Workaholics: Right Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness: The Discipline of Being Where Your Feet Are

In a college weight room, a lot of noise fills the air; namely music (NBA Youngboy iykyk), 45 pound plates clanking, teammates talking. For most, it’s easy to get lost in it. But the best performers, the ones who consistently get better, know how to stay locked in when it matters. That’s mindfulness.

Right Mindfulness isn’t about meditation cushions or burning incense. It’s about attention. It’s learning to stay fully present inside what you’re doing; feeling your body move, noticing your breath, and staying aware of what’s happening in real time. In the weight room, that means focusing on the lift in front of you, not the one you missed last week or the one you’re doing later in the week.

Athletes who master this develop a sharper awareness of how they move, think, and react. They notice when their mind starts to wander or when frustration builds. Instead of letting those thoughts control them, they bring their focus back to the rep, the drill, or the play. Over time, this builds not only better concentration but also emotional control under pressure.

For coaches, mindfulness changes how we see and communicate. When you’re fully present with your team; watching their body language, hearing tone changes, catching subtle shifts; you can lead with more awareness. You catch more. You teach better. You respond instead of react. This is Mindfulness in Coaching.

Right Mindfulness is the art of being here, now. Not halfway in the next lifting session, the next basketball drill, or the next weekend game. It’s the skill that separates people who go through reps from people who own them.

Sports Insight

There’s a clip of Kobe Bryant, hours before tipoff, alone in an empty gym. He’s not sweating through explosive drills or launching threes at game speed. He’s slowly, deliberately practicing footwork; pivot, balance, reset. No headphones, no distractions. Just awareness. Every rep is a study in control.

That’s Right Mindfulness in Basketball Motion.

Kobe wasn’t merely working out; he was watching himself work. He noticed his breath between moves, the tension in his ankle, the exact moment his balance shifted. He practiced being present inside his body. That attention to subtlety, the feel of the floor, the sound of his breath, sharpened the precision that separated him from nearly everyone else.

True mindfulness in sport isn’t zoning out. It’s zoning in. It’s knowing the difference between pushing blindly and moving with deliberate control. When leaders, coaches, or athletes cultivate that kind of awareness, they stop reacting and start responding. Presence becomes power.

Weekly Challenge

This week, commit to presence. Pick one activity; training, meetings, even your morning coffee, and turn it into mindfulness practice.

Picture yourself as Kobe Bryant, "What Would Mamba Do?"

Be aware of your breath before you start. Notice the weight of your feet on the ground, the pace of your breathing, the tone in your voice. As distractions arise, don’t fight them. Acknowledge them, then gently bring yourself back to the present task.

During workouts, pay attention to the details you usually overlook; the grip on the bar, the rhythm of your breathing, how your body shifts through fatigue. The goal isn’t to perform better in the moment; it’s to see what’s really happening as it unfolds.

By the end of the week, you’ll notice how often your mind drifts, and how different it feels when it doesn’t.

Practical Reflection

Right Mindfulness isn’t about emptying your mind or forcing calm. It’s about remembering to remember; to return, again and again, to what’s in front of you.In coaching, leadership, or life, that means being fully where you are. When you’re in conversation, be in it. When you’re lifting, lift. When you’re at home, be home.

The practice is simple

but not easy.

Over time, mindfulness exposes the unnecessary noise; judgment, frustration, comparison, that clouds our perception. It doesn’t erase stress; it reveals our habit of feeding it. With awareness, those habits lose their grip. What’s left is clarity.

Presence is rare, and that’s why it’s powerful. The more we practice Right Mindfulness, the more our work, training, and leadership begin to carry that same quality, steady, aware, and unshakably real.

Until next Sunday,
– Adam