I will start this post by asking you some questions:
do you feel you push, chase and hustle more than what your nervous system can handle?
why do you feel the need to go the extra mile while ignoring your body’s messages to stop and chill?
Each of us will answer differently. But if I were to regroup the answers into buckets, I would say in no particular order of priority: because of the need to feel safe, because we are pressurized to do so, we don’t want to fail, we don’t want to let other people down.
And also, because this is something dear to our hearts. It is our responsibility to make it happen, for our sake and for others.
While clear intentions are key to staying motivated, crossing the finish line, however, will require us to know how to manage our energy wisely. This means finding our own way within the structures that we work in.
Time to recalibrate!
Keyword: balance
If anything, balance and moderation should be on top of our priority list of ‘how to be in synch with life’. Work may take over, but when the time and stamina spent do not match an equal exchange (fair compensation, promotion, recognition), frustration and resentment may become a theme; and the job a chore in exchange for a paycheck.
Not sustainable when it’s 5 days a week and a good 12 hours + a day.
Start by asking yourself what kind of work/life balance you want. How can you make it compatible with your current job situation?
Checking out from your work may not be an option, but finding ways to bring more play and pleasure into what you do can help sweeten the deal.
Now also draw your attention to another aspect of you that also requires balance: That is what’s happening on the inside.
Inviting more flow starts primarily by tending to your body’s needs, to your mental health and to your spiritual life if that’s for you.
Prompt:
Remember a time when you felt in harmony with the World. What was going on in your life at that time? what routines, rituals, changes can you make today to replicate that state of mind and of being?
Allow off-script time for integration
Is your life a sprint or a marathon? likely a combination of both – with pauses in between.
Enjoy that time to its fullest. Adrenaline running in the body may be telling you: ‘more action, please’. In reality, the best action you can take is to allow yourself to integrate the experience that has just ended: first to celebrate your wins and anchor them into your body, giving you a sense of achievement; and second to integrate any key takeaways.
Prompt:
Pause to look back and make an inventory of your accomplishments, your failures, when you were at the top of your game – What skills and talents have you gleaned that make you highly resourceful? where did you fall short? Where can you do better?
Invite focus and realign your goals
When we feel in harmony with our inner state, our perspective starts to shift. What we used to see as problems can well become our opportunities to learn and grow. We see the bigger picture and patterns start emerging.
There is a feeling of inner knowingness that makes us excited and unstoppable.
Time to strike that iron!
Get centered – limit distractions, laser focus is the way to go.
Use that new energy to expand your vision. You have changed, your mindset and your inner energy engines too. So should your goals.
Prompt:
Examine your goals from an outsider’s point of view first: are they aligned with what you long for, are they ambitious, do they reflect your potential or your past limitations? Which one of your ‘comfort zones’ feels in need of expansion?
Make peace with the unknown
The more scared we are of what we don’t know, the more we want to control what we do know. A bottomless pit of pain and frustration.
Rather than putting useless pressure on ourselves, and potentially triggering more frustration, let’s embrace the spirit of ‘I don’t know what I don’t know’.
Showing up for our responsibilities, doing our best, communicating with humility and leadership, then allowing the other pieces of the puzzle to fall in place.
Trusting our internal guidance system – mind+heart+gut – always ready to serve us.
They are our gift that keeps on inviting more flow into our lives.
Prompt:
What does intuition mean to you? How do you connect with yours? Reflect back on past experiences: times where you should have listened to that inner voice and didn’t – and those times where you followed ‘your gut’ but it didn’t turn out the way it should’ve. What was missing in each case? Where all 3 centers of decisions making involved (mind+heart+gut)?
How can you show them trust going forward?
Coaching Executives