There’s a foundation on which everything else in your life is built, and that is your wellness and wellbeing.
With this, I mean your physical as well as your mental health, along with your emotional and spiritual health. It’s a holistic sense of how you’re feeling and how well equipped you are to deal with everything else in your life.
Although it needs to come first, unfortunately, it often comes last. But without a good foundation here, any attempt at success in other areas will be an uphill struggle and ultimately unsustainable.
Join us on this week’s podcast episode as we dive into the first ‘L’ of the Reimagining Success model, LIVE: wellness and wellbeing.
*Resources mentioned during the episode*
The One Step Outside Facebook group– Join us over in the Facebook group to meet like-minded people who are working on reimagining success in their life and business and to get access to direct support and free training sessions from Anna. www.facebook.com/groups/onestepoutside
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Transcript
Hello, hello and welcome back, as we begin to reimagine success now,
as the year 2019 draws to an end, and we want to plan and set ourselves up for a new kind of success, perhaps in the new year and the new decade, 2020. 2020. So last week I introduced, or revisited, if you’ve been part of the community for a while, the Five L’s Model. Now to remind you, or perhaps if you’re just coming to this episode now, I want to give you a brief sort of recap and introduction to what this is.
And it’s really a model that I call the Five L’s Model, that I have developed to really help you to think more broadly about success, and to consider what it means in different areas of your life, so that you don’t get caught up in the hustle, and whether that is working a stressful so-called nine to five job, as I call it, and working late into the night and weekends, and constantly checking your phone and so on. Or once you’ve already set up a business, then getting caught up in the search for the next client and the next goal. You’re going to publish a book, and launch a podcast, and get more clients, and market this, and do that, and so on, and quickly lose sight of why you started your business in the first place.
So it’s really a tool, a framework to help you,
to encourage you to move out of that narrow focus. And I have been there, I am there, believe me. It’s something I need to constantly work on myself with, because it is so easy, and as you discover, perhaps listen to the podcast as well and in the Facebook group, we do tend to focus on business strategy and how to navigate the transition out of your career. Now, of course, these decisions, in particular leaving a job and making a massive life change like that, that of course has a big impact on your health and well-being, hopefully for the positive, your relationships with your family, and the fun you have, and the learning curve you’re on and so on.
So by definition a change like that will need to consider and always, in my individual coaching and in my One Step Outside the 9 to 5 coaching programme, we’ll always consider that big picture and those different areas. And likewise with a business. My whole philosophy, and I hope that’s why you’re here, is to design a business that works with all those different goals and priorities and other areas. So really central, in fact, to everything that we do.
And again, now that we’re nearing the end of the year, I thought it would be worth really taking some time to look at this more explicitly. So not just as part of sort of the general discussion, but really go, okay, we’re going to take a week on each of these topics, and yes, I am doing this, and I’m forcing my boyfriend to do it as well. We just did the first one yesterday. So looking at each of the Ls in turn, and then coming up with goals for next year. And of course there’s a reflective process as well to think back on what you were doing this year, what has gone well, what hasn’t gone so well and so on.
So a recap of the model is the live, love, learn, lead, laugh. Live, love, learn, lead, laugh.
And again, it is live, wellness and well-being; love, relationships and romance; learn, development and growth; lead, career and impact; and laugh, fun and spontaneity. So if you want a bit of a summary of each of those, then hop over to previous week’s episode and you can listen to that introductory session. Today we’re going to deep dive on live, wellness and well-being, and of course, next week, love, and so on.
So let’s talk first about what that live,
what that means. And again, it’s wellness and well-being. So there is a foundation on which everything else in your life is built and that really is your wellness, your well-being. And with this, I mean your physical health of course, as well as your mental health, a topic of growing awareness, which is fantastic and much needed, along with your emotional health, your spiritual health. It’s really a holistic 360 degree sense of how you’re feeling and how well equipped you are to deal with everything else in your life. And although it needs to come first, and that’s where it comes first in this model, unfortunately it often comes last. And it’s such an interesting topic, and I work with clients on this, and I have clients who work with other clients on this in terms of trying to identify burnout and so on before it hits us. So picking up on those symptoms, and more importantly, perhaps actually doing something to prevent it.
