July 5, 2017

Mark Molony – Mindfulness and Productivity

Mark Molony – Intention and Attention

Mark Molony is a coach, counsellor and educator. He is the co-founder with John Bruna of the Mindful Life Program.

Over the past 30 years, Mark Molony has spent a lot of time watching people trying to get things done. In fact, most of his conversations are sparked by the inability of people to get the things done they want to be done.

We all have the experience – usually every day – of intending to do lots of things – in particular the things that we’d like to change or improve about ourselves. This could be to be healthier, eat less, be more productive or simply enjoy life more.

Whilst we often know what we need to do and have a genuine intent to do them, we often don’t. What stops us from translating our intention into action?

Ideas Architect Podcast

In this episode (#106) of the Ideas Architect Podcast, Mark Molony talks about what we intend to have to happen and how to manage our attention to give us our best chance of making it happen. In particular, we talk about:

Intention and Attention

What is Intention? What is Attention? And how can we use this to get more done and the right things done?

Mark Molony points out that the big challenge we all face is Intentional Drift – where we cannot hold our attention long enough to fulfil our intentions. This is the most fundamental building block for getting things done and ultimately becoming the person we want to be.

Can you hold your attention long enough to fulfil your intention?

Creating Change

The first step to creating behavioural or personal change is awareness. If we don’t notice what works and what doesn’t, then we have no access to making a successful change. The second step is to set an intention to focus on what you want to change. This is the simple step toward rewiring our brains and building habits.

Personal change starts with awareness

Mental and Emotional Balance

While developing our intention and maintaining attention to this is the access to personal productivity it also has profound implications for our mental and emotional wellbeing. This is not simply managing our feelings and avoiding reacting to the unwanted situations in our lives. It also includes the ability to let our emotions flow through us so their impact is reduced. In this way we don’t resist life, we engage fully with it without being reactive.

This requires a strong level of maintaining our attention and self-monitoring our attention and focus. The simple question to ask ourselves here is: What am I focusing on right now? And ideally, we link this self-monitoring to our intent and objective

What we attend to becomes our reality #mindfulness

Meditation and Mindfulness

A lot of popular attention is now focused on meditation and mindfulness. And while the terms are related they are often used incorrectly. Mark describes meditation as a gym workout that is separate from our daily living. It’s a great focus to drive attention and concentration. In contrast, mindfulness is where we are putting our attention during our daily life – for instance, while driving our cars or waiting in line at the supermarket.