Whatever excites you about your work, it’s not all you are. You need to ensure part of that time is devoted to self-care. Like author David C. Chilton says in his famous book, The Wealthy Barber, Roy the barber encourages you to “pay yourself first.”
Paying yourself first is more than about money. Since the time you have each week is finite – you only have 168 hours in a week – take Roy’s advice and make taking time for self-care your first priority.
Life Can Be Distracting
The momentum of responding to daily demands will carry you along, because there are problems to solve, projects to complete, people to hire, meetings with employees and customers, finances – all the things you’ve been doing for years. Those activities won’t stop to wait for you. Decisions about what has to be done may be fairly simple and straightforward, but may not be easy. There is a risk that you may get so involved that you forget to take care of yourself.
Remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint: a process not an event. Which means you need to pace yourself, so give yourself enough time. You need energy and stamina to do what’s necessary to make this work. You don’t want to run out of steam at a critical moment and give up in frustration.
Carve out time to take care of yourself and encourage others on your team to do the same to enable them to manage the extra stress. Every organization will face change, leading to lots of unanswered questions: Will there be new bosses or owners? Will there be new rules and expectations in the future? Will we be serving different clients in the future? The future will always have an element of uncertainty, so take care of what you can control.
Ways to Ensure Self-Care:
- Exercise regularly – at least 30 minutes a day
- Eat healthy foods (you know what that means)
- Get enough sleep and rest
- Keep lines of communication open with key stakeholders in your business and your family
- Have regular appointments with your healthcare advisors
- Get a massage
- Do yoga and meditation
- Turn these activities into habits that you no longer have to think about
Let’s face it. You will work hard most of your life, so try not to burn the candle at both ends. Take good care of yourself. If you don’t, no one else can do it for you and you will not fully reap the benefits of a successful career.
We all have blind spots. If you’d like feedback on your own strengths and development areas, check out the RADAR 180 self-leadership survey.