Jean Gomes is the NYT bestselling author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, an advisor to CEOs and senior business leaders, and the founder of the research-based consultancy Outside. He helps leaders solve their greatest challenges by building their mindsets, informed by his background in neuroscience. Jean’s most recent book is Leading in a Non-Linear World: Building Wellbeing, Strategic, and Innovation Mindsets for the Future.

What does purpose mean to you? 

I’ve been thinking about this question for 20 years, trying to connect the dots between hard and soft science, psychology and philosophy. The traditional way of describing purpose – something that gives you a meaning that’s greater than yourself – is only half of the equation. The other part is the fulfilment of your needs. This incorporates physical needs, wellbeing and creative expression; I summarise this as eliminating resentment in your life. 

It’s not about being selfish, and it’s not a compromise; it’s about balancing the needs of others, your family and your colleagues, with your own. If you don’t do that, you’re never really able to fulfil your purpose. You need to feel good about who you are and what you do.

When do you feel the most purposeful?

When I’m creative in service of others, that makes me feel valued and valuable. I faced a dilemma at school about where to place my bets; my parents wanted me to be a doctor, but I couldn’t see myself in a laboratory. I went down the neuroscience route to avoid medical school. But at the same time, I was in a band and I loved painting. I didn’t want to view science and art as two binary choices.

I want a creative life. I fulfil that by being creative in solving problems from a holistic point of view – integrating psychology, neuroscience, accounting, economics and philosophy. It’s difficult, but that’s when I feel most purposeful.

Tell me about your daily routine.

I start my day with a mental body scan to assess my needs. In the 10 seconds before I admit to the world that I’m awake and I start thinking and feeling, I send a flow of information from my body into its insular cortex so that I really understand how resourced I am. Have I slept well? Have I got enough energy? Is something hurting? 

Compare that to how we usually wake up in the morning. We get into the shower and start thinking about the day ahead; all of a sudden we get the adrenaline shot of stress hormones telling us we’re awake. If your body is under-resourced, immediately you start thinking of the things that might go wrong: a difficult journey to work, your boss not liking your presentation, your children being argumentative – everything’s coming from that resentment base.

But if I’ve done the body scan first and I know that I’m under-resourced, I can break the typical cycle of leaping to negative emotions. Instead, I can reframe the day and be a bit kinder to myself. 

In those first ten seconds, that moment of raw consciousness is a bit like a fuel gauge: How much fuel do I have in the tank? Doing this breaks the narrative of feeling held back because I’m being honest with myself about what I need, what I can do, what I can give other people and so on.

How did you come to this realisation? 

I spent many years helping athletes and business leaders build healthy habits – I now know that habit-building doesn’t always work. Unless you’re in a very regulated system, most people can’t do it. The main thing that stops you from building a habit is disruption, and we experience that every day, especially if you’re bringing up young children, running a business or travelling a lot. Even something like going to the gym isn’t one single habit – it’s more like twenty separate ones.

A body scan also helps us look at trends, whether you’re investing enough time in sleep, exercise, and diet, and the factors that are influencing your body budget. You’re freeing up the resources available to you even when you are under pressure. You are able to predict situations more effectively. You make better choices. You’re more creative, and you’re better at problem solving. 

How can we better embrace the uncertainties in business?

In the world of work, many leaders are hired to de-risk their organisation’s success. They’re paid to create predictable revenue pipelines, avoid uncertainty and mitigate risk. But that led to the global financial crisis and all sorts of bad judgments around Covid. Ultimately, they don’t know the difference between risk and uncertainty. Risk is something that can be quantified, i.e you can make a decision based on probabilistic reasoning. Uncertainty is something you have to accept. You don’t understand what or why something is happening. But you have to engage in it – experiment and gather rich experiential data about what’s going on. 

Ironically, embracing uncertainty gives you more control as an individual. When you don’t, you become a victim of it. Because of this, many people have developed a sense of futility around their careers, neighbourhoods, and environments.