Analogy of the Sea

Are there times when you've felt like you're drowning in work? That the commercial world just seems a bit volatile and uncertain?

We often (if not always) have to be at peak performance as executives, and the reality is that isn't actually very human. Your muscles have to recover when you go to the gym, in order to grow stronger, and so does your brain.

I have struggled with distraction, self sabotage, and uncertainty since the pandemic. Not really because of that, although was exacerbated by the work environments that created. My brain appeared to 'crash' after relentless work and study schedules, hearing loss, pregnancy hormones, caregiver trauma, grief, possible late undiagnosed AdHD, and then perimenopause brain fog and a bit of sight degeneration on top!

It hit me hard, and as a freelancer, it hit me in the wallet! But the truth is, that my resilience to that would have been a whole lot better if I'd had more self care, and had respected my own boundaries and health a lot more than I ever did.

As part of my personal 'build back better' plan, I've been lucky enough to receive a grant from the UK government for a neuroscience-based peak performance programme (pending reimbursement) - I wasn't look for peak performance, I just wanted to be able to perform over my disabilities, but my struggles were real and having done a neuroplasticity course as part of my lifelong learning at Hult Ashridge Executive Education I could tell that neuroscience was going to work well for me.

So let me share a piece of the puzzle with you - the Zero To Dangerous training from the Flow Research Collective works on a premise of prioritising your recovery time in managing your work schedule - and understanding that active recovery isn't the same as entertainment (both are fine, but you need to repair first to allow your brain to grow and heal).

The "anology of the sea" is that it exerts its power in waves!

There's a lot more to learn, and a lot more habits to change, but principally I think I have finally found enough reason to prioritise my health as part of making my work sustainable and successful. In many ways, I've had to!

The thinking time of a lane swim, and the nervous system benefits of cold water exposure, speak for themselves in terms of integrating them into my schedule - and in effect, they become just as important as the work tasks in my calendar.

The Workstyle Revolution has it right, we bring our whole selves to work and we need to look after that as priority. And we need to look after our teams, and each other, to ensure that we exert our power in the right places for us as humans.