Category: Article

Life is not separate from work as work is part of life. Too often we hear people in the workplace saying, “I’m working hard now so I can live my life when I retire or when the weekend comes around or during my next holiday”.

“I don’t think of work as work and play as play, it’s all living”

Sir Richard Branson

Life is how work, home, community and your private self integrate, intersect and interact. They interconnect and feed off each other as we grow and develop through life. The biggest challenge in life is to figure out how to find the time we desire to excel at all aspects of our life.

How many hours a week is required to deliver peak performance at work?

If I spend an extra hour at work, how does that affect my life at home?

To ensure that I have maximum energy at work, how much time do I need to be exercising, switching off, socializing and sleeping?

Should I spend money and take that holiday to paradise now or wait until I have more money saved and are a bit older?

Do the people I socialize with have a positive or negative impact on the other aspects of my life?

We talk about having to make sacrifices in life. This maybe true, but sacrifices are all just choices. Choices that we have full control over. So, how do we know what choices to make if we want to achieve at a higher level? If you don’t have a clear purpose, vision and goals, then you will find it very difficult to find clarity in the decisions you need to make.

“A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between work and play.”

L.P. Jacks

Work-life balance is a common buzz phrase talked about in society. So what is it? Is it either standing still and stagnant, or spending half our life working and half our life living? Depending on how you define balance, it will depend on how you approach your life. If you are working 12hrs a day 7 days a week doing something that you don’t enjoy, engage with or understand why you are doing it, then it only leaves only 4hrs a day for other activities in life, if we take into consideration that we are sleeping 8hrs a day.

“Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Unknown

Let’s take a look at Work-life integration. It is an outcome of people exercising control and choice in their life to meet life’s challenges. They ensure that they enjoy what they do, take pleasure out of the people they interact with, love becoming better, have purpose and feel satisfied with the life they live.

“I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”

Thomas Edison

Your emotions, mood and energy tend to transfer from your work to your life outside of work and vice versa. Very few people have a split personality that they can switch on and off depending the circumstances. Therefore, if you want to be successful in all areas of your life, it is important to be genuine, honest and believe in who you are.

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Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• The Power of Listening to Podcasts
• People Are Our Greatest Assets
• active CEO Episode 3 – Anne Gripper 6 C’s of Leadership
• High Performance CEO Energy
• Are You Seeing the Big Picture?

Did you realise that we consume more than 100,000 words of information, every single day, in a variety of different mediums, by using our eyes and ears, through channels such as TV, radio, computers, text messages, video games, books, newspapers, mobile phones and podcasts?

The University of California, San Diego, produced a report in 2008 that, on average, Americans consume 34 Gigabytes and 100,000 words of information in a single day.

Humans crave information, whether to continually develop personally or professionally, for entertainment and for others, just to fill a void in their day. For those who love to consume information for professional and personal development purposes, many are now turning to podcasts as a convenient and more versatile method of taking it all in.

Why are podcasts a great option?

Podcasts provide you with greater flexibility on when and where you consume the information. You can listen to the information while doing other things such as cooking, walking, riding on a train, going for a run, working out in the gym or doing work at the office. Where as mediums such as print or video require you to focus your attention on the task of reading and watching, and limit integration with other activities.

We spend hours each day consuming through screens, whether it be a computer screen, mobile phone or TV. This puts a huge amount of stress on our brain as visual requires greater brain activity than audible information. It is has a major impact on our eyes, which are constantly exposed to changing images that require our eyes to be constantly adjusting at a very fast pace.

Listening to information provides greater benefits than reading books, websites or other text formats, as it becomes more personal as you begin to develop a greater connection with the person speaking as greater levels of emotion and personality come through the voice. It is easier to build trust and confidence in the information you are receiving as you feel like you are having a conversation with the speaker as they bring energy, enthusiasm and life to the content, which is quite a challenge in written information.