So, I guess, in society there is this movement now towards more preventative medicine and more health and well-being. And in fact I do a project with a client. I’ve been working on this the last couple of years, where I advise about digital disruption in different industries, and in the healthcare industry that is the big trend now. We may not see it yet in sort of our daily interactions with our local doctors and even hospitals, but there is, thankfully, a movement in the direction of looking at wellness in a more holistic sense, preventative, predictive even, of course, with new gene technology and so on. And then addressing these potential issues before they arise, with lifestyle changes, whether it’s diabetes and adjusting your diet, or again, with stress and burnout, working on resilience and all these things. It’s emotional, it’s physical. And there’s much more understanding.
I think there’s a growing understanding of what goes into that and how it’s not just taking medication and pills all the time. And again, how we want to prevent, and how even from sort of a cost-efficient standpoint, and we really save society and each of us a lot of money by preventing these things before they happen, rather than waiting for them to happen. And you know, obesity, diabetes, all these preventable, potentially, diseases and so on. So that’s the good thing. And the reason why this of course is so important, apart from saving society money, is because without a good foundation here, and we’re talking in the context of our podcast and my business as well, and your business, any attempt at trying to succeed in other areas is going to be an uphill struggle and ultimately unsustainable.
So if I have a client who is feeling down and their energy isn’t good,
and I have the same too, and I’m sure you do as well, if you even just have a cold, it can be so debilitating. You feel miserable, your brain is blocked it feels, stuffed completely. You can’t breathe, you just want to lie down. And if you also then have children, or you have to go to your full-time job or whatever it is, it’s very difficult. It’s hard then to exercise if you even should exercise, depending on how ill you are. The last thing you want to do probably is eat sort of healthy food necessarily. It’s easy then. I know my mom used to give us ice cream with pearl sugar, it was called. And Swedish Pearl Sugar, for some reason. I’m not entirely sure why adding sugar to ice cream was a good idea, but it was definitely very popular with my sister and me when we were little.
So again, if you’re feeling unwell, you know this from experience, the last thing you want to be doing is bouncing up out of bed in the morning, working on your vision, contacting potential clients, doing videos and so on. It’s just not possible. And in fact, again, I had this a couple of weeks ago where a friend kindly said that she’d come over and look after my daughter for a couple of hours. And I was thinking, okay, great, I’m going to do these videos and podcasts and dah, dah, dah. And then I actually, when she came, I was so blocked up and my eyes were red and swollen, and even though I’d attempted to put on makeup and get ready, it was just impossible. And I had to just go and lie down, feel sorry for myself for an hour and a half or two hours, while she went for a walk. And that was not the most productive day.
So from personal experience, I can tell you, and again I’m sure you’ve experienced this too, and perhaps even now you’re coming down with something because it is sort of that time of year really, it’s impossible to do your best in other areas. So again, this has to be the absolute foundation, and I’m not here to tell you what diet you should follow or anything like that, or give you an exercise programme, although I could certainly give you tips and things that I’ve followed and read about and so on. And if you are part of the One Step Outside group over on Facebook, that’s something that we definitely look at, and I’m happy to share of course. But what I’m here to do is more to encourage you to think a bit differently and to reflect on your own priorities. Again, where you are today, where you’ve come from, and what you’ve been doing this past year, and where you want to get to and what you want to do differently next year.
So I do have my so-called Success Audit, which I’ll tell you all about at the end of the podcast episode.
If you haven’t come across that, it is actually a summary of each of the five Ls, each of the five areas, and you can do a little self-assessment where you kind of tick the box. So it gives you quite a sort of stark score out of 10, I guess, for each area. And that makes it really sort of black and white. And I always say that this is not a scientific analysis. If you have three out of 10, 10 out of 10, it’s not saying three out of 10, this is a disaster, 10 out of 10, perfect. And 10 out of 10 isn’t necessarily even what you want to strive for.
