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Mindfulness for People Who Still Want to Build Big Things

A sunset over the ocean, illustrating how being present can create greater awareness while pursuing ambitious goals.

I have never been particularly interested in the version of mindfulness that seems to require becoming less ambitious.

I like ambition.

I like building things, pursuing ideas, imagining futures and seeing how far something can go.

But I have also learned that living entirely in the future has a cost.

There is always another milestone. Another company. Another goal. Another number. Another version of the life that begins just after the next achievement.

If I am not careful, the present becomes nothing more than the waiting room for whatever comes next.

Presence improves perception

Mindfulness, as I think about it, is much more practical than mystical.

It is the ability to notice what is happening while it is happening.

What am I feeling? What is this situation actually like? Am I listening? Am I reacting? Am I enjoying this? Am I exhausted? Am I rushing because something requires speed or because speed has become my default?

That awareness can improve decisions because I have more information available to me.

It can also improve experience because I am actually present for the life I am working so hard to create.

Ambition needs a present tense

I do not want to stop building toward the future.

I want to stop sacrificing every present moment to it.

Those are different things.

There is room for drive and stillness. Planning and presence. Big goals and an ordinary good afternoon.

For me, conscious living is partly learning to hold both.

That is why mindfulness belongs inside personal growth and conscious living, not outside ambition. It helps make sure I am not so focused on becoming that I forget to be here.

Continue exploring

This article is part of my Personal Growth & Conscious Living authority series. Continue with Personal Growth & Conscious Living hub, Reinvention: You Are Allowed to Become Someone New, Meditation, Space & the Value of Hearing Yourself Think and Self-Awareness Comes Before Self-Improvement.

Chad McMillan

Chad McMillan is a creative entrepreneur and strategic advisor with over 20 years of experience in and around the capital markets, focused on finding hidden potential in companies, ideas, markets and people, and advancing what they can become.