There’s a lot of buzz around the business community these days about wellbeing, thanks in particular to some high profile names like Arianna Huffington, whose recent book “Thrive” invites us all to “redefine what success means in today’s world”.
Which is fine. Except that many of the senior people I speak to find it challenging, to say the least, to have the kind of calm happiness that Huffington seems to suggest is possible and be successful in their jobs, or in their businesses.
Ask people what’s going on, and you may hear about the pressure people are under, now that the global economy seems to be in upturn, and businesses are striving for growth again.
But while there’s no doubt that the overwhelm monster is bigger than it ever appears to have been (at least in my lifetime), I think if we’re honest with ourselves, that whole success vs wellbeing conundrum has always been an integral part of being a professional in whatever capacity.
So, what’s the solution?
Well, that’s what we’re going to be discussing over the coming weeks.
In particular, we’re going to be exploring:
- What is wellbeing?
- “Thrive” aside, why is it really getting press right now and why should you care?
- What are the ways in which people attempt to create wellbeing? What works, what doesn’t and why?
- What new thought, if any, exists about how to create it.
Health warning!
You should know that this is one area that particularly excites us here at Livingston Towers. We’re both keen gym goers and exercisers, and are very mindful of what we eat. Our personal philosophy is, like the title of this post says: without wellbeing, nothing works. At least, nothing works well. Not for us. It’s that simple.
We know too that this runs counter to how many business people think. For so many, work comes before absolutely everything else. And most folks have good intentions around wellbeing, but for the most part the real action on it is relegated to some short-lived New Year’s resolutions, or to a couple of weeks pre-holiday exercise blast to get in shape for either the ski slopes or the beach.
Last year I took my own interest to a whole new level, doing what I called at the time The Wellbeing Experiment. In fact, I wrote about it over the course of several months on my old and now defunct blog. The experiment sought to answer this question:
What becomes possible in my work and life if I upturn the apple cart and put my wellbeing first, rather than – as we all tend to do – marginalize it to some after work, or when I have the time to think about it concern?
The results for me were staggering. What I’ve realized in essence is that wellbeing is our natural default position. In other words, it’s what comes through when we take all the physical, emotional and spiritual blockers out of our way and allow nature to do its job. I’ll say more about all of this in the weeks to come.
Meantime, I’d love to get your take on the whole wellbeing thing. What does it mean to you? How do you help yourself achieve it? What gets in your way?
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