Why is it important for stewed leaders to regain control?
How can you achieve emotional balance?
You have to consciously act to look after your mental and emotional well being and ask the question, “Do I feel emotionally comfortable most of the time?”
Have you ever found yourself being insular and concerned with your “patch” and prone to see each day as “a challenge to be overcome?”
If so, it is likely that you give low priority to your mental and emotional well being, and relating to others in a balanced and reasonable way. This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control.
This can lead to high levels of introspection and withdrawal. To have effective work life balance, think about becoming happier with your life, and see each day as a new experience to be savoured.
Make “taking things as they come” your daily motto.
Understand that it is difficult to stop worrying, and become more self-aware. Self-awareness is often the first step in a long journey towards thinking more positively. You may find that being more accepting of what comes along in life will be easier by having someone that guides and supports you or do it yourself with focus, determination and self discipline.
Listen to your internal feelings or thoughts, then control your life and your environment as much as necessary to achieve your desired level of control. As a “stewed” leader in the workplace, you may often worry about what others think and be concerned about acting in the “right” way.
If this external influence continues, it is likely that you will become relatively “volatile” emotionally. Think about becoming more self-reliant to increase self-control in your life. By doing this you will become entirely comfortable in your own company and accept your imperfections. This will help you become comfortable asking for help when you need it.
Consider one or two areas to improve upon. This might be to treat yourself to something when you think you have done well. It could also involve identifying an issue in which you think you might have been “wrong” or “unfair” and admitting this to the person(s) involved.
…and if you’re unhappy at work?
Look at how you feel about your work and how you think about managing and controlling it rather than it managing and controlling you.
Believe it or not, some people see work as a “necessary evil”, and are often glad to get away from it. You may find that over time you have developed general worry, stress, fatigue or even a long term illness by letting your work frustrations consume you without a non-work stress relief outlet.
This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control. See work as a challenging and interesting part of your life in which you get out what you want, without letting it dominate your home life.
You have a choice. Either find your work enjoyable or change it so that it becomes more satisfying or fulfilling.
Why is nutrition so important?
Most people are unaware of general or particular diet needs and more prone to consume enjoyable foods regardless of their effect on their bodies – good and bad. Effective work life balance means becoming aware of the need to maintain balance in your overall diet.
Plan and organise what you eat in order to avoid what is not good for you and include what is good for you.
Start by reading a good diet and nutrition booklet or guide, or see a professional. Design a varied but healthy regime that you can stick to until it becomes a normal part of your daily habits.
Do you consciously act to look after your body and avoid substances or practices that are likely to cause you short or long term harm? As a “stewed” leader, you may neglect your body and not think about the regular “wear and tear” that can occur until it becomes a significant problem.
In the worst case scenario, you are likely to give low priority to your personal well-being and to looking after your weight, diet, physical health and relaxation time. This is typical of a “reactive” type of person, and the low value they place on their own well-being. This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control.
To have effective work life balance, think about becoming proactive in looking after your body with prevention and protection in mind.
…and the role of physical fitness?
Dedication to your job may have led to the direct decline in your physical fitness, especially if you are desk bound from 09.00 to 17.00. Like many “pressure cooked” workers, it is likely that you have been neglectful of good exercise, or only exercising lightly or infrequently at best.
Those leaders who are most at risk of being “stewed at your desk” avoid exercise and often drive or are driven almost everywhere.
To have effective work life balance, think about becoming more serious about your on-going fitness and health, and make sure that you do at least the minimum to ensure that you remain strong and resilient. This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control.
Develop some kind of fitness regime to include exercise every week.
What do you mean by predisposition?
It refers to your character predisposition or your internal drive and pace of living. This principle asks the question, ‘How much pressure do you feel or put on yourself?’
You may already have discovered that you operate with the so-called “Type A” behaviour. This means that you are likely to be under constant pressure and you may view life in general as competitive, and that you need to be hard driving on yourself and others.
If you are a “Type A” person, you are inclined to get things done in a fast and action-orientated manner. You may naturally be disposed to bite off a lot to chew, cramming a lot into your day to impress others with your capacity to manage time with great pace and energy.
However, you are often obsessive about cramming and sometimes fail to design in enough contemplative time or to relax or quietly reflect on where you might be going. This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control.
Why is it beneficial to feel in control of life?
When you think about it, most of us dedicate at least 10 to 12 hours to our work life each day. It is time to start asking, ‘Am I doing what I want to do or what I have to do?’
Think about it!
On a typical work day, you probably set your alarm clock for 06.30, work a full day, then arrive home tired in the evening wondering where the day went.
No wonder we are stressed.
Ask yourself this: ‘Am I in control of life or is life in control of me?’
If life is in control of you, you will simply get caught up in the game of life – you wake up, go to work, go home, wake up, go to work, go home and so it repeats.
This is why it’s important for stewed leaders to regain control.
There are certain critical principles that will empower you to take back control of life. They are predisposition, physical fitness, nutrition and diet, personal well-being, emotional balance, emotional habits and control, and work life.
