The Full Body Yes: Change Your Work and Your World From the Inside Out

By Scott Shute

Stop treating your work and your life as separate. Work shouldn't be a burden that takes place outside of your “real life.” It should, and can, be a source of happiness and authentic meaning—if you work from the inside out. In The Full Body Yes, LinkedIn’s Head of Mindfulness and Compassion Programs Scott Shute shows how the evolution within companies lies in the evolution of ourselves. After all, a company is the sum of its people: we decide where, how, and why we work. Through a four-step action plan, Shute demonstrates how the journey to a working life of happiness and authentic meaning is fueled by compassion. Through guided activities to cultivate compassion for yourself and others, you’ll move toward a work lifestyle that allows you to: ● discover what is important to you, so that you can spend more time doing just that ● recognize and empower the deeper part of yourself ● measure your success by your own happiness ● allow yourself to develop and evolve at work ● love and serve all of life (including yourself) Everyone deserves to do work that makes them happy, and to find happiness at work. With compassion, we can all get there.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scott Shute
• Release date: May 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781774580363

Book preview

The Full Body Yes: Change Your Work and Your World from the Inside Out. Scott Shute, head of mindfulness and compassion programs at LinkedIn..

Praise for The Full Body Yes

"In The Full Body Yes, Scott Shute shares a fascinating tale, well-told, making a heartfelt case for self-awareness, full presence, and compassion. I couldn’t stop reading."

Daniel Goleman, PhD, author of the New York Times bestseller Emotional Intelligence

"Writing with vulnerability, humor, and compassion, Scott Shute shares his insights and life lessons in The Full Body Yes. You will see yourself in these pages and truly enjoy the journey to more connection with yourself and with the people you lead."

Sharon Salzberg, author of Lovingkindness and Real Change

"Scott Shute is an admired leader within LinkedIn, where he has helped individuals and organizations transform. In The Full Body Yes, Scott gives you the secret sauce that will help you transform your work and life—from the inside out."

Ryan Roslansky, CEO of LinkedIn

"Scott Shute is a shining beacon for us all. His writing is vulnerable and powerful. His journey is our journey. The Full Body Yes is a delicious, life-changing tale of learning how to fully love."

Oshoke Abalu, co-founder of Love & Magic Company

This book is such a gift. I couldn’t put it down. Scott Shute offers us no more and no less than the stories of his own life, and his courage, vulnerability, and learnings along the way have so much to teach us.

Scott Kriens, co-creator of 1440 Multiversity and chairman of Juniper Networks

Scott Shute sits at the intersection of the modern workplace and ancient wisdom traditions. His simple wisdom on how to change the world by changing ourselves is true for all ages and could not come at a better time. This inspiring book helped me see that I am a lovely work in progress and so is the world.

Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and author of Wisdom at Work

"Through captivating personal stories, The Full Body Yes clearly demonstrates how important it is to reclaim your power by deeply knowing yourself. This shift in awareness can positively impact your life and work. Scott Shute has created a greatly needed road map to reinvigorate the inner space of the mind and heart. This medicine is especially valuable during challenging times. The Full Body Yes is for anyone who is looking to bring a deeper meaning into their life and work."

Yung Pueblo, author of Inward

"In The Full Body Yes, Scott Shute shows us that optimism, self-awareness, and compassion aren’t just feel-good concepts—they’re how we build a great career and a great life."

Mike Robbins, author of We’re All in This Together

"Scott Shute is a masterful storyteller. His stories bring us right into the heart of the human experience and our deepest desires to find meaning and connection. Writing with vulnerability, he shows us that the fulfillment we seek lies right in the midst of our business challenges and personal challenges. The transformation happens from the inside out, and The Full Body Yes inspires and uplifts us so we can engage wholeheartedly and humbly in that process."

Tami Simon, founder of Sounds True

The Full Body YesChange Your Work and Your World from the Inside OutThe Full Body Yes. Scott Shute, head of mindfulness and compassion programs at LinkedIn. Page Two Books.

Copyright © 2021 by Scott Shute

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Every reasonable effort has been made to contact the copyright holders for work reproduced in this book.

Some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

The views and opinions expressed in this book are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, official policy, or position of LinkedIn.

Cataloguing in publication information is available from Library and Archives Canada.

ISBN 978-1-77458-001-1 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-77458-036-3 (ebook)

Page Two

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Edited by Lisa Thomas-Tench and Amanda Lewis

Copyedited by Melissa Edwards

Proofread by Alison Strobel

Jacket design by Peter Cocking and Taysia Louie

Jacket and interior illustrations by Brian Tong

Interior design by Fiona Lee

Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens

Distributed in Canada by Raincoast Books

Distributed in the US and internationally by Publishers Group West, a division of Ingram

Ebook by BrightWing Media

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scottshute.com

thefullbodyyes.com

For my parents, Ed and Jeri, who showed me how to live.

