The GTA is delighted to be able to share these great ideas from our partner Royston Guest , CEO Pti Worldwide. I was doing an exec coaching session with one of our Clients this week, one thing we were talking about was ‘burn out’ and most importantly...how to avoid it and stay playing your ‘A’ game and performing at peak. There was definitely a timeliness around this session as looking at my ‘Success list’ one the key actions was for me to carve out this week’s ezine - what better subject to focus on! So here are my top 15 tips - use these as a sense check/mini audit to check where you are on the journey to consistently playing and being on your ‘A’ game.
- Have really clear personal and professional definitions of what success means to you, be really challenging of yourself in constantly questioning EVERYTHING you do on a daily basis. Is what I am doing right now or planning to do worthy of my time and going to help me toward truly living and achieving my personal and professional definitions of success? If not why are you doing it!
- Live in the present. Learn from the past, shape the future but make sure in the present you are living with deliberate conscious intent - you are the Architect of your own destiny!
- Switch off your phone and technology gadgets of an evening and at weekends. Are you a ‘slave’ to technology or is technology a ‘slave’ to you?
- Apply the 8 x 8 rule. The common rule which is easy to remember and apply, is to drink 8 x 8 ounce glasses of water a day, which equates to about 2 litres. Do you drink enough water?
- Never neglect your life outside of work. Down time is fundamental to playing your ‘A’ game. Some of your best thinking will be done in the quiet space of your downtime and when you're relaxed
- Treat ‘appointments’ in your personal life with even more urgency and importance as you do business meetings
- Take a good look at your office and work environment. Clean tidy and minimalist? or cluttered, messy and dis organised? Your internal environment (mind-set, thinking and actions) will only ever be a reflection of your external environment. Cluttered office cluttered mind! So on this premise...
- Do a clean sweep - sort your office, computer, filing, make a list of all the small things personally and professionally which you keep putting off and just get them done. You will be amazed how this frees up your head space for quality thoughts and action!
- Focus! Focus! Focus! Learn to say ‘NO’ and then you will have more time to say ‘YES’ to the important and worthy things
- Make sure you’re getting a minimum of 7 hours sleep a night
- Questions are the answer - the quality of your life is in direct proportion to the quality of the questions you ask yourself. Change the quality of the questions…change the game
- Block in thinking time. It does not need to be long sessions - short sharp focused bite size sessions where you just STOP, REFLECT and THINK
- Focus on your breathing. When you're 'stressed' what happens to your shoulders and breathing? Shoulders = tense, Breathing = short, shallow breaths. The quickest way to change the ‘state’ you are in is to change your physiology. Simply put…how you use your body. And the quickest way to change how you use your body is change your breathing - switch from short, sharp, shallow breaths to long and deep and slow on a 30 second cycle. Do that 7 times and you’ll soon start to feel more in control, relaxed and back in the driver’s seat!
- Spend more time reflecting and celebrating today’s achievements and what has gone well whilst having one lens on what still needs doing and can be improved
- Finally…don’t take yourself and life too seriously and remember it should be fun! Always remember what’s important; family, friends, making a positive difference and leaving a legacy!
How are you doing year to date against the checklist? What is the ONE thing you’re going to action immediately from this week’s ezine? Continued Success Royston