Leading Like a Monk: Setting Our Internal Clocks

Leading Like a Monk: Setting Our Internal Clocks June 29, 2017

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Setting Our Internal Clocks

We live in a culture which wants to set our internal clocks for us.

The society we have built for ourselves believes we work all day every day. It is difficult to schedule time for resting and sleeping, much less reflection, into our lives. There is always something more to read, to analyze, to sort into boxes.

We work as long as we can, as hard as we can, as often as we can.

There is no time for us to come to terms with our past or realistically anticipate our future. We do not have time to pay attention to our present moment. There are so many things to do.

The way we lead, and are led, is focused on what needs to be done right now, today. We pay attention to what we can do in the next few months. Having goals for the year seems like long term thinking.

We focus on not making the same mistakes which were made last year. The goal for this year is usually to do more than we did last year with fewer resources.

We live in a culture of reaction.

Our frame of reference is shrinking. We do not remember the past and do not consider the future. Our working assumption is we will be facing the same challenges then we face now.

Things are changing so quickly we cannot possibly succeed without adapting.

The fact is we do not know where we are coming from and are too busy to know where we are going.

Monastic Standard Time

The monks I know experience time differently.

Benedictine monks follow a rule of life written more than 1,500 years ago. The monks at the hermitage where I am an oblate do not have quarterly or annual plans.

Monks are struggling with questions and on a journey which will last a lifetime, at least.

Time is our most equally distributed resource. Each of us has exactly the same number of hours and minutes each day. The challenge for us is how to use what we have most effectively.

People in monastic communities have a different understanding of time than other people. There are many differences between how monks experience time and how our culture does.

Two of these differences, in particular, can be helpful to us as leaders. First, monastic life takes place within its own horizons, a unique frame of reference. Second, the way monks experience each day is different from how we do in our culture.

A Monastic Frame of Reference

Our society has a quarterly focus. We think about financial activity in three month increments. Our leaders, even our national leaders, are evaluated in terms of their first 100 days.

We assess what we did in the last quarter and project what we will do in the next quarter.

Most things which happened more than three months ago have already been forgotten.

Monastic life has stability and constancy built into its frame of reference. Many monastic practices and much monastic wisdom are based in writings which are hundreds of years old. People who practice monastic life are not eager to change without a reason.

Benedictine monks draw strength and stability from Benedict’s writings. There are works older than Benedict’s which help form the foundations of monastic practices. These insights have stood the test of time. The roots of monastic life spread deep.

In addition to a strong supporting history and tradition, monastic life reaches forward. The monks I know do not have expectations to meet at the end of a fiscal year. It is the same way as their history stretches back to draw wisdom from their predecessors. Monastic future is not next month or next quarter or next year.

Monastic life extends as far as into the future as Benedict was in the past.

Daily Monastic Life

Complementing the extended past and future of monastic life are the daily practices.

Our culture likes to pride itself on being flexible and adaptable. No matter what happens each day, we can handle it. Every day is different.

Reaching back to Benedict’s rule, the daily life of monks has a regular rhythm and a pattern. Monks rotate into and out of specific tasks while the overall structure remains the same.

The monks at the hermitage where I am an oblate gather for prayer at 7:00 AM and 6:00 PM Pacific. These and other prayer services form the hems of their days which hold the other parts together.

I join them, praying with them wherever I happen to be.

The schedule of monastic life helps create a community experience, even for people far away. Praying, working, reflecting with the monks at New Camaldoli reminds me I have been received. We are praying and working together, no matter where we are.

The set times of prayer in monastic days remind me we are not separated. We are praying with everyone praying in Pacific time. Beyond that, we are in a wave of constant prayer spanning the globe. It is always 7:00 AM, and 6:00 PM, somewhere.

Each day fits into the global stream of monastic life.

Not only does our wave cover the earth, it stretches back into the past and out into the future. People in monastic life have been praying each morning and each evening for hundreds of years. The network of prayer will continue for as far as we can see.

Leading Like a Monk

Our leadership needs to be effective in accomplishing goals, getting things done. The challenge for us is seeing past the next reporting deadline.

We are part of a something with a history and a tradition. Our future goes beyond what we can plan.

Like monks, we can incorporate our expanding time horizon in tangible ways each day. We remember we are part of a network of leaders which span the globe.

Our internal clocks need to be set, and reset, each day.

How do you experience the time in which you live?

Where do you see your time going from here?

[Image by dksesh]

Greg Richardson is a spiritual life mentor and leadership coach in Southern California. He is a recovering attorney and university professor, and a lay Oblate with New Camaldoli Hermitage near Big Sur, California. Greg’s website is StrategicMonk.com, and his email address is StrategicMonk@gmail.com.


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