Contents

Introduction

Part I Know Yourself

1 Know Your Own Story

2 The System

3 The Trap Is Set

4 Unwritten Rules

5 It’s Just Science

Part II Love Yourself

6 Finding Our True Self

7 The Intersection Point

8 Be Your Own Lighthouse

9 Black Belt Level Gratitude

Part III The Inner Journey: The Mastery of Me

10 Climbing the Right Mountain (It’s Your Choice)

11 The Reframe

12 The Full Body Yes

13 Getting to Know Before Getting to Yes

Part IV Compassion in Action

14 Awareness of Others

15 Compassion for Others

16 Life Happens Through Us

17 In Service to Life

18 The Universe Sent Me Joy

Notes

Acknowledgments

Landmarks

Cover

Title Page

Table of Contents

Body Matter

Introduction

Hi friend,

I’m so glad you’re here.

We, and by that I mean all of us here in the working world, need your help in changing work from the inside out. We have an opportunity to shape the consciousness of our workplaces by introducing more compassion.

There’s really nothing that unique about the workplace. It’s just another group of humans, doing their thing, bumping up against each other. A place to learn the lessons of life. We could learn the same lessons on a farm, in a family, being a teacher, or living in a monastery. Somehow over the years we’ve gotten into this strange pattern of thinking about work as bad and the rest of our lives as good.

The simple truth is that it starts with us. Organizations are just a collection of individuals. When we develop ourselves as individuals, the organization evolves too.

If we want work to be a more humane place, it starts with us.

If we want to be more fulfilled, happier, more joyful, it starts with us. If we want to change the world, it starts with us.

The challenge is that we’re usually just focused on ourselves. Me. Me. Me. And when we’re this focused on our own lives, our own agenda, our own story, it’s hard to be aware of others. It’s hard to serve others. We all end up with more of the same, which is less than we wanted.

You and I are probably similar in many ways.

Our careers (and lives) are sometimes a crapshoot—forward, backward, sideways, forward again. Following our nose like a bloodhound wandering in a forest on the scent of a rabbit: the rabbit of meaningful work.

We measure success compared to those around us. We’re constantly seeking external validation for our own happiness. What do others think of me? How will this be perceived? Am I enough?

We’re often chasing something we think will make us happy. More money. More prestige. More respect. More.

Maybe you’re reading this book because you want to know how to climb the mountain, be successful, beat the system. Or maybe you have that gnawing, longing feeling inside that won’t go away. The one saying that the hole of achievement can never be filled. The one that is hungry for more, but a different type of more. Something deeper. A more that leaves you full.

Whole.

Free.

Maybe both things are true.

This is not one of those boring books about work that you feel like you should read and then struggle your way through. This is a book about life, and how the lessons we learn apply to every aspect of our existence, including—and sometimes especially—our work.

This is a book about what I’ve learned, and sometimes about what I’m still struggling to learn. I’m going to tell you a lot of stories from my own life. I’ll share with you my inner dialogue. For each of us, this is really where our development happens. It’s usually not the actual events in life that we’re learning from; it’s in the shaping and changing and thrashing of the mind where our growth occurs. We’re so focused on ourselves, the me, me, me, and I’m no different. So, sorry if it feels like it’s about me. I mean for it to be about all of us, but the truth is, I really only truly know about me, and what’s going on in my own head.

I’ll share my failures. I’ve had some spectacular ones. I’m not ashamed; I’ve learned a lot from them. Besides, I know you have failed in similar ways. This does not make us failures. I’ve had some successes as well—just like you have—and I’m not ashamed of those either, because I’ve learned a lot from them too. But they don’t make us successful any more than our failures make us failures.

So what does make us successful? Ah. That’s what we’re going to explore.

Okay, friend, I know you have many choices in how to spend your time, and I appreciate that we’ve gotten this far together. Here’s my commitment to you. If you promise to stick with me, to see yourself in these stories, to see your own failures in my failures and your own successes in my successes, your own longing for something more in mine, then I promise you…

This will not suck.

Scott Shute

November 2020

P.S. If you’re impatient and just want the summary, go ahead and skip all of my amazing life-changing stories and go right to chapter 17.

Part 1: Know Yourself

Know the true definition of yourself. That is essential.

Then, when you know your own definition, flee from it.

Rumi

1

Know Your Own Story

Ican see the red semi coming from a mile away. It’s probably hauling wheat that’s been stored over the winter. Now the price is better, and it’s headed to the elevator to sell. I do the math in my head. A thousand bushels, sixty pounds per bushel. I’m not sure how much the truck weighs. Maybe another twenty thousand pounds. Eighty thousand pounds total. Forty tons. Speed limit is fifty-five. No one drives fifty-five around here.

