Doing Impossible Things

Aug 07, 2025

In this issue:

Mindful Leadership Podcast with writer Ruth Ozeki
Doing Impossible Things
Zen of Coaching: Course for Executive Coaches
A Poem, by Robert Bly (about doing impossible things)
Dharma Talk At Green Gulch, 8/24

Mindful Leadership Podcast: Conversation with Ruth Ozeki

I’m excited to introduce this new podcast conversation with Ruth Ozeki, award-winning writer of four novels, and Zen priest. Her book, A Tale For The Time Being is one of my all-time favorite novels. We talk about the creative process, Zen and writing, and mindful leadership.

For aspiring writers and creatives, Ruth offers a refreshing perspective on the sometimes elusive nature of creativity. She discusses her evolution as a writer, from her days of poetry and haiku to the complex, layered novels she is known for today. This exploration reveals the intimate dance between following one's instincts and the challenges of writer's block, and how Zen practice has played a pivotal role in her creative process. Listen here.

Doing Impossible Things

Several years ago, I was designing a program to train mindfulness teachers. I asked a friend and mentor for his ideas on what elements he felt should be included. The aim was to train these teachers to have the presence, confidence, and competence to work with groups of business leaders, and teach meditation practice, mindful leadership, and ways to develop emotional intelligence skills. His advice was short and sweet: "I suggest you design an ordeal. Give them something that at first might seem impossible." I was surprised and somewhat resistant hearing this advice. I wasn't expecting to hear the word "ordeal."

However, the more I reflected on this advice, the more it fit. I realized that I had gone through somewhat of an ordeal in the process of developing my own confidence as a teacher, trainer, and CEO. I often felt like an imposter in the early days of standing on the stage of auditoriums at Google headquarters in Mountain View, leading meditations and mindfulness exercises for really bright and achievement-oriented engineers. I had a good deal of meditation experience, but very little experience in teaching meditation, and no track record of working in corporate settings. It felt intimidating, like walking through fire. Little by little, through practice and a good deal of support, I learned and grew. This was my ordeal - it included my many mistakes, my fears, and my mustering up the courage to keep going, even when I was terrified.

We need these kinds of ordeals in our lives. I now begin my day with a comforting hot shower, but have added in the routine of turning on the cold water only for a minute or two. Each time it seems impossible and ridiculous as I watch my hand turn the shower knob from hot to cold. It shocks me, wakes me up, and it feels great. My whole body tingles with energy, and I feel a sense of accomplishment, having gone through my fear and resistance, even in this somewhat minor, self-inflicted way.

I have a similar experience each morning during my meditation practice. Sitting still, aspiring to let go of my usual judgements, and focus on just being curious, kind, and loving feels at times impossible. My mind continues to jump around, and the various voices of judgement are rarely quiet. And yet, this is an important practice for me. My self-made ordeal.

In some way these activities of cold showers and meditation retreats are warm-ups. They’re relatively easy practices for dealing with the really impossible activities of daily life, and the ordeals of being human:

- How do we keep our hearts open in the times like we now find ourselves? Impossible.

- How do we take care of our aging parents, or guide and protect our children from all harm? Impossible.

- How do we live our daily lives, knowing that we will say goodbye to everyone and everything that we hold dear? Impossible.

We are impossible beings living during impossible times.

I think it's important to train ourselves to work through whatever challenges and ordeals help us to keep our hearts open, even, and especially, when it's hard. This can include cold showers or meditation. Or maybe it's sports, or music, or whatever activity is important to you. In our daily lives, raising children is an important, impossible activity, as is working and developing a career, making money, or being in any intimate relationship.

It's all impossible, easy, and sacred when we pay attention.

Practices

Name and Befriend the Experience

Instead of pushing discomfort away, pause and name what you’re experiencing — fear, anger, confusion. Then consciously shift from judging the emotion to welcoming it.

Try saying to yourself:

“Ah, here is fear. What is it trying to protect or show me?”

Ask Transformative Questions

Challenge your default narrative by asking open-ended, non-judgmental questions, such as:

“What else might be true here?”
“What can I learn from this?”
“What’s being invited of me right now?”

This turns the ordeal into an inquiry — inviting creativity and presence rather than resistance.

Zen of Coaching: For Executive Coaches: Transforming Others, Becoming Your Best Self, Changing The World

An online course, beginning October 24th

Coaching is a way of helping others find the deepest places of their hearts.

Program Overview

Zen of Coaching is a transformational program for executive coaches and leaders who want to deepen their presence, expand their impact, and build a coaching practice rooted in wisdom, not just performance. Blending Zen principles, mindfulness, and real-world leadership experience, this course—created by Marc Lesser, the Zen teacher and CEO who helped bring mindful leadership to Google—supports you in cultivating stillness, navigating complexity, and coaching with greater authenticity, clarity, and purpose.

To register and for more information.

A Poem: by Robert Bly

Here are some impossible things to think:

"Things to Think"

Think in ways you’ve never thought before

If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message

Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,

Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.

Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,

Maybe wounded and deranged: or think that a moose

Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers

A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.