This weekend I am on a once every six months “retreat” to a health spa in a country setting in Sussex where the buildings are developed around an old manor house overlooking a lake. I find this a great way to relax and recharge my batteries especially prior to the busy but enjoyable Christmas festive season where work is inevitably pressurised as the year end approaches and social life moves up several gears.
I went to a Kundalini yoga class this morning, not something I regularly do, but it is very relaxing and helps put things in proportion. In this context the yoga teacher suggested something that rang a broader bell for me. A couple of times as we relaxed after some yoga posture she said “scan your bodies” looking for any tension or tightness.
It struck me how little we actually do this. We wait for something to “break” and then try and fix it. The same is I suggest true in working life in that it is really hard to find and take the time to sit back after say a particularly complex negotiation or other intense and challenging professional activity and to review how things have gone and to reflect, perhaps a bit self critically, on your performance – what went well, what didn’t, what could be done differently next time.
It’s to some extent about being “self-aware” – see this article which sums this personal skill as being about knowing your emotions, your personal strengths and weaknesses, and having a strong sense of your own worthand this Guide to Cultivating Self-Awareness: A Foundational Skill for Emotional Intelligence which defines self-awareness as Self-awareness is the ability to know what we are doing as we do it and understand why we are doing itand commences with:
In Ancient Greece, at the front courtyard at Delphi, the former shrine to the oracle Pythia, there was an inscription:
γνῶθι σεαυτόν
It translates to “know thyself,” a famous aphorism often attributed to Socrates or Plato.
However, whilst I acknowledge that understanding yourself is a part of critical “self-scanning”, perhaps the greatest challenge in our busy lives these days is actually finding the time and indeed the motivation to do this in the first place. It’s all too easy to move on regardless to the next IM, email or Skype meeting or whatever is in your Google or Outlook calendar.
In this context I like this Harvard Business School article Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure which suggests We often take a militaristic, “tough” approach to resilience and grit. We imagine a Marine slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate.
It concludes: You can use apps like Offtime or Unplugged to create tech free zones by strategically scheduling automatic airplane modes. In addition, you can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to recharge your batteries. Try to not have lunch at your desk, but instead spend time outside or with your friends — not talking about work.
I suggest that we are better off taking the time to unplug from our myriad of electronic devices and to reflect and learn from our daily working experiences. Victor Hugo said in a different time and age well before technology changed our lives “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
As Confucius said “Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated” !
I went to a Kundalini yoga class this morning, not something I regularly do, but it is very relaxing and helps put things in proportion. In this context the yoga teacher suggested something that rang a broader bell for me. A couple of times as we relaxed after some yoga posture she said “scan your bodies” looking for any tension or tightness.
It struck me how little we actually do this. We wait for something to “break” and then try and fix it. The same is I suggest true in working life in that it is really hard to find and take the time to sit back after say a particularly complex negotiation or other intense and challenging professional activity and to review how things have gone and to reflect, perhaps a bit self critically, on your performance – what went well, what didn’t, what could be done differently next time.
It’s to some extent about being “self-aware” – see this article which sums this personal skill as being about knowing your emotions, your personal strengths and weaknesses, and having a strong sense of your own worthand this Guide to Cultivating Self-Awareness: A Foundational Skill for Emotional Intelligence which defines self-awareness as Self-awareness is the ability to know what we are doing as we do it and understand why we are doing itand commences with:
In Ancient Greece, at the front courtyard at Delphi, the former shrine to the oracle Pythia, there was an inscription:
γνῶθι σεαυτόν
It translates to “know thyself,” a famous aphorism often attributed to Socrates or Plato.
However, whilst I acknowledge that understanding yourself is a part of critical “self-scanning”, perhaps the greatest challenge in our busy lives these days is actually finding the time and indeed the motivation to do this in the first place. It’s all too easy to move on regardless to the next IM, email or Skype meeting or whatever is in your Google or Outlook calendar.
In this context I like this Harvard Business School article Resilience Is About How You Recharge, Not How You Endure which suggests We often take a militaristic, “tough” approach to resilience and grit. We imagine a Marine slogging through the mud, a boxer going one more round, or a football player picking himself up off the turf for one more play. We believe that the longer we tough it out, the tougher we are, and therefore the more successful we will be. However, this entire conception is scientifically inaccurate.
It concludes: You can use apps like Offtime or Unplugged to create tech free zones by strategically scheduling automatic airplane modes. In addition, you can take a cognitive break every 90 minutes to recharge your batteries. Try to not have lunch at your desk, but instead spend time outside or with your friends — not talking about work.
I suggest that we are better off taking the time to unplug from our myriad of electronic devices and to reflect and learn from our daily working experiences. Victor Hugo said in a different time and age well before technology changed our lives “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
As Confucius said “Life is really simple but we insist on making it complicated” !
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