Brad Jacobs uses a unique meditation technique where he expands and contracts his mental focus across vast scales of time and space, like an accordion. This practice helps him see business problems in their proper proportion, fostering humility, purpose, and wisdom by providing a grander context for daily challenges.

Related Insights

Muriel Faberge argues that personal well-being is not separate from professional success. By cultivating inner peace through quietness and self-reflection, you develop a positive presence. This calmness becomes a tangible asset that clients and partners receive and value in business interactions.

Instead of viewing problems as setbacks, Jacobs sees them as the very raw material for creating value. Solving obstacles for customers, employees, or within operations is how money is made. This mindset transforms stressful challenges into opportunities for growth and profit, preventing burnout.

To gain a macro perspective, Melanie Perkins does an "AI walk." She goes for a walk and dictates all her thoughts on her phone using a notes app. Later, she uses AI to summarize the brain dump, helping her filter ideas, identify action items, and think more strategically.

An entrepreneur expected new strategies at a retreat but found the real transformation in uncomfortable embodiment practices. This shows that the next business level isn't always a new tactic, but a fundamental shift in being and operating.

To regain motivation for mundane or challenging work tasks, reframe the situation by comparing it to genuine adversity, such as a friend's experience in a war zone. This mental exercise provides grounding perspective, making typical business challenges feel insignificant and manageable by comparison.

At scale, the biggest threat isn't a lack of opportunity but mental overload. The key is to treat your focus as a finite resource and actively protect it. This means becoming comfortable saying "I'm done for today" and disappointing people, realizing that protecting your mind is more strategic than satisfying every request.

Marcus Aurelius's "view from above" is a concrete technique, similar to cognitive behavioral therapy, for managing anxiety. It involves visualizing yourself zooming out from your immediate situation to a cosmic scale. This mental drill provides perspective, shrinking overwhelming problems to a more manageable size.

The goal of mindfulness meditation isn't to clear the mind, but to notice when it wanders and bring it back. Each time you "wake up" from a distraction, you are successfully practicing. This reframes the most common frustration as the core of the exercise, making the practice more accessible.

People exhibit "Solomon's paradox": they are wiser when solving others' problems than their own. To overcome this, view your challenges through a third-person lens. Mentally frame the issue as if you were advising a friend—or even refer to yourself by name—to gain dispassionate clarity.

The practice of calming your mind goes beyond simple relaxation. It's a mental discipline to silence internal 'noise'—past judgments and self-doubt. This state of calm directly fosters greater confidence, clarity, and the ability to identify and commit to the right strategic ideas.