It’s a challenging space for a leader to be able to say that they don’t mind what is happening while they remain able to care for and be attentive to what is happening.

It’s a fine line and yet a big shift in perspective. Learning to see it is the first step to implementing it.

The idea behind not minding what is happening is simple. It is to accept events as they happen. What makes it challenging is having become attached to one’s idea of what should happen or the result that one wanted to achieve. To be clear, in not minding there is no difference between an event that one has worked for and that has been achieved or not. The same is true for an event that comes in as a positive or negative surprise.

The point of being able to say “I don’t mind” is one’s deep understanding that one’s existence doesn’t depend on the events as they occur.

At the same time, it is important to be able to care for one’s doing. The desire to be invested in what one is doing, the satisfaction of seeing good work happening, and the joy of succeeding still have their place. They are relevant as they contribute to the way a task is being executed and projects unfold. The ability to be present to one’s task and execute it as best as one can in that moment, with the ambition to continuously learn how to do it is the best way to invest one’s time.

It is spending one’s time without splitting it up with being in the past and regretting what didn’t work nor being in the future and becoming attached to see one’s hope succeed.