The one aspect that many people enjoy when listening to podcasts, is the ability to close your eyes and visualise what the information looks like without other distractions affecting your concentration. It allows you to connect life experiences, future possibilities and emotions with the information. Like consuming any information, you still need to bring it back to the present when your mind drifts to ensure you fully understand what you are consuming.

3 Great Podcasts I love listening to:

1. High Performance Habits – Brendon Burchard
   Brendon Burchard provides an insight into one of his latest books, “High Performance Habits”, talking about How Extraordinary People Become That Way. I really enjoy the energy, passion and connection that Brendon uses to uncover his strategies for dealing with staying focused and delivering high performance. iTunes Link

2. Life Changing Questions Podcast – Kevin BeesKevin Bees interviews success experts in the area of life and business to discover the ‘life changing’ questions that empower them and their clients to create success and life changing results. I really enjoy the way he delivers questions, that create curiosity and drive you to think about yourself and life in ways you are unlikely to have done before. iTunes Link

3. EntreLeadership Podcast – Ramsey Solutions
Hosted by Ken Coleman, the EntreLeadership Podcast features lively discussions and tips on leadership and business by some of the top minds in the business, like Mark Cuban, Seth Godin, Jim Collins and Simon Sinek. Having the opportunity to tap into so many great leaders in the business world, is invaluable.iTunes Link

Check out the latest active CEO Podcast

Anne Gripper is a trailblazing leader, as both a CEO, and a Board Chair and Director. Learn about her 6 C’s that define her leadership, how the Sydney Olympic Games changed her career, why she recently had a meeting in a jail, and what it took to gain trust and make a substantial change at UCI in the war against performance enhancing drugs. Not only is she a great leader, but she is also a very active CEO, who keeps fit, eats healthy and finds quality time to unwind and recover.

Episode 3 – Anne Gripper 6 C’s of Leadership

Looking for More?

Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• People Are Our Greatest Assets
• High Performance CEO Energy
• active CEO Podcast Episode 2
• Are You Seeing the Big Picture?
• active CEO Podcast Episode 1

Is it a badge of honour in your workplace to work non-stop, be the first one in the office, the last to leave and be answering emails while on holiday?

In your industry is it cool to be pumped up on caffeine, get an average of 4-5 hours’ sleep a night, have the most billable hours, and be out socialising with clients and colleagues most nights of the week?

For most, you will know that if you keep up this frenetic pace you will at some point burnout, get sick, hate what you do and maybe even lose something as precious as your marriage. However, you keep repeating that ‘next week or ‘next month’ you will take better care of yourself, but we all know that someday is unlikely to happen anytime soon, if ever, and is more likely to happen when you reach a point that is too late to recover from losing things that are most important to you.

One day you will wake up and feel utterly miserable, exhausted and hating your life. You are highly likely do something spontaneous that is out of character and possibly you will regret. When you get to this point, it is not your mind and body that has let you down, it is the CHOICES you have made. Choices that you have had total control over.

If you are caught in this downward spiral, hopefully you get to the point where you say ‘I don’t want this anymore’, ‘I don’t want to be stuck on this emotional roller-coaster’, or ‘when my ENERGY is dipping, I can’t control it’. So, how do you expect to be taking everyone to a higher level when you are feeling at such a low point?

Companies and their staff set KPI’s around sales, profit, growth and in some cases, industry rankings. They want to achieve new standards, reach new heights, produce something that no one else has before and become successful. They desire high PERFORMANCE, but most act like complete beginners and are in fact are delivering an amateur environment every day that is destined for personal failure’s and in some cases company catastrophes, that are totally preventable.

World class Performers, musicians, artists, speakers and especially athletes do not get to be at the top of the world by living in a life of constant stress, exhausted ENERGY stores, lack of sleep, ENERGY-sapping hours and pointless activities that have a negative effect. They establish goals, set out a plan to achieve them, and develop strategies that deliver high productivity, enhanced ENERGY reserves, adequate recovery and rejuvenation, vibrant relationships, and PERFORM with positive mental, emotional and physical vibrancy.

