6. I thought meditation had to be formal.
The one thing I found most difficult at first was making time for formal sitting meditation. I first got into it at the end of my last year at university, and after graduation I started working for a large company. I loved the work, but my days were long and I no longer had as much time to dedicate to formal sitting like I had as a student.
What worked for me: The key was turning how I understood meditation upside down. Instead of complaining that I didn't have time for meditation, I got interested in how I could develop awareness, calm, and kindness whether I was in meetings, on the train, at the gym, or working online. And I started hacking together little techniques for each of those different places. I still did formal practice, but I made it secondary to the more on-the-go style. — Rohan Gunatillake, director of Mindfulness Everywhere and founder of Buddify