Self-care is Essential to Effective Self-Leadership
Last Friday I attended Leadercast Live in the Atlanta, GA area. This event was broadcast to over 20 countries and 100,000 people around the world. Over the next week I will share notes on the excellent talks that were delivered. Below are my notes from Michael Hyatt’s talk.
Michael Hyatt has long been one of the premier leadership bloggers and podcasters. He is the founder and CEO of Michael Hyatt & Company, a leadership development firm specializing in transformative live events, workshops, and digital and physical planning tools.
Michael and his team help overwhelmed high achievers win at work, succeed at life, and lead with confidence. Their mission is to give leaders the clarity, courage, and tools they need to stop the frenzy and start living with focus. In 2017, Michael Hyatt & Company was featured on the Inc. 5000 list as one of America’s fastest growing companies.
Among the many products that Michael Hyatt & Company offers, Best Year Ever™ and Free to Focus™ are the two longest-established and best-known. They are online courses and live events that teach goal-setting and productivity, respectively. More than 32,000 from 110 countries have taken the courses. Additionally, Michael’s team is recognized for their unique physical products, including LeaderBox™ and the Full Focus Planner™.
3 Approaches to Career Success
#1 The Hustle Fallacy-the idea that working insane hours over a long period of time will enhance your productivity and advance your career, business or entrepreneurial endeavors.
- While a person like Elon Musk may be a genius he works 100 weeks regularly and there are signs it’s beginning to have a detrimental impact on his life.
- The Hustle Fallacy leads to self-neglect. With this mind-set, the first thing we neglect is self-care.
- The Hustle Fallacy leads to poor self-care crippling a leader’s ability to maximize their effectiveness.
- This life-style of working 80+ hour weeks is ambitious by explosive experiences for leaders.
#2 The Ambition Brake-the idea that one must intentionally tap the brakes on a fully successful career resulting in a short change of their potential.
#3 The Double-Win Truth-you can balance your life with family, health and work without compromising either while being more productive and getting better results.
You can will at work and succeed at life.
- 61% of workers struggle with work related tension.
- You have 11-20% higher risk of a heart attack on Mondays
Self-care is essential to a more productive and effective work life.
Self-care is the set of activities that make for a meaningful life outside of work while enhancing performance at work.
3 Benefits of Proper Self-care
#1 Self-care gives you energy.
We use the excuse that we don’t have the time for self-care. The truth is we don’t have time not to have self-care as an essential part of our life. Many of us have bought into the “Time Management Myth” where we think if we just manage our time better we will get it all done.
- Time is Fixed-we all have 168 hours per week to use as we decide.
- Energy is Flexed-we can bring more energy to our task.
- You can’t give yourself more time but you can bring a more energetic you to bear on the time at hand.
We will always have more tasks than time. That will always be true. The question is how do we handle this dilemma? There is no schedule management system that is going to change that. Manage your energy not your time.
Productivity is less about managing our time and more about managing our energy.
The Law of 50: There is a ceiling to productive work. When we push past 50 hours in a week our productivity is virtually 0. After working 50+ hours in a week productivity yields drop dramatically. Working 50 hours per week yields 37 hours of productivity.
- You need rest to be your best.
- Your Self-care is central to your good Health, Family, & Relationships.
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Abraham Lincoln.
This illustrates that time not chopping is more important than the hours spent chopping. Sharpening the blade is not self-indulgent. It is essential.
#2 Self-care Gives You an Edge
Self-care can seem to be self-indulgent but it fuels you and your creativity.
1> Good self-care fuels creativity.
- Sleep: When a person has 6 hours or less of sleep our cognitive abilities are reduced to the same levels as someone who is intoxicated.
- An extra hour of sleep may be your best strategy to increase productivity.
- Exercise: good self-care must include exercise.
- Regular exercise is linked to increased earnings.
- Exercise makes people more productive in intense situations.
- Fun-play nurtures a supple mind.
If you and your team need a breakthrough, you might just need a break.
2> Self-care Fuels Confidence.
3> Self-care is Linked to Higher Earnings.
Research indicates that people who follow exercise over the life of their careers will earn 14-17% more than those who don’t exercise.
There is a Price of Self-Neglect. Self-Neglect causes crises that cripple careers.
#3 Self-care Gives You Endurance
- Defining The Win: Do you want one-dimensional success or multi-dimensional success?
- The Hustle Fallacy comes with a very high price tag, while it can be effective in short sprints, it is not effective over the long-term.
- Do you want momentary or sustained success?
- When you stack sprint upon sprint, it is a recipe for burnout.
- Some of us are working ourselves into lackluster marriages.
- We all think we are the exceptions.
Prioritizing self-care offers a brighter alternative with more Energy, an Edge over your competition and more Endurance to effectively thrive over the long haul.
3 Key Steps to Start Your Self-Care Journey
1. Make a Commitment to Self-care.
2. Set Hard Boundaries around Workdays & Weekends
- Defining The Win: Do you want one-dimensional success or multi-dimensional success?
- The Hustle Fallacy comes with a very high price tag, while it can be effective in short sprints, it is not effective over the long-term.
- Do you want momentary or sustained success?
- When you stack sprint upon sprint, it is a recipe for burnout.
- Some of us are working ourselves into lackluster marriages.
- We all think we are the exceptions.
3. Get 8 hours of sleep per night.
What do you want your culture to be?
- Take the time to answer this question and then act congruent with this!
- Bad Self-Care is duplicated by those who are being led by you and it will have negative effects on them over the long-term.
- Self-care is a leadership discipline.
- Leaders go first. You can be a living example that Self-care can lead to greater success.
Free Start Kit
Michael Hyatt is providing a free Self-Care starter kit & free eBook at: www.michaelhyatt.com/selfcare
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