You need high levels of ENERGY every single day if you want to deliver high levels of PERFORMANCE. It doesn’t matter what you have achieved by natural talent, pure luck or just doing more hours than anyone else, if you are constantly withdrawing from your ENERGY reserves, the quality you produce will begin to diminish overtime and you will not reach your optimum potential.

As a CEO, business owner or an important leader, you require as much ENERGY as a high performing athlete. So why do so many neglect vital aspects such as fitness, nutrition and recovery as part of their daily HABITs as they desire to be successful? Is it because it is a challenge to directly measure physical, emotional and mental PERFORMANCE in the workplace compared to say an athlete, musician, artist where PERFORMANCE is out there in a vulnerable environment for everyone to see both the delivery of and the final result?

High ENERGY levels positively correlate with assertiveness, speaking up for yourself and taking actions toward reaching their dreams. It produces higher levels of creativity, people are more likely to deliver innovation, and come up with new ideas. Educational attainment and the pursuit of higher levels of understanding also positively correlate with high ENERGY levels.

If you have more ENERGY you have greater levels of confidence, self-esteem, happiness and are more likely to tackle bigger challenges. Mental alertness and positive emotions are enhanced, and you are more inclined to eat healthier and lose weight easier. A person with higher ENERGY levels exudes confidence, positive demeanour and a positiveness that enhances the likelihood of people believing in you, buy from you, following you and supporting you.

Low ENERGY levels affect your ability to deliver high PERFORMANCEs and filters through all aspects of your life. People with low ENERGY levels tend to experience their mind feeling slow and foggy, they often feel physically exhausted, and they feel a lot of negative ENERGY and emotions. Low ENERGY correlates with low PERFORMANCE, unhappiness, lack of enthusiasm to take on challenges, lower perception of success versus their peers, lower confidence when facing adversity, less likely to eat well or exercise and have less influence over others.

Disaster strikes when people neglect their ENERGY while building their career. Focusing on developing positive ENERGY needs to be a HABIT developed at the beginning or at least the early part of your career. The last thing we need is a CEO, business owner or leader to turn into a stress monster, destroying their beautiful marriage, and causing significant financial losses because of constant low ENERGY levels.

CEO’s, business owners and leaders tend to have higher levels of ENERGY that are significantly higher than managers, entry level workers or interns. This is probably due to the stakes and challenges being much higher and every decision has a major effect on how your PERFORMANCEs are perceived. It takes about the same level of ENERGY as a professional athlete, so you must care about your ENERGY as much as one. The more ENERGY you have the more likely you are to be happy and be determined to climb to the top of your primary field of interest.

To improve your ENERGY levels, you need to develop effective daily HABITs that include exercise, healthy balanced nutrition, recovery periods during the day as well as adequate sleep at night, the ability to switch off work, and spend quality ‘on’ time with your family and friends.

Looking for More?

Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• active CEO Podcast Episode 2
• Are You Seeing the Big Picture?
• active CEO Podcast Episode 1
• 10 Effective Tips for Healthy Travelling
• What Happens When CEOs Don’t Control Their Culture?
• Are You Leading a High Performance Environment?

When dealing with an issue or a crisis, we see so many people trying to fix the obvious on the surface, rather than digging deeper to see what is the actual root cause.

Symptoms stand out like a sore thumb, like a runny nose when we have the flu. But the real questions, that are hardly ever asked, should be what were the underlying factors that led our immune system to be susceptible to the flu and why weren’t we more proactive in preventing these factors?

This is no different to the workplace, where issues and crisis’s are all preventable with effective strategies, planning and systems to monitor our projects, people, competitors and performance.

In saying that, it is impossible to prevent every issue and crisis, therefore we need to have really good systems to ensure that we fix the problem right the first time.

When dealing with an issue, people find it much easier to apply a band-aid and give a little bit of tender loving care, rather than spending some extra time to understand why it actually happened, ask the tough questions and identify whether it can be prevented in the future.

