Mastering Successful Work: Skilful Means: Wake Up!

This book has taught me again and again how to overcome habitual tendencies at work and focus, in a kind manner, on the "awareness - concentration - energy" needed for successful completion of work projects and career goals. Through a deep understanding of mind training, it maps out highly practical ways of responding to incompletion, drifting off, stress and lack of clarity surrounding the tasks at hand, guiding the reader toward strategies for mindful productivity. You've heard of "fog lifter" coffee; well, this book is the supreme fog lifter for working individuals of all makes and models -- anyone who struggles, even periodically, with distraction, procrastination and unconscious self-sabotage of the cycle of abundance. This book is truly a measureless gift to the West on the part of a profound yet humble (and indeed, prolific) Tibetan teacher who has gained uncanny insight into the application of skillful means to the work arena.

Skillful Means: Wake Up! Is a follow up to the author's book Skillful Means: Patterns for Success. In Skillful Means: Patterns for Success, the author examined the problem of work apathy and poor performance. He noted that most of us get very little actual work done each day. We may look busy but our minds are often distracted when we are actually working. At other times, we are busy making excuses, finding busy work, or procrastinating. In order to counter this common occurrence, the author challenged readers to look at work in a different way. Exercises included within the text help reader tackle difficult projects, use time more wisely, and to be mindful while working. The result was better quality work, completed faster, from employees who actually felt good about their jobs. Skillful Means: Wake Up! follows through on the notions presented in Skillful Means: Patterns for Success. This book is somewhat more in depth taking on even more aspects and presenting over 80 more exercises for the reader to work through. I found Skillful Means: Wake Up! a little header than Skillful Means: Patterns for Success. I found that as I read through the exercises in the latter, I could then practice them the next day at work. I could even practice several exercises at a time as they tended to compliment each other quite nicely, directing me towards mindfulness. I had to take the exercises in Skillful Means: Wake Up! a little slower. Sometimes, I had to practice a particular exercise or contemplate a concept for a while before I felt ready to move onto the next one. It was definitely worth the extra time and patience though as I learned a lot about myself.

This book accompanies my daily wor