I’m in a tiny 1980 Chevy Citation. Probably weighs three thousand pounds. I’m going seventy-five miles an hour. I’m fifteen, a freshman in high school. I’m driving home from track practice. Tears are streaming down my face. I have no idea why.

I wonder if I will feel any pain when I slip into the other lane.

I wonder what my funeral will be like. I imagine watching the whole thing from above. My parents are in shock. I’ve tried to tell them, but we are speaking different languages. I overhear snippets from the crowd.

Just a freak accident.

Maybe the sun got in his eyes.

Maybe a deer. There are so many deer. Just last fall Raymond hit one. Rolled right over the top of his car—hardly touched the bumper but crushed in the roof. Wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it.

My siblings are quiet, each one dealing in their own private way.

My girlfriend is beside herself. It happened a mile from her house. She’ll have to drive past the spot every day on the way to school for the next two years. Possibly every day for the rest of her life.

I can see my English teacher crying. She’s read my poetry. She has an uneasy feeling in her stomach but doesn’t say anything. Doesn’t want to add to my parents’ pain.

The red semi is a half mile away.

I unbuckle my seatbelt and turn up the stereo as loud as it will go.

In my mind, I scan the crowd for my classmates. The funeral service is being held at the school because there are too many people to fit at the mortuary or the church. He was so young. Such a shame. What a waste.

The girls are crying. Cal and Britt, the kids who have been bullying me, are in the back row, quietly laughing. Mike, my sort-of-best-friend, has red eyes.

I think, The hell with all of you.

The semi is now a quarter mile away. I can see the trucker’s cowboy hat in the fading light. I don’t recognize him or the truck.

At the funeral the trucker is shaken. He apologizes to my parents. The truck’s front end was mangled. As the rig went off the road, the trailer jackknifed and bent just a bit. They’ll probably be able to use it again. The Chevy Citation disintegrated. Hard to imagine that it used to be a car. Once the truck finally stopped, the distraught trucker had hobbled back to help.

It was way too late.

I don’t know what happened, he said to the sheriff, who arrived an hour and fifteen minutes later. I was right up on ’im. At the last moment he just come into my lane. Nothin’ I could do. He stared at his hands, his face pale. Nothin’ I could do.

The semi is seventy yards away. I can see his face.

I stomp on the accelerator.

I’m ready. I clench my jaw.

Don’t! I hear a voice inside, as close as my heartbeat.

I freeze, just long enough for the semi to whoosh past me. My car shimmies with the passing draft. Adrenaline has flooded my system, like I’ve just injected a gallon of coffee. I’m jumpy and shaking. I can feel blood thumping in my neck.

Pull over.

I comply.

I turn down the next dirt road I come to and drive over the hill so no one will see me from the highway. I get out of the car and walk into an open field. The wheat is green and just past ankle high. I’m on my hands and knees, pounding the wheatgrass and dirt and screaming at the top of my lungs, sobbing. I hit the ground with my bare hand until the pain makes me angry, then I curse about that, screaming some more.

My body is racked with sobs. Blood from my hand is getting all over my sweatpants. I ignore it. I lay down in the wheat and feel the earth, cool and damp against my cheek.

Finally, spent from my raging, my body slows down.

It’s going to be okay. I’m here with you.

I soften. I listen.

This will pass.

I breathe deeply. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

You are never alone.

I sit up in the young wheat, watching how it blows in waves. I hear meadowlarks, turtledoves, and quail. I see rabbits at the edge of the pasture in the field nearby. I smell a wild olive tree in full bloom. I am still shaking, my face hot and wet.

I breathe.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Spent. Nothing left to rage. I’m softening.

Just trust. You’re going to be fine.

I take in the infinite sky. Like me, the setting sun is softening, lighting up puffy cumulus clouds with fading pastel colors. Golden arcs of light pierce the clouds in places, radiating warmth.

I become aware of my breathing.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale.

I can feel my heart beating. It’s starting to slow down.

I am always with you.

I don’t need to say anything back.

Actor or Engineer?

I grew up on a family wheat farm in Kansas in a place so rural that fast food was a two-hour round-trip drive away, but I survived adolescence. I was eighteen and the world stood at the ready in front of me.

It was decision time.

I had wanted to be an engineer since I was in second grade. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure what that meant, but my oldest brother had done it. The way my parents talked about it made it glow for me. What I knew was that I was good at math, liked computers, and that engineers made a lot of money. Engineers understood how things worked from the inside out. They could probably take apart a remote control and put it back together again. Maybe I could design sweet gadgets like the ones James Bond used.

The movie Wall Street had come out. One of the primary characters was Gordon Gekko, whose motto was Greed Is Good. According to my eighteen-year-old brain, getting an engineering degree and working for a big company was like selling my soul to the man.

Reviews for The Full Body Yes

[Desiree Egger · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Truth about who we are uncovered. Great read. Vivid personal stories with a lesson.