Why are humans prone to the ‘path of least resistance’?

Why are we so susceptible to the easy way out or way of doing things?

I find it really frustrated when I hear ‘let’s put that decision or project on hold until we have more time, more money, the perfect design or most frustratingly, a new hire arrives’.

Hesitation is the difference between winning and losing in most sports, and it is exactly the same in business. If you wait, someone else will get to the market first and therefore be in the prime position to control the market, or more importantly you risk becoming irrelevant.

Solutions can sometimes be the most simple and obvious that are right there in front of us, whereas other times there is no clarity or even a potential path to get us started.

As leaders we need to be able to step back and take a birds eye perspective, then firstly, allow our teams the space to see the obvious (if the root cause and solution are right there in front of us) and secondly, dig deeper until they can get to the bottom of their nagging pain in the butt.

People have a habit of dancing around the tough questions, as though they are afraid to offend someone or unravel a large mistake they or the team may have caused.

How can you create an environment where your team is encouraged to ask the right questions?

It is commonplace for issues to be lingering in the workplace, partnership and with our products or services.

Why is it so hard to put your pride, integrity, record and relationships on the line and front the big elephant in the room?

Nine times out of ten it comes down to ‘trust’. One hundred present of time, the level of trust is a direct result of the environment established by the leader.

Trust, that our team feel they are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them, and that people can ask the right questions when they don’t understand, believe there might be a better way or there are some barriers preventing a greater performance.

Let’s ‘rip the band-aid off’ and create an environment of learning, growth and most importantly trust in our teams.

Looking for More?

Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• Are You Seeing the Big Picture?
• active CEO Podcast Episode 1
• 10 Effective Tips for Healthy Travelling
• What Happens When CEOs Don’t Control Their Culture?
• Are You Leading a High Performance Environment?

Do you know what helps you navigate the clutter, complexity and commotion on a daily basis that allows you to take a birds eye view and see the big picture?

It is a challenge when you have your head down, in the zone and focused on the task at hand to understand where you are at and even sometimes to clarify what the big picture really is. The big picture is about:

• Knowing not just how and what to do, but knowing why
• Viewing the whole and not just its parts
• Seeing a vision, a sense of the bigger picture
• Having the ability to see significance in work, beyond the obvious
• Understanding that a legacy will live on, whether in the bricks and morter or in the impact made on other people

You have to know what naturally helps you to clear the mind and find the space to step outside your body and mind so you can focus on what is really important. For me, it is going for a long ride by myself or running on a trail. I find it’s my form of meditation and reality check.

Some people find travel helps them to find a clearer perspective, as 10,000 feet up provides a pretty good birds eye view of situations. Another common time is when listening to podcasts that challenge our ways of thinking, leadership strategies or are industry related.

Sometimes we find it difficult to see the big picture by ourselves. You may find it easier through conversations with a friend, colleague or even a group of like-minded people in a “circle of trust’ monthly catch-up over a coffee.

When it comes to financial analysis, you may find manually writing out your budget or financial reviews with pen and paper allows you think of the numbers in a different way than on a computer screen where formulas are producing numbers for you.

A lot of people will work continuously without breaks during a day. Research shows that our ability to perform tasks diminishes after approximately 90minutes of concerted effort and focus. It is important to take a 5-15min break every 90minutes allowing your mind a chance to recharge and your body a chance to move around rather than sitting in one place.

Going long periods of time without a break may also result in you heading down a rabbit hole of time-consuming focus on the unimportant things, without realizing you are on a path of less value.

Organising a dedicated brainstorm or review session with team members of what you are currently doing and where you can go, while ensuring that everything is aligned to the overall mission, strategies and goals is crucial. You will find it invaluable as not only does it provide a big picture check for you, but it also enables the team to develop greater cohesion in what the big picture looks like to everyone.

I have witnessed a few people using apps, such as rescue time, to monitor and track their use of time. It allows them to see how much time is spent on each daily activity and most importantly on the tasks that are making forward progress.

