Following on from our article on how to make sure your plans for living a healthier and happier life are robust, here's a couple of additional practical examples for how to turn common healthy living challenges into opportunities.
Real life challenge #2
Business travel e.g. 1-week, including 5 locations / internal flights
Concern
Disruption of routine leading up to and following the trip. The 7 day trip could cost me at least two weeks out of my healthy living plan.
Mission
To make good choices before and during the trip, and return feeling positive and not feeling drained and as though it'll take me several days to get things back on track.
Opportunities
• Hydration
Flights can be dehydrating and business travel can include lots of coffee and alcohol. Take every opportunity to drink water which will make it easier to limit dehydration.
• ‘Event’ preparation and recovery strategy
Business travel commitments for executives are like competitions for athletes in that they are periods of higher demand. No athlete simply arrives at the start line of an event and hopes for the best result. They have a detailed plan for preparation before the event and a plan for recovery after the event. Adopting this strategy for every period of high demand will help define the right habits to prioritise at any give period of your work pattern.
• Establish what you are able to control in advance
If you approach every hour of the trip with a 'hope for the best' attitude, it may be a long few days. On the other hand, if you're able to identify in advance any moments when you can take charge of circumstances you'll instantly start to view the trip differently.
Business travel shouldn't mean non-stop work from the moment you leave for the airport to the moment you arrive back at home. But you'll only be able to stop working if you have something better to do. Take a book for the flights. Download something to watch. Line up some podcasts to listen to. Take a hobby with you. Allocate some time to thinking about you rather than just thinking about work.
• Think about how you will add balance to this week
Tempering a busy week of work travel could be as simple as stepping outside one of the offices you're visiting to see some local people doing what local people do in their local environment. Any and every external influence or perspective helps dilute the pressure of work travel.
• Think about all opportunities for getting active and what you will need to take with you to facilitate this.
Check if the hotel has a gym. Or a pool. Is there a park nearby. Could you do a workout in the hotel room if you pack a skipping rope and / or resistance band. Pack your swim kit and your running shoes.
• Take a look at where and when you will be eating
Scope out the airport, airlines and any business dinner venues in advance to see what's on offer and what choices across various meals and snacks could make a big difference to your energy levels for the duration of the trip.
• Discuss how you will be staying in touch with home / family
What's the time difference and how does this affect when you need to contact the people you care about.
• What have been the challenges of previous similar trips and how will you get in front of these for this trip?
If you identify and rectify one business travel issue every time you take a trip, you'll be surprised at how quickly you shape up an approach that gets great results for every trip you take in the future.
Real life Challenge #3
'I prioritise work at the cost of my family, friends and my own aspirations such as my health and my hobbies.'
Concern
I want to be successful at work but I don’t want to seem selfish or miss out on important time with, family and friends, or even miss out on me-time.
Mission
Recalibrate the weekly schedule so there is more quality time and activities outside of work, being able to be present and involved and enjoy these times with no cost to my professional success.
Opportunities
This is such an important area. There are multiple things you can and should experiment with. Here are five to get you started.
The phrase 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy' was first recorded in 1659. So for 365 years the message has been that you will be more rounded, interesting, knowledgable, capable and successful in your professional life if you make room for other people and a variety of activities. Ignore this age old advice at your peril. Rather than automatically allowing work to extend into every available hour, seek out as many opportunities as you can to be a happy person, not just a successful professional.
The more regular and consistent your input with key relationships, the more light touch it can be. Many people perceive that they're in a situation where they need a major rebalancing of their priorities between work and home. In reality, what's required is probably not that dramatic. Seeking out opportunities for a few key touch points with all family members across each week should be enough to keep things on track. The key is that you spend enough quality time together that you're all up to date with each others' life, likes, priorities and concerns.
Only when you step away from work can you gain clarity and new insights. Too much time at the office can sometimes leave you blind to the best solutions By moving away to do different things with different people, new thoughts and strategies will come to you. Use family time or time with friends to tap into different aspects of your personality. Your best solutions will come from applying the whole of yourself to projects, not just the parts of your brain that you traditionally access to get things done.
Use this area of your life to practice long-term planning. While you might feel guilty that you don’t see your friends enough, it'll probably be tough to fix the situation in one week or one weekend, much as you might fee the pressure to do this. Instead, take a longer term view. Make a lost of everyone you’d like to catch up with and start scheduling them in across the coming weeks or even months. Time passes fast and you’ll be surprised at how effective this is for staying in touch with everyone that's important to you. It's also an effective strategy that can be applied elsewhere. Planning, patience and persistency pays off wherever you choose to apply this approach.
Prioritising time for yourself is an excellent way to practice a new skill. For most people it doesn't come naturally or feel very comfortable to begin with, but no-one we've worked with ever regretted acquiring the ability to become better at servicing their own needs. It's one of the most important techniques there is for then being at your best for everyone else.
Next steps
Use every chance you can to practice this new mindset. Every time you feel your desire to make a change might be compromised by reality, explore the opportunities that are actually possible and create a new reality that works better for you.
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