Quick!
When was the last time you got a full night’s sleep or a night of rest? What was the last book you read? What was the last intimate moment you shared with your family?
Could you answer any of these off the top of your head?
Probably not.
Take a Breath. Take a Break. You need it.
Not a five-minute break to answer emails.
Not a bathroom break.
I mean a two-week vacation without your phone and laptop in a relaxing environment where you can devote every ounce of your energy to personal growth.
You’re probably thinking:
“I can’t do that. I’ll fall way behind at work!”
If you’re one of these leaders, this is me giving you permission to be selfish for once.
I’m not telling you to go out and buy a yacht to party on for two weeks in a row. I’m telling you to make time to devote to yourself.
If you reach a mental, physical, or intellectual plateau, you’ve stopped climbing. You’ve stopped advancing in life. You need to rest, recover, read, and reflect so business growth can occur, and yourself, properly.
The Appropriate Selfishness Cycle:
Rest.
Great leaders need, and deserve, quality sleep on a regular basis. You’ll need 6-9 hours of sleep to function properly at your place of work. Your physical health is important, and a healthy sleeping pattern can aid this endeavor.
Recover.
Give yourself time to recover from personal issues. In order to grow, you must absorb and learn from mistakes and tragedies, whether they’re personal or business related. This will help develop your mental and emotional well-being.
Read.
Sticking to a daily scheduled reading session will build your vocabulary and communication skills. Consider reading fiction material. The mental absorption of quality storylines and profoundly-crafted character development creates new neurological pathways that aren’t opened by reading daily tech news and stock articles. Consider this a gift to your brain. It’s simultaneously a relaxation and an intellectual exercise.
Reflect.
Before you go back to work, give yourself time to understand how this growth process worked for you.
How much did you sleep? How much did you read? How much did it help?
Even if it’s only for a few minutes a day, spare some time!
Today’s Great Leaders Have:
– An exercise routine
Our main goal as humans is to live the longest, happiest life we can.
However, accomplishing this goal is always difficult, especially for business leaders who would understand that time is the most precious, fleeting resource around. They don’t usually want to spend that time doing pushups.
However, exercising creates blood flow that invigorates your thought processes! So give me 20!
– A daily meditation or repeated mantra
The more you think positively about your goal, the more you believe you can achieve it.
If you don’t take time to absorb your reality, you won’t learn. If you’re not progressing, then neither is your company or relationship. Meditation and mantra repetition will aid in your pursuit of a goal, whether it’s for a relationship or your business.
– Tech-free breaks. I mean it. No phones.
Distractions are ever-prevalent in today’s world. Our constant scrolling counteracts our brain’s natural information digesting processes, and the incessant dinging of notifications interrupts our conversations with the people we love most. This can create unnecessary mental exhaustion. You need to disconnect from electronics occasionally to absorb these precious moments. Don’t get exhausted!
Corporate Athletes Suffer Burnout
When I coached sports, my team would train for a few hours each day, and then we’d take Sunday and Monday off to heal and prepare for the next week. We’d all come back to the court revitalized and ready to take on the day, as well as our opponent.
It’s easy to tell when you’re physically exhausted.
You ache. You strain. You weaken.
The tough part is realizing when mental and emotional burnout is occurring. However, you can combat this confusion by taking regularly scheduled breaks.
I’ve met some leaders who take a week off every quarter. They grab a hotel room up in the mountains. They read. They digest new information properly. Then they come back invigorated with fresh ideas on how to develop the company.
Where does this invigoration come from?
Sleep.
Why You Need More Sleep:
I had been coaching a leader with severe sleeping issues. Not only was he suffering from this insomnia, but he was bragging about it.
So I said, “Holy &$%#, that’s not something to brag about.”
The less sleep, the less we can concentrate. The less we concentrate, the less we remember. So sleep! Your work depends on it!
Furthermore, according to Ann Williamson from the University of New Wales, performing your work duties on less than four hours of sleep is like working while drunk. It equates to a 0.10 blood alcohol level.
How do you expect your business to function properly if you’re basically drunk on the clock?
So In order to be the best leaders, we need to be our best selves. Because remember, if you don’t give to yourself, you’ll have nothing left to give.
Are you spending enough quality time with your loved ones?
What are you doing to establish a personal growth path?
