Derek Hagen, CFA, CFP®, FBS®, CFT™

“Mindfulness allows you to experience your life in the present without ruminating about what just happened, or what should have happened, or almost happened, or what might yet happen.”

-Sam Harris

I once rode a bus in Las Vegas on my way to see Penn & Teller. A man nearby was talking out loud to himself—asking questions, then answering them. I remember thinking, this guy’s a weirdo. Maybe even dangerous.

When we got to the show, I was relieved to be away from him. But then something unexpected happened; Penn called me up on stage to help with a trick. I nervously climbed the steps, assisted with Teller’s helium-filled garbage bag escape, and returned to my seat. My wife leaned over and said, “Penn was hilarious!”

I didn’t know what she was talking about.

I was so consumed by my own inner dialogue, “Don’t trip. Don’t mess this up. Don’t look like an idiot,” that I missed the experience unfolding around me.

That’s when it occured to me: I was no different from the man on the bus. The only difference was that I kept my commentary inside.

We all talk to ourselves. Most of us just don’t realize we’re doing it. And when we’re thinking without realizing we’re thinking, we’re not really present. We’re lost in thought. That’s where so much of our stress, worry, and unhappiness live.

Mindfulness helps us come back.

We spend hours working out or watching what we eat. But when it comes to training our mind—to notice where our attention goes or how we respond to life—we often leave that to chance.

drawing of we don't train out minds but we train our bodies

Understanding Awareness and Attention

To understand how mindfulness works, we need to understand attention. Awareness is broad. It’s anything that can show up in your experience. Attention is narrow. It’s what you focus on within that experience.

Think of awareness like a floodlight that softly illuminates everything.

Think of attention like a flashlight. You aim it. You direct it.

There are countless things competing for your attention: your clients, your kids, your calendar, your own thoughts.

Then there’s everything you didn’t choose—comparison, scrolling, notifications, and the algorithmic tug-of-war we all live in.

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Training Your Mind

Most of us live on autopilot. A stimulus happens, and we react. No pause, no awareness—just habit.

That’s when we’re most likely to say or do something we later regret.

drawing of our response to automatic reactions

Mindfulness helps us expand the space between stimulus and response. It gives us room to breathe—and to choose.

Meditation is how we train for that. It strengthens the hand that holds the flashlight.

drawing of meditation as strengthening the hand that holds the mindfulness flashlight

Being mindful doesn’t mean you have to enjoy everything that happens. It just means you don’t have to suffer unnecessarily while doing what needs to be done.

The quality of your attention shapes the quality of your experience.

And the quality of your mind shapes the quality of your life.

We understand why it’s worth investing in physical health. Why not apply the same logic to your inner life?

You already train your body. What might change if you trained your mind?

Want to Learn More?

Money Quotient trains financial professionals in the True Wealth process and helps them implement the concepts into their practices. The first step is to learn about the Fundamentals of True Wealth Planning.