In Harvard Business Review article Manage Your Energy Not Your Time Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy bring attention into how energy levels influence the performance and tickle the immagination about the Wachovia study. As it appears, rituals are the secret of success (as you may have seen from previous blog posts).
We have recently started a new program called Executive Kungfu. It is focused on helping leaders and executives to find better ways to manage resourceful states using Neijia, internal martial arts. We help each executive to implement simple 10-30 minutes long daily practices that are given according to the current health conditions, the rest is worked out through a work out!
Where are your energy levels these days? What are your dominant emotions? Are you sleeping regularly? What kind of diet do you take? You may be surprised to know how much you can do for your mind by strengthening your stomach or to know that excercise balancing energy of liver will in the long run help you with anger management.
If you are not sure what kind of energy focus you need, check these quizes:
In a recent article of Harvard Business Review No Is the New Yes: Four Practices to Reprioritize Your Life (http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/01/no-is-the-new-yes-four-practic.html) Tony Schwartz says:
The key to success is building rituals — highly specific practices that you commit to doing at precise times, so that over time they become automatic, and no longer require much conscious intention or energy. One example is scheduling regular time in your calendar for brainstorming, or for more strategic and longer term thinking.
The most recent ritual I added to my life is getting entirely offline after dinner each evening, and on the weekends. I’m only two weeks into the practice, but I know it’s already created space in my mind to think and imagine.
And if this article sparkled up your interest in building a new daily practice (ritual) into your life please check http://hbr.org/2007/10/manage-your-energy-not-your-time/ar/1
What kind of rituals do you have in your life that you think are hindering you? Smoking, eating unhealthy food, drinking, lack of sleep…?
What are the activities that recharge you? Reading, walking, laughing?
Have you tried some meditative practices?
Recently I have been using two tools to help with creative approach to life. One is Benrik Diary. In 2007 edition, for example, the week of June 11-17 it says:
This week, follow your body clock…
This week, let your body clock take over. Ditch all time-measuring devices, switch off your alarms and see how well your innate sense of time-keeping guides you. Lunch when you feel it’s lunchtime. Sleep when you feel it’s bedtime. Wake naturally. Dont’ ask what time is, and you’ll free yourself from its relentless march.
I cherish the days when I can do this, it is a fun way of getting connected with the present moment.
Another tool is a set of cards titled 500 THINGS YOU HAVE TO DO ONCE IN A LIFETIME
KISS is an acronym that relates to a saying first used by Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at the Lockheed Skunk Works: Keep it simple stupid! You can imagine how this principle can be useful when you are building a plane, managing milions of details.
Use this principle when planning projects or when caught in the web of thoughts. If your mind map of connections that need to be managed exceedes 5 bring KISS into awareness, play Prince and dance until you are able to shake off all unnecessary details. Ok, dancing may not be your thing, or it may not be appropriate to do it in the office but you get the point: find an activity that energizes you, go for a walk, take a deep breath, meditate! or check our energy balancing instruction videos on the www.small-steps-neijia.com that will help you to get grounded and bring focus into perspective.
“It seems that perfection is reached not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” Antoine de Saint Exupéry
“You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world’s happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged. Perhaps you will forget tomorrow the kind words you say today, but the recipient may cherish them over a lifetime.” Dale Carnegie
Do you know that your thoughts, words and actions influence the way Earth spins even if you don’t interract with anybody? Take responsibility for what you do and who you are – Earth and humanity need you.
Emotion: No need to change anything. No judgements of good or bad. it just is and it’s OK. It is beautiful as it is. I have and enjoy everything as it is.
According to the law of cause and effect:
Thought (cause) = Emotion (effect)/ Emotion (cause) = Action (effect)
Thinking:
All is well; Everything is beautiful; Everything is OK; Everything is unfolding as it should; I accept you; I have what I need as I need it; I love you just as you are; It’s all coming together; We all have a contribution to make;
Apathy/ Grief/ Fear/ Lust/ Anger/ Pride - Courageousness/ Acceptance/ Peace
and monitor how you shift on the scale of action. After the AGFLAP and reactive cycle CAP brings you to the proactive behavior. Often we mix Apathy with Acceptance, Anger with Courageousness and Pride with Peace.
How do you feel when you accept things as they are? What would happen if you accepted yourself as you are? Let people in your life know that you love them just as they are.
“The only thing that will make you happy is being happy with who you are, and not who people think you are.” Goldie Hawn
I was setting the office location on the Google Maps yesterday and got stuck when they asked me about the business description. I typed coach in the appointed field and the following categories came out: bus charter, bus station, bus tour agency, horse trailer dealer, outlet mall, outlet store, sightseeing tour agency, swim club, travel agency, swimming instructor. Oddly enough I found swimming instructor the closest to the description of what we as coaches do and started to giggle thinking of Dory in Finding Nemo and her positive dive into the deep with a tune: “Keep on swimming, keep on swimming”
I eventually put “consultant” as the description of the business hoping it will not create confusion. Regardless, Google Maps is helpful with the handy too and looking forward to see you in our office for a free coaching session.
I found a very simple and handy tool on the web: www.habitforge.com. This is how it works:
* Sign up for a free account
* Write an action you want to become your habit, for e.g. Exercise for at least 20 minutes every day
* Choose a category where your habit is (multiple choices) and
* Input personal motivational factors
After that only thing you need to do is to DO your habit every day. Every day an email is sent to you with a question: Were you successful at …[exercising for at least 20 minutes every day?] . If the answer is YES your clock starts ticking and you are moving to the 20 (19, 18, 17, …) more days left to create the habit (days crumble as the feeling of success kicks in). If the answer is NO your clock starts ticking back from the day 0 and you are reminded of your motivational factors. Frankly speaking it is interesting to observe personal response as own words pop up on the screen: guilt, looking for excuses, trying to ignore all together what is there written… Eventually I felt empowered to start from the day 0 realizing that it was much better to do that than to stop working on the creation of the habit completely. It just meant that it will take a bit more time to create the habit.
What is a slightly challenging but achievable action that will increase the quality of your life if it becomes your habit? Do it for 21 day and then re-evaluate.
A while ago I wrote about acceptance and in another blog about Stacy Charter. Tonight she inspires me again.
This quote is for all who are willing to step up and get in touch with the Authentic Self.
“There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout:
This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me… or leave me. Accept me – or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don’t fit your idea of who I should be and don’t try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.
When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad – you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you.”