Again, it’s a tool, as with all these tools and frameworks I’m giving you, to help you to ask some of the important questions. If there are things that are not included there that are important to you, then please reflect on that. And if there’s things that you actually don’t care about and you don’t think are important, then by all means disregard them.
And even before going into that, in fact, you might stop for a moment now and think, okay, out of 10, how do I feel in wellness and well-being? Do I feel 10 out of 10, full of energy, getting lots of sleep, bouncing around? Feeling actually stable energy, maybe not sort of ups and downs, eating well, exercising, all these things. Feeling really good mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. What is that score out of 10?
And again, if it is a five or a six out of 10, don’t despair.
Think about why is it a six and not a five or a four? Or why is it a six and not a seven or eight, and where do I actually want that to be? So apply some curiosity, look at it a little bit objectively, and just think, okay, if that’s not where I want to be, what have I been doing this year and what would I want to be doing differently next year?
So again, the Success Audit, you can get that onestepoutside.com/successaudit, or there’s a version, if you’re already running your business, with some slight tweaks. You can go to onestepoutside.com/successauditbiz. So B-I-Z. And I’ll repeat that at the end of the episode. And, of course, that’ll be in the show notes as well.
But in the meantime, these are the questions that are in the audit for the live area.
So first of all, are you eating well and getting the nutrients that you need? And I think that it’s really important to focus on adding nutrients. For me, adding more vegetables, more fibre, drinking more water and so on, vitamins, colours of the rainbow and so on. Much better than cutting out extreme food groups like carbs and so on. So are you eating well, getting the nutrients that you need? Are you regularly doing cardio and weight-bearing exercise? Lots of research now, it’s not just running and sweating and cardio, but really that weight-bearing exercise. I’m a fan of high-intensity interval training. Just having a couple of weights at home is something that we can all do, in theory at least. It’s a progression of getting into the habit, of course. And having that in front of the TV perhaps, if you need to. Or just doing some pushups against the wall while you wait for the microwave, who knows. So cardio, weight-bearing exercise.
Are you happy with how you look and feel? Now, it’s amazing if you’re happy in your own skin, if you feel comfortable, confident, whatever your weight. So this is not about being really thin, or being really large, or being in between, or curvy, or not curvy, whatever that is. It’s about you feeling comfortable and confident. And I’ve been all sorts of different shapes, I’d say, over the years. And I look back and I was much thinner. And being pregnant, of course, you can be actually very happy with how you look and feel.
So it’s very much up to your definition of success really, with how you want to feel. But we all know that if you’re feeling a little bit lumpy, or, I don’t know, tired skin. At the moment I’ve got a bit of sort of eczema, and itchy scalp, and all sorts. So I am looking now at what I’m eating and so on. But if that’s the case, that’s something that you maybe want to look at.
Do you have consistently high energy levels? Do you get enough sleep?
As the mother of a newborn, I can tell you that no, I do not. But that’s something maybe I need to accept at this stage in my life. But of course, very important. And you may know, Arianna Huffington, for example, talks a lot about that really important element of sleep. It’s again, the foundation of everything really, your health. Do you regularly spend time outside in fresh air and nature? Because this is something, working from home or working in an office, we’re not usually out and about. So that’s something that we really need to remind ourselves to do in some cases. Do you regularly take proper time off to relax and reboot? Are you experiencing good overall physical health? Are there any niggles that need to go to the doctor maybe to see that you think it’s not a big deal. But you know what, actually it’s draining if you have these things every day, and maybe the doctor has a solution, or maybe there’s something you could do to change your diet or lifestyle.
Wellness for entrepreneurs – Are you experiencing good mental health?