We are often caught up in our own assumptions, ways of thinking and complexity. Try challenge some of your assumptions to see what would happen if you removed one or more of them. Remember complexity is the enemy, so sometimes the most simple and obvious thing maybe blurred or hidden from our ability to see the big picture.

Identify whether you team have a connection to the big picture. Share the big picture regularly by providing the details first and then the context later. Ask them what they see and make sure that you connect the big picture to their work. Most importantly connect the big picture to meaning as people want to know that their working has a purpose.

Make sure that you include the activities that allow you to see clarity from a big picture point-of-view, in your daily or weekly routines. It is crucial that you are on the right road and haven’t taken the wrong left turn. To take it to the next level, it is even more valuable to ensure that you have time following your big picture activities, to find time to analyse and translate your insights into specific actions.

Life is all about choice. We may feel we are snowed under, constrained by deadlines and under the pump from either your boss or a client, but remember you are the one in control. Prioritise what is important, what you need to gain clarity and disregard the meaningless activities that halt your progress. What you do is only as good as the clarity of your big picture.

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Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• active CEO Podcast Episode 1
• 10 Effective Tips for Healthy Travelling
• The Top 5 Sacrifices CEO’s Make
• What Happens When CEOs Don’t Control Their Culture?
• Are You Leading a High Performance Environment?

Many CEO’s and business leaders travel more than once a month if not per week. Travel disrupts your daily health and fitness routines and can have a major effect on your energy levels and performance during the meetings that count. This article we take a look at some effective ways to improve your travel habits.

Long days at meetings, super-sized cooked servings at the breakfast buffet, late nights networking with clients, flight delays and stressful negotiations are all common ingredients for a fusion style recipe for mental and physical fatigue. You wake up feeling frustrated, fatigued and fat, when you need to be delivering you’re A-game.

#1 Energy Boost

Start the day with some exercise to boost your energy levels and clear the mind. Just 15-20 minutes of exercise is all you need to trigger your metabolism and the hormones vital to increased productivity and mental focus.

#2 Schedule Exercise

Plan your flight schedule so you can either exercise prior to departure or on arrival. If you are strapped for time, you can integrate some pre-reading, for meetings later in the day, while you are on the stationary bike.

#3 Fitness Hotel

Choose a hotel that has a gym, a fitness centre nearby or is next to a park that you can run in. I have always used my mornings to go for a run to check out the local sites, get a feel for the city and breath (depending which city) in some fresh air.

#4 Group Training

If you need the extra motivation of training with other people, then try and locate accommodation that has group fitness classes or a fitness centre nearby. You can use Google to locate a personal trainer for a one-on-one or a group session. It is also a great way to meet new people.

#5 Self-Contained

Look for a hotel or apartment style accommodation that has it’s own kitchen where you can prepare your breakfast and even dinners when not out networking. This allows you to prepare your own healthy meals that are similar to what you would routinely eat when at home. You may even want to try taking your own portable blender to create healthy smoothies or food options.

#6 One Buffet

Start with the fresh fruit section at the breakfast buffet and choose the same serving size, as you would eat at home. An effective tip is to make it a habit to only go to the breakfast buffet once.

#7 Avoid Stimulants

Take a drink bottle with you to meetings and avoid extra cups of coffee or hot chocolate. If offered a hot drink you could choose a herbal tea instead of stimulant or sugar based hot drink that causes greater fluctuations in energy levels.

#8 Water 1st

Aim to avoid eating all the candy’s, nuts and cakes delivered by the secretary. If there is tempting food options available for snacks, then try taking a couple of gulps of water first and see if you are really hungry or dehydration is starting to set-in.

#9 Get Outdoors

Where possible arrange a lunchtime excursion, where you need to walk to a restaurant or café to eat rather than the hotel restaurant. You could also consider a walking meeting to an iconic location and back instead of sitting in a hotel lobby or at the bar. That extra bit of exercise helps both your physical and mental energy for the afternoon meetings.

