Read time 3 minutes. What is Zen? It’s firing your boss.
We just want to show up, do our best, and enjoy life. At least most of us do. But then there’s—well, you know the type.
Like Bill Lumbergh in Office Space. The passive-aggressive, coffee-cup-holding manager. “Yeahhh, I’m gonna need you to go ahead and…”
Or how about Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada? The ice-cold, eyebrow-arched editor. “By all means, move at a glacial pace.” Day dismantled.
These types sport a vibe so heavy you can feel them coming from across the room. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just fire them?
Now imagine that boss lives inside your head.
Enter the restless mind.
The one that micromanages every thought and demands productivity from every moment. And just like with Miranda Priestly, you can never quite win. No matter how well you perform, it’s not enough.
Okay, cold hard truth: you can’t actually quit. You need your job. You need your mind. Alas, this isn’t Hollywood, and you don’t get the dramatic walkout scene.
Thankfully, Zen offers us a middle ground that is both effective and still pays the rent.
But Zen isn’t about storming out of the building, tossing papers in the air, and announcing “I quit.” It’s more subtle than that.
It’s like quiet quitting—but with presence instead of pouting. Not resentful. Just free.
Thoughts are part of life. You still have to show up. The mind can still bark orders. Worry can still call emergency meetings. Fear can still send late-night memos marked “URGENT.” Fine. But they don’t get to run your life anymore.
They can think they’re in charge all they want.
Let them.
You’ve already fired them in your mind.
(They just don’t know it.)
You’re still doing the work. You’re just no longer playing the game. You stop buying into the illusion that your boss is in control or that your job is who you are. You stop sacrificing your life on the altar of unreasonable demands.
Thoughts still happen. You don’t have to clock in for every one of them.
So no, unfortunately we don’t actually get to walk into work and fire our boss today. But we do get to recognize fake authority for what it is. And learning to stop buying into the illusion of control matters. Because there is always some other fake authority lurking around the next corner.
So go into your boss’s office. Look that egomaniac right in the eyes. And realize you aren’t actually beholden to them. Hand them their pink slip, without saying a word.
That’s the real spirit of Zen.
MindfulRebellion.
(Or maybe it’s enough already and one day you just walk in there and literally do fire your boss. And then just ease on down the road. We fully support that too.)
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