our ego (our sense of self) is subconsciously working against us. There are so many ways our ego sabotages our success.

One example is in cooperation with other people. If the ego is strong, and in a fear state, we might believe that we need to fight, or one-up others to get our way.

This is one of the things Phil Jackson wanted to his teams to train for, as unhealthy competition within the team can impede the essential communication and cooperation to win games. He also taught his players how to cool down and manage their emotions when forced to sit on the bench.

It’s rare that people can achieve large goals with no assistance or cooperation with others. We are always, in subtle ways, in relationship – affecting and supporting others. A good business, for example, is one that effectively serves and maintains a good relationship with its customers.

Another way ego can sabotage is through fear in general. There are subtle ways that, when we allow fear (or any other form of negativity) to creep in, we tend to make decisions that are not in our best interests long-term.

When we’re highly mindful, we can see this coming earlier, and quash these fears before they take on a mind of their own.

Meditation Opens the Flow State for New and Creative Ideas

An untrained, unfocused mind makes it nearly impossible to access flow. And the flow state is often where we get our best ideas.

One good, inspired idea is often the difference between reaching success, and a perpetual state of striving.

Meditation creates an openness and connection that allows usually submerged content from both the personal and collective levels of the unconscious to emerge creatively into awareness.

The great philosopher/psychologist Carl Jung had a theory about a concept called the collective unconscious – where all humans potentially have access to a common knowledge and understanding through archetypes and symbolism.

This greater source of knowledge and ideas – which I believe is one form of higher consciousness – is something we can tune into, like tuning forks. Provided we know how to do it.

Both Prince and Michael Jackson were pop rivals – some of the best of all time – who had similar views on where their ideas for songs came from. Michael Jackson said that if he weren’t there – tuned in – to receive inspiration from God, then God would give that idea to Prince. And Prince said “When I write songs, I get the inspiration from God – I feel. He gives me the words and melodies.”

In fact, many musicians, including the Beatles, have expressed a similar idea for how songs come to them.

It’s an idea that dates back to Plato: creative ideas are floating around in divine realms, and if a person were just to tune into it, their task is to essentially pull that idea from the ether, and make the idea physical.

Meditation can help us align our psyche to tap into these states to find greater ideas that serve ourselves and our society.

Meditation can help Shift and Manage our Energy

Mindfulness meditation is not just about shifting the quality of our thoughts and our “mental energy”, although this is a big part of its usefulness. It helps us build a strong mind-body connection.

When practiced regularly, mindfulness meditation can also help us recognize when we’re trapped in our heads, siphoning energy that could be used as magnetic life force to attract people and situations that can help further our goals.

Even on a physical level, it’s crucial to recognize when we are ungrounded, or if/when/where our life force energy is not flowing properly through the body. We need this for sustained energy and will-power to fuel our physical tasks.

On a metaphysical level, Joe Dispenza describes our energy regarding law of attraction as an “electro-magnetic” force. Our minds are like the electric signal of what we are intending to manifest, while our bodies are like antennae broadcasting that signal, and magnetizing situations to match it.

So when we’re mindful, we’re able to be aware of how the energy is flowing through our bodies and chakras. It allows us to address the situation and take necessary steps to improve energy flow. And further, mindfulness trains us in the focus and centeredness required to direct that flow.

Meditation and Mindfulness as a Superpower

Although mindfulness and meditation in Western society is derived from ancient Buddhist techniques, it’s never been more valuable and essential than it is today.

Instead of using it as a tool for enlightenment and spiritual development, we are mostly using it today to help maintain our health and wellbeing – in some cases our sanity, in a busy world.

But once we get past this baseline, we can also use meditation and mindfulness to develop our minds to be focused, centered, manage our energy, and get out of our own way. The fact that most of the population doesn’t use these techniques yet, can give us an advantage, and propel us to our goals much faster.

For a course on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (this is the technique used in most medical research studies), I highly recommend this free, full 8 week course by Palouse Mindfulness.