346: Finding Clarity While Navigating Change with Marc Lesser

Pivot with Jenny Blake

“If it’s not a paradox, it’s not true.” So says today’s guest Marc Lesser, long-time mindfulness teacher and business leader. In his latest book, he considers what would happen if Homer Simpson, the Buddha, and Alice in Wonderland walked into a proverbial bar. How would each react to tricky situations? What would be the integrated way forward? We also talk about being asked to leave his previous company, Brush Dance, after fifteen years and how he navigated a new phase of his career as a result.

More About Marc: Marc Lesser is a speaker, facilitator, workshop leader, and executive coach. He is the author of five books, including the Zen of Business Administration, and his latest, Finding Clarity: How Compassionate Accountability Builds Vibrant Relationships, Thriving Workplaces, and Meaningful Lives. Marc’s podcast Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times features interviews, supportive tools for creating more meaningful work, and potent mindfulness practices to develop yourself, influence your organization, and change the world.

🌟 3 Key Takeaways

• Humans have evolved to be anxious and dissatisfied (two distinct purposes of evolution to stay alive and to pass on our genes). During meditation practice, or throughout your day, ask yourself: What does it feel like, in my body, to be satisfied? To not need or want anything?
• “There are even gaps in our efforts to close all these gaps between what we want and what is. Very little goes exactly as we might want it to, and if it ever does, that doesn’t last long.”
• Wholeheartedness as the cure for exhaustion. As David Whyte says, “The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest. The antidote to exhaustion is wholeheartedness.”

✅ Try This Next

The next time you feel anxious or stressed, try flipping your thoughts with these two prompts: “The story I’m telling myself is…” followed by “The story I want to live by…”

🔗 Resources Mentioned

• Marc on the web, IG: @marclesser, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook
• Articles: Stop Giving Away Your Power, Cutting Through Frustration, Surprise Yourself, “The World is Its Own Magic” (a quote by Shunryu Suzuki in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind)
• TEDxPresidio: Leadership, Attention, Focus

📚 Books Mentioned

• Marc’s books: Finding Clarity, Know Yourself, Forget Yourself and Z.B.A: Zen of Business Administration
• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki
• Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace) by Chaede-Meng Tan
• Free Time: Lose the Busywork, Love Your Business
• Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One
• Life After College

🎧 Related Episodes

• Marc’s podcast: Zen Bones: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Times
• Pivot: 327: 🐺The Wolf You Feed — On Addiction, Recovery & Codependency — and What We Get Wrong About All Three with Eric Zimmer
• 309: Wayfinding and Developing Identity Agency with Ciela Hartanov
• 307: Pivoting from Google to Starting People Playbook with Tony McGaharan
• Free Time: 001: All-in on Heart-Based Business

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