Hi, I’m John Drury. I help professional business leaders achieve what’s important without losing what’s essential.
What do you do to replenish? to recharge? to re-energise your world? I talked to some business leaders and they say to me, “Well, my work energises me. I don’t need anything else in my life. I love the challenge of what I do. It gets me going every day.”
It’s great that you love your work but the challenge is and the danger is that the adrenaline that kicks in when you’re really going for it and the challenge is on, it can become addictive. We can get addicted to our own adrenaline, and that’s one of the major causes of heart disease. We’re not built to be on at a high level all the time like a high-performance Formula 1 racing car or something.
We need to be able to relax and unwind and switch off as well to look after ourselves, body and mind. So what do you do to replenish? What can you get involved in regularly that you can become totally absorbed in and lose all track of time? That’s a good guide. Something that you enjoy that you could do regularly? It doesn’t have to take a long time but something you can do regularly a few times a week, or at least once a week. It is really important to have something like this that’s going to help you to switch off and unwind, that engages your body and mind.
It could be going to the gym, could be reading, could be gardening, could be playing sport. There’s all kinds of things. In fact, there’s millions of things. There’s no shortage of opportunity and variety around us. So how do we do this?
To get out of the busyness of our world and actually make a change like this requires a decision, a firm decision. You got to realise this is important. The dangers of not switching off are becoming more and more evident and the issues related to anxiety and other mental
health issues. We say it’s never going to happen to us but it’s happening to increasing numbers of people. Income protection claims are showing us this. Burnout is something that a lot of people live on the edge of and don’t realise because you can function at a high level and be quite burnt out and unhealthy on the inside. And it will catch up with you over time. So what are you going to do? Firstly, decide it’s important. And then carve out something that
you can do regularly. Think about it. And if you’re not good at doing things on your own then commit with a few other people.
Join a sporting team or a gym session or a gym class with others or something that that forces you to be committed to it with others. Pay a personal trainer or join a bushwalking group or whatever. Whatever interests you. And you’ll find the benefits of this over time. You’ll feel like you’re wasting time initially. But you’ll find the benefits for you because you’re switching off and you’ll be ready with better focus, better energy when you get back to work and have to do important things.
This is so important for your long-term mental and emotional health and for your long-term success, your longevity of success in business.
What are you gonna do to replenish?
