The legacy that your life is and will become is impacted by whether or not you are at your best. Because creating and building anything all starts with who you are. And who you are is directly impacted by how you are.
Do a personal systems check: are you drained or are you energized and really ready to tackle whatever’s next? How resilient are you and able to bounce back in general? Do you find yourself often fatigued or are you mostly excited about life? This matters because on the journey of building something, as on the road of life itself, there may be apparent road blocks and set backs.
Sometimes, these are blessings in disguise if we can step back and thoughtfully respond to them – rather than react in knee-jerk fashion. But being able to roll with such obstacles and develop other awarenesses about why they are happening and what to do about them, requires that we exercise extreme self-care. Put your oxygen mask on first, as they say on the airplane, and then assist others around you.
I’m a nose-to-the-grindstone type of person – especially when it comes to doing things I really love and am interested in. I like to dig in and keep going. Fortunately, since I run my own business, it’s only internal forces compelling me to work hard, but there is never a shortage of things to attend to. I need to remind myself to back away and rest. It’s one of the reasons I choose to live and spend time in beautiful outdoor spaces that I find are rejuvenating.
So what’s your daily self-care ritual? Turns out even the best of them can be maximized. British researchers recently demonstrated how even mental exhaustion can prevent you from being the best you can be. Their research concluded that being mentally exhausted can impair a person’s exercise performance. This finding may help explain why even though we healthily get to working out, it is sometimes harder or we want to quit earlier.
It might benefit you to add the word “HALT” to your self-care focus. When things are getting a little shaky or rocky on life’s journey, ask: am I hungry, angry, lonely or tired? One of them usually covers the situation. This is not the time to keep pushing yourself. And an awareness of which one of these little factors is at work allows you to back off from what you’re doing, and know what you need to do next. It’s probably to let go of what you’re wrestling with and either eat, spend a few minutes writing about something, call a friend or take a little nap.
The world is counting on you to be the best you can be so you can joyfully give your best gifts. Start by giving the world, and yourself, the gift of regular self-care – even if all that looks like is to ‘halt’ periodically and assess what you really need to do next.