#10 Free Your Mind

Find some time to clear your mind through scheduling in some non-meeting and networking time during each day. You can use it to de-clutter the mind of constant meeting and make sense of what has been discussed, do some yoga or meditation, call your family or you can even take an afternoon nap.

Eating healthy, staying fit and getting adequate mental recovering while travelling wont happen by accident. You are in control, so make sure you plan ahead and ensure the schedule is conducive to delivering peak performance in both a work and personal capacity.

Looking for More?

Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• It’s All About Trust
• The Top 5 Sacrifices CEO’s Make
• What Happens When CEOs Don’t Control Their Culture?
• Are You Leading a High Performance Environment?

Future 8 – 2x2x2x2

You are what you repeatedly do and what you repeatedly do ultimately forms the person you are. It defines the things you believe in, your personality and the way you move.

Every day we make small decisions and perform actions that form habits. Our life is the sum of our habits and research by Duke University has shown that 40% of our behaviours every given day are a result of them.

Habits are formed through a simple neurological loop pattern of a cue, routine and a reward, as discovered by MIT researchers. The cue is a result of a trigger that initiates the behaviour. The routine is the action you take and the behaviour that is formed. The reward is the benefit you gain from performing the behaviour.

“Success is the sum of small parts, repeated day in and day out.”

ROBERT COLLIER

It is vitally important to use your positive habits to be in the NOW and focus on what you are currently doing. However it is more important that you develop new habits, by planting new seeds, to ensure that you are continuing to GROW every single day.

We have developed a formula that is based on growth habits that allow you to improve your well being, expand your knowledge, build your networks and make a difference to people. The Future 8 daily formula involves performing a minimum of 2 actions of the following four areas each day:

• 2x CONNECT – contact someone new or reconnect an old acquaintance
• 2x ENERGY – action something that supports your health and fitness.
• 2x PERFORMANCE – learn something new
• 2x SHARE – pay it forward by sharing your knowledge, thoughts and wisdom

 

CONNECT (2x)

It is important to build your network and work on your relationships. Pick up the phone, send a text or write an email to someone you would like to connect with, whether it is to enhance your knowledge, skills and understanding or to speak with a prospective consumer. We quite often forget that it is important to put time and energy into those who are already consumers or friends of your network. Reconnecting with those who already have a connection with you leads to retention, which is the best form of growth. Who are you going to call today?

ENERGY (2x)

When we get busy, we become tired and start craving unhealthy options. These options might be fast food, no rest breaks during the day, deciding to put off that run or going to bed late. Your mind and body require energy to be exerted and rest to recover for it to perform at its optimum each day. It doesn’t matter whether it is productivity in the workplace, you have a personal fitness goal you are aiming for or a relationship, you want to be able to perform at your best. Start the day with a 30min run or gym session, go for a walk through the park at lunch, have a bowl of fruit, take the time to play with your children before dinner or do a 15min meditation session at morning tea are all ways to recharge and allow both your body and mind to perform brilliance. What will you do to energise your day?

PERFORMANCE (2x)

For you to continually grow you need to add some water each day. It is very common for most successful people to read every day. Bill Gates reads a new book each week, Oprah Winfrey started the Oprah’s Book Club, Mark Cuban reads three hours a day and many successful people now tune into podcasts each day as a way of learning while resting the eyes. Pick a new topic to learn something new each day. Try reading an article, listening to a podcast, discussing with a colleague, or watching a video on something that either improves your work performance, healthy lifestyle or broadens your intellectual horizons. What will you learn today that you didn’t know yesterday?

SHARE (2x)

The more you give, the more you get. Focusing on helping someone else first will mean you gain more in the long-term. Planting a seed in someone else is more powerful than watering our own seeds. Write a blog post, share an article on your LinkedIn page, call someone who would learn from your wisdom or talk to a stranger on a plane. What is even more powerful than sharing your knowledge, thoughts and wisdom, is to make them laugh and smile while you do it. Make it fun and enjoyable and they are more likely to remember and learn from their interaction from you. Who will you share your knowledge, thoughts and wisdom with today?

