How to Develop a Calmer Mind From a Professional Perspective
Updated: Apr 26
A calm mind is something that may not come easily to many people, if at all. That's because we tend to give our emotions more power than to the things that need to be done in order to resolve a potential issue. However, the fact that some of us are more emotional than others, does not necessarily mean that this type of person cannot develop a calmer mind of their own.
The reason I am writing about this in my philosophy blog is because there are many reasons to have a calmer mind more often than not. It is also the reasonable thing to do in the professional world, and especially when you're under pressure. If you are a public figure, like me, then having a calmer mind can save you from avoidable embarrassments with others and give you the image of a more professional person.
Remember: When you're a public figure, you have more to risk. You need to give your audience the impression they want and expect from you. If appreciated, you can be a role model. A source of inspiration. An example for people to follow and apply to their own lives. You are not living exclusively for yourself, anymore, or for your family or friends. You also live for your clientele, for your followers.
The more professional you appear, the more seriously people will take you, even if they might disagree with you. In other words, a calm mind is truly the symbol of the professional, and to a philosopher, it also comes with greater rationality. This is all the more reason to find ways to calm our minds, even in situations that some may recognize as intense. The major downfall of being calmer is, of course, repressing the inner temptation to be more emotionally disturbed.
You need to understand and distinguish where it is appropiate to be cold, calm and calculated, and when you deserve to truly be more of yourself. Being able to do so will mean that your necessary repression will not become a double-edged sword. For that matter, you deserve to be calm in the workplace, as you deserve to express your genuine self for people who truly love you, or in the solitude of your own home.
My mind wasn't always as calm as it is today. I suffered from panic attacks and was afraid of strangers' comments. However, even without my medication as a factor, I now realize a potentially imperative key that anyone can use in order to develop their inner peace and grow it beyond its current proportions.
I'd like to call it... a specific type of defeatism. Obviously, someone who is calmer isn't necessarily a defeatist. What I mean by "defeatism" is to submit to the fact that "things are what they currently are" and simply accept it, unless they have one or more potential solutions to their problem(s). It deserves to be done when they are beyond your control, or when changing them, isn't worth the investment of time and energies.
Let me give you an example. A few months ago, as of this article's publishing, Philosocom was "threatened" by "hackers". An anonymous entity told me that if I didn't pay a specific amount in bitcoin, some "sensitive" information would be sold to the "highest bidder".
Before I knew it was nothing more than a scam, and that there was no threat, I simply "accepted" things as they are. I accepted, not the possibility of letting them continue, but that these are the things as they are now, allegedly. I couldn't travel back in the past and prevent their message, could I? I was simply calm, because being too excited about this would not do anything. Because excitement did not have its place here. It was unwanted by the reasoning of current reality.
If I wanted, I could submit to my decreasing irrationality and burst into a panic attack, like I did years before. But, then, I asked myself, what is the point of doing so? It will not help the situation. Instead, I focused on what could be done, and simply reported that entity to the local authorities. I haven't heard from these "hackers" again. Which could indicate that it was a scam. An empty threat. Pathetic.
This is the very subtle "defeatism" I talk about: the functional wisdom of submitting to the situation as it is and trying to look for ways to solve it, if it's even possible. I would argue that every true professional has that type of defeatism. It's that type of defeatism that not only gets things done, but also does so under a good impression of themselves and of whatever they represent.
If you represent a bigger company than yourself, or have a company where you're its only employee, know that there are bigger things at stake when you behave and interact with the world. Some form of masking and repression is to be "put" on "your face" if you wish to leave a good impression, and to make them return and consume the service you provide.
A self-respecting company will not necessarily interact with everyone in the same way that the person behind it would interact with them privately, and this is especially true the more well-known the company becomes. This is because, in certain social media platforms, people may be interacting with the company's "mask," and the people behind the "mask" may not care about the person representing the company.
Therefore, even if it is tempting to have a more "wild mind" under intense situations or in general, it is often wiser to calm it down. This is not only because it is more practical, but also because your personal truth may not always matter in comparison. Because there may be more pressing matters at hand than your personal sentiments.
I admit that I have been wilder in the past, and even had a panic attack because of other people, whether they intended to or not. However, I have recently come to terms with the fact that I should be more reserved, even if it means not exposing my personal truth completely to the world.
The problem, as I mentioned before, is the repression that comes with this whole operation. Apart from expressing it elsewhere, I admit that a public figure or representative is often more limited than an average private person. It's something that makes us professional and more appealing. I may sometime play Tekken in order to teach myself serenity.
Dictators wave and thank, wave and thank, when they observe a military parade. Anything else usually belongs in specific spaces, behind closed doors. I wish I could be more flexible, but perhaps I should still be more reserved, even after revealing so much about myself to you before.