Again, super important. And the last one might be a bit surprising, but for me that’s do you feel that you’re being true to who you really are? Because I feel the best and the freest and the most well when I really feel authentically, genuinely myself, and I’m where I want to be, I feel aligned with what I’m doing. There’s no sort of, oh, I’m here, but actually I want to be doing that. If I have a goal, I’m actually working on that. I’m with the people I want to be, I’m doing the things I want to be doing. Now, this is not every single second, because of course in business I’m going to be needing to do admin or accounting and whatever that might be, and I’m getting my flu jab or something that perhaps isn’t so exciting in the moment. But really from, again, the holistic kind of big picture sense, am I doing what I want to be doing? Am I aligned? Do I have my ikigai and all these things that then come into the works there?
So I’ve just asked those questions quite quickly. Again, you can get that Success Audit, and you’ll get the link again in a moment. But again, take a step back, just have a think. Reflect on where are you today. If you followed me last year, and maybe you did my webinar in terms of re-imagining success, so you’ve used this order before. You have something, sort of a benchmark to compare to. If not, you’re starting from zero. It’s still worth looking at where you’ve been this past year, and then thinking about next year, let’s say this time next year, or even better, in the next three months. And in fact my boyfriend and I have set some goals for the next month. I actually want to now already get this headstart and get into better eating and exercise habits now before Christmas, rather than just giving up and letting the indulgences of that sort of holiday period catch up with me. So I’m now taking control of this now, and I’d encourage you to do so too, if you feel that there are some areas lacking. And then we’ll hit the ground running in January, rather than have those typical new year’s resolutions that of course never work.
And although we’re not going to be talking today specifically about how to set good goals and so on, I would encourage you to be really specific. So I found when I was doing this yesterday, just saying eat more vegetables, exercise more, of course isn’t helpful. And all the research now says you need to be super specific. So eat red meat only on Fridays, or, okay, I’m going to do HIIT on Tuesday mornings before work. I’m going to do yoga on Sunday morning at 11 or whatever, when it fits in your routine. Thursdays I’m going to go for a run over my lunch break, whatever it is. But always attach it to a really specific, this is what I’m going to do, exactly for this long, or at this exact time, with this person. And again, research shows that if you’re that specific, you really attach it to, you really think about where you’re going to do it, when, and so on, that really will help you to actually get about doing it.
So that is the live area. Again, more information in the Success Audit resource, and we’ll be back here next week for love, relationships and romance. But I encourage you to spend this next week now before that period to reflect on where you are today, where you’ve come from, what you’ve done this past year, where you want to get to in the next three months, six months, 12 months, and what you can do differently, and how you can really anchor that into your habits. So lots to think about, and I wish you the best of luck looking at live, wellness and well-being. I’ll see you next week. Bye for now.
Connect with Anna:
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If you’re ready to start to reimagine what success could look like for you, here are some of the ways in which Anna can support you:
Get private mentoring for your business – Partnering with a business coach can help you see those blind spots and get both external accountability and expert guidance to take your business to where you want it to be. www.onestepoutside.com/freeconsultation
Get private career coaching – Individual coaching is fully tailored to your specific goals and desires so we can create the programme that works best for you, with the support that you need to move forwards. www.onestepoutside.com/claritycall
Grab a copy of Leaving the Corporate 9 to 5 – After interviewing 50 people who have left the corporate 9 to 5 to forge their own path, Anna has collected their stories in a book that will inspire you with the possibilities that are out there and reassure you that you’re not alone in looking for an alternative. www.leavingthecorporate9to5.com
Join the One Step Outside the 9 to 5 Business Incubator – This is your roadmap to transitioning from a corporate job into setting up a meaningful business that will bring you more freedom, flexibility and fulfilment outside of the corporate 9 to 5. www.onestepoutside.com/9to5
Level up with The Outsiders Business Accelerator – This is a mastermind for entrepreneurs, freelancers and small business owners who want to create a long-term sustainable brand and business. www.onestepoutside.com/accelerate
