As a High Performer & Achiever (Yes You),
Do you ever at times feel stressed, anxious, burnt out jumping between your work & personal life?
Do you ever at times feel overwhelmed like there is so much to do and yet so little time?
As a Peak Performance & Life Coach, I often find a number of my new clients initially going through this journey (me being guilty too, more often in the past than now) where they feel incredibly overwhelmed with so much to accomplish and achieve in such a short time frame… you can imagine the stress and pressure they and so many others carry.
Running the business, leading others, balancing your workload, conquering your monthly goals, setting the direction of the companies goals and vision, being a parent, leaving the office early..ish, keeping fit & healthy, having a personal life…just about squeezing in an occasional round of golf…..having time for yourself.
Does this sound like you?
Whats the solution? Well very often, we think the solution is working harder, longer, pushing ourselves further than ever before in hope that we can carve out time to accomplish everything on the ‘to do’ list (do you have one of those?)
In fact…working harder, longer & trying to ‘hustle’ is the very thing that takes us away from productivity, accomplishment & high performance.
So what is the 1 killer strategy that is the difference that truly makes the difference…
it is…..
embracing the art of slowing down… (counter intuitive I know).
One of my mentors Captain Bill Keefe often says ‘Slow is smooth & smooth is fast’
Slowing down is a huge gift we can reward ourselves with to refocus, recharge our batteries and ensure we can look at a stressful situation with the most resourceful mindset we can.
The reason we are sometimes hesitant to slow down…is because we associate slowing down to completely…switching off & stopping any progress which is actually far from the case.
Slowing down can often be:
- Starting your morning in the office with a coffee & spending 15 minutes planning your day
- Taking a 5 minute walk when feeling stressed and returning to your desk feeling refreshed
- Closing your eyes and meditating for 5 minutes to rejuvenate yourself
- Taking a lunch break out of the office & away from the computer
- Taking time to discuss a challenging situation with a colleague
- Valuing and prioritising your family life and deciding that you won’t spend the night in the office
- Stepping back from a big to do list and brainstorming with colleagues what the key actions and steps are you could be taking
As you are reading through just a handful of tips discussing what slowing down could be, I am sure you can see the benefits of this and even perhaps identify ways you could…slow down more.
Putting more pressure on yourself in a time of incredible pressure..is rarely the answer.
I often remind myself that if you want to achieve High Performance in any part of your life, treat yourself as a high performance engine with the respect, care, discipline, attention, focus & the standards you deserve.
In this case, knowing when to really ramp up the pace, speed & intensity…while also knowing when to have a pit stop, refresh, refuel and get ready for the next phase of the journey.
From a leadership point of view, as a CEO, Managing Director, Manager, Parent, Teacher, Mentor, Role Model etc, how influential can you be for others when you can’t be influential for yourself?
How much of an impact do you have when you are feeling stressed, overwhelmed & anxious….and continue to live & operate from that space. How does this come across and affect the energy for others around you?
I am sure you now get my point….we can only give to others what we give ourselves. We can only lead others in a way we lead ourselves.
At this time of the year, I find that a number of my clients & seminar attendees tend to experience a lot of pressure/stress as they are reviewing their goals.
Reviewing what is working and not, what they can improve on, what their goals for the next 7 months will be…and this is a truly amazing process to do…but not when it adds more stress, frustration & unhappiness to your life & work.
Ambition is wonderful but combined with self care & self respect, you will go so much further & faster.
Slowing down really can = speeding up
So my challenge to you is where could you slow down more & re-focus?
In what moments? What situations? Where & when specifically?
I hope you enjoyed todays article and I would love to hear what you personally took and will implement moving forwards! Comment below and i’ll respond to you as soon as I can.
Here’s to your continued success & if there is anything I can do to serve or support yourself and/or your business or if you have any questions about my latest article then please feel free to reach out to me here or at [email protected].
Live Empowered,
Your friend and Life coach,
Raghav Parkash
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