What helps keep you feeling happy and healthy?
I spend a lot of time working with leaders and teams on designing, building, and launching regenerative business models – models that can deliver sustained value over the long term and be healthy.
Our personal sustainability and wellbeing are even more important. This is often the first thing I coach people on. The approach I take is to help you build habits that integrate wellbeing and happiness habits into your workflow.
When we’re on the journey of leading regenerative change, it can often be bit of a rollercoaster. There will be days when things don’t go as hoped and probably some days of crushing doubt.
The good news is you’ll also likely experience extended times of extreme optimism and the feeling that you’re doing exactly what you should be, with a deep sense of meaning and fulfilment. That you have a meaningful purpose.
If we don’t take proactive steps to look after ourselves, there’s an increased risk of getting to a point of feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. Read the full Your Personal Wellbeing Plan post for more framing.
Take Action
So, what are we going to do about all of this? I recommend setting up an action plan. There are two parts to this. The first is to be clear on the things you do that normally keep you feeling happy and healthy. These are the things to keep doing.
The second part is to set up lead indicators that identify when unhealthy patterns are developing, and what you’re going to do about it – before things get out of control.
I recommend you just write it down wherever you normally make notes – ideally so you always have access to it. Don’t get distracted by thinking you need to find a special notebook or app. It’s important to write it down though, rather than just do it in your head.
Your Personal Wellbeing Plan
What do you currently do that helps keep you feeling happy and healthy?
Here are some things to think about. These are the positive things to keep doing:
- Physical Health. What positive things do you do for your physical health?
- Mental & Emotional Health. What positive things do you do for your mental and emotional health?
- Relationships. Who are the important people in your life? Especially people you have healthy relationships with
- Social Connection. What are the important groups of people or communities in your life?
- Play. What do you love doing? What do you do for fun? What really brings you joy?
Your Backup Plan
Everyone’s “normal” is different. It’s natural to have days when we’re feeling down or a bit overwhelmed. If this lingers for days or weeks, it might be part of an unhealthy pattern that’s developing.
I encourage you to think about the red flags or signs you’ve observed in yourself that indicate you’re heading in an unhealthy direction. The goal here is to identify the pattern early and take the right action.
- What are the patterns of thinking, feeling, or behaving that indicate you’re heading in an unhealthy direction?
- Over what time period?
- What will you do, or stop doing, when you notice this pattern?
- Who will you talk to for help?
- How will you know you’re back in a healthy place?
Personal Finances
Economic or financial wellbeing is also an important part of our personal sustainability. Our ability to meet our basic needs and feel secure.
It’s important that you know your personal financial numbers to be sustainable, and keep yourself and household in a healthy financial position. Financial stress is the cause of a lot of health and relationship issues.
If you don’t already have a budget for your personal finances, you need one. There are many free resources online to help with this. You need the information to answer these questions.
- What’s the minimum you need to earn each month to pay all your bills?
- How much money do you have left over each month after paying all your financial commitments?
- Do you have savings or access to funds as a safety net when something goes wrong?
The current answers to these questions might not be ideal, but even if that’s the case, it’s better to know the reality you’re working with so you can make plans and take action.
Let’s Collaborate
At Dynamic4, we specialise in coaching, training, and working alongside leaders to solve problems that matter.
A key way we do this is by designing and delivering action learning experiences with masterclasses, workshops, innovation sprints, and leadership, design thinking & innovation programs. These sessions build personal, team, and organisational capability to solve problems that matter with more:
❤️ Clarity on your purpose, goals, and approach to navigate complexity and make progress
🎯 Momentum to achieve your goals by building the workflows, rhythms, and habits for success
🌿 Confidence to move forward with more certainty and less risk while increasing your wellbeing
Ready to have fun collaborating to solve problems that matter? Book a free 15-minute discovery call.
When you think about a great leader you’ve worked with, what made them great?
I’d love to hear your thoughts…
- What were their qualities?
- What was their style?
- How did they interact with you?
- How did they spend their time and what did they prioritise?
- What did you learn from working with them?
- How do you feel when you think about them?
I’m doing some research with leaders who navigate complexity to lead, design, and deliver change. I’ll present the findings from my research in a report. It might even evolve into my next book.
I’m curious to learn more about how you’re adapting to meet the rapidly shifting expectations of your teams, customers, investors, and regulators.
Get involved!
Join the waitlist for the report now. You’ll be the first to get it and I’ll also share insights that are emerging during the process.
When you join the waitlist, you’re also invited to complete the survey that takes ~5 minutes, and you can express interest in being interviewed.
60+ people have already completed the survey, and the interviews start next week. There are plenty of interesting themes already emerging. More on that soon…
Ideas
A couple of blog posts for you… a new one, and one from the archives.
Earth Day 2024. Planet vs. Plastics
Happy Earth Month! Monday last week was Earth Day and the theme this year is Planet vs. Plastics. What we do has a massive ripple effect on our ecosystems – as well as the pace of business and government action.
Let’s take action… in our businesses and in our personal lives. Check my post for some practical ways…
Perspective & Context
A sense of perspective and context helps not lose sight of what’s important. When we lose perspective and stop seeing the bigger picture, we tend to fixate on things that don’t really matter and it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
A few thoughts on being mindful of how we look at and see things, the meaning we make, empathy and creativity, zooming out to see the system, and looking up & out.
Keen for some help solving problems that matter and to have some fun collaborating? Book a free 15-minute discovery call…
Have fun!
Ben