It is as easy as starting the day as you would like to finish it. To begin with it is really useful to write down the 2x2x2x2 15min before you go home from work each day to ensure that you have checked everything off. If not, you still have time to complete the day in style.

FUTURE 8 Formula – 2x2x2x2

• Who are the 2 people you are going to call today?
• What are the 2 things you will do to energise your day?
• What are the 2 things you will learn today?
• What are the 2 ways you will share your knowledge, thoughts & wisdom with today?

Start contacting, actioning, learning and sharing two thing each day and you will be surprised at how much your performance and productivity improves.

Future 8 yourself today!

2x2x2x2

Looking for More?

Keep up-to-date on the latest membership information, research and ideas by signing up the the NRGizer Newsletter. SIGN UP NOW

Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• The Top 5 Sacrifices CEO’s Make
• Have we got the Hiring Process Totally Wrong?
• What Happens When CEOs Don’t Control Their Culture?
• Are You Leading a High Performance Environment?

There is no easy way to the top of Everest and it is the same in business. CEO’s have all made sacrifices to get to sit in the big seat. The big question is, “are many of the sacrifices made actually necessary”?

So often we see people putting in long hours, pleasing the boss, fueling their ego and trying to get a step ahead of their colleagues, like it is a game. So, how much productivity is lost through people being overworked, over-stressed and caught in a negative frame of mind?

Many people only see the successes of a CEO, rather than what lies below the surface. Hard work, dedication, discipline, persistence, failure, disappointment, sacrifice and failure are what it takes to get to the top in any industry.

Recently we surveyed a number of CEO’s, Senior Managers and Business Owners (CEO) on “What are the top 5 sacrifices you have made as a CEO that you would take back in a heartbeat?”

The top 5 sacrifices are:

#1 limited time with children and family,

#2 not prioritising my own fitness,

#3 a lack of time to look after my health and wellness,

#4 forgetting about my friends, and

#5 working during family holidays.

When you take a look at this list, you notice a number of aspects that so many people value, especially family, but when it comes to the crunch people often choose work first. It is common for people to make the choice to work as they think there will always be time for family and friends.

“Spending too much time with accountants and lawyers (it took time away from people that really mattered).”

There is more and more research showing that sleep, as well as psychological and physiological recovery, are major ingredients in mental and physical performance. Why do we then sacrifice the most important aspects of growth to overwork our brains?

 “Pure vacations, as business owner there is no pure down time”

Not having enough time for hobbies and personal development were also common. Many people wait until they are retired before they focus adequate time on themselves and what they really want to do in life. In many cases they lack the energy to really do what they want when they retire as they have neglected their health, wellness and fitness for some many years as they ground it out every day at work.

“Exercising more and less procrastination when thinking about exercising”

It was interesting to hear that a number of CEO’s say they sacrificed a lot of time with negative colleagues and Board members. They noted at times it made their life miserable, as it took the enjoyment and time away from their innovative and creative mind.

“Not being aggressive about Board of Directors composition. I need a Board that adds value, not just meet and waste my time. It was a sacrifice because it made my life miserable.”

The one aspect the resonated a lot with us, is that a number of the CEO’s felt they didn’t say ‘thank you’ enough, to those that really matter. Gratitude is an important part of being a successful leader. We sometimes forget that a lot of other people in our lives are making sacrifices to support our drive for success.

“Not saying thank you enough – to my family, my friends (many were neglected) and employees (who really made the company work).”

You have a choice, you can commit to the hard slog and burn the candle or you can put measures in place to ensure your productivity is high and you have the time for the important aspects that matter in life.

Stay tuned as we begin to open you to a different way of approaching work so you can deliver a high level of performance in all aspects of life.

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Are you looking for more insights and ideas? Then read the following inspiring and thought-provoking articles:

• Have we got the Hiring Process Totally Wrong?
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