Whether you want to be a better leader or have more energy, are you proactive in your resilience? My own personal journey and my leadership coaching clients’ journeys have taught me that resilience is like a muscle that can be flexed and developed. We need to focus daily on our resilience so we have the energy needed for influence and impact in our careers and the lives we want.
How?
With all the sadness and stress in the world, this is the time to maximize your resilience, but how? One of the Career ReCharge resiliency techniques I introduce to my clients is called the Friday 5. I ask clients to take five minutes every Friday to email me with their resiliency wins and their resiliency plan for the next week. This is an opportunity for them to celebrate how they bolstered their resilience in the previous week and make a plan for how they can boost their resilience in the upcoming week.
Recently, because of the increasing stressors facing all of us, I asked my leadership coaching clients to focus on their well-being strategy for resilience. I would like to share some of the ideas I received from them—they showed me how powerful taking five minutes to focus on this strategy can enhance well-being.
Well-being wins from my leadership coaching clients:
- Took off a half day for myself to recharge.
- In the face of rising workloads, I will add an additional day of walking to my week. I will have water on my desk at all times to ensure I drink more water throughout the day. I will increase the number of days I use Calm meditation to four days. I bought some new books to read in my leisure so I can learn new things.
- I started a gratitude journal, use the Calm mediation app daily. and go for a walk to calm my mind at lunch time.
- I achieved my goal for the week:I got caught up on all my work so I don’t have to work today (Friday). Hooray! I am using my time today to get caught up on home life, volunteer work, and recharging.
- I shifted my bedtime to before midnight and my waking time to 7:30 am. I am still working on making this goal a habit, but turning my computer off earlier is helping me get to bed earlier.
- My dog and I went to Rockport on Saturday. It was good to get out near the water and walk around. My dog was good on her leash as well and we walked out on the rocks. What a recharge!
- Had our neighbors over for s’mores and I actually relaxed and enjoyed the conversation and catch-up time.
My well-being win is something that has been on my list for the last five years. My daughters and I started an herb and vegetable garden.
I want to thank my leadership clients for sharing their well-being wins. It is motivating to see how others make time for their well-being, even though for many work is more intense than ever. Taking care of your well-being makes you a more innovative leader and gives you the recharge so desperately needed in these times.
What is your next step?
I encourage you to take out your phone right now and schedule time every Friday morning for your Friday 5. This is an appointment for you. Call it Career ReCharge or Resilience Planning or whatever works for you. Take the time to recharge your batteries so you have the energy needed for these times.