CWO Diary: New Year, New Book

Hello and welcome to the Chief Wellbeing Officer newsletter on LinkedIn.

Wishing everyone a very happy 2024. I’ve sensed a longer break for people this year.. some signs of life the second half of this week with most starting, it seems, this coming Monday. Very Spanish actually (given the annual Kings holiday here) and great to see!

I finished 2023 by writing my 35th consecutive email newsletter and, before resuming normal service on the CWO diary next month, you can view all 35 articles from the year here.

This month on LinkedIn is another special edition. My new book, The Daily Reset: 365 Days of Wellbeing was published 1st January and below you’ll find the full introduction. A new subtitle, new introduction and over 35 brand new nudges make for a significant revision though the metric which best demonstrates the level of reworking might be the need to re-record over 100 of the 366 nudges for the audiobook.

You can download a PDF of the first 50 pages of the book in my LinkedIn feed here.

You can also listen to a sample of the audiobook each day over the next couple of months on the Chief Wellbeing Officer podcast where we will upload 5 audio nudges from each of the 12 themes of movement, habits, sleep, energy, mindfulness, nutrition, exercise, purpose, ways of working, resilience, leadership and community.

And if you want to purchase a copy you’ll currently find the paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon with hardback, audiobook, Apple books, Google Play etc coming in the next few weeks.

Here’s the book on Amazon.com (just change the .com to find it for your own country). Ratings and reviews much appreciated :)

I’m also doing a series of promo talks based on the book this month. If you’re interested in this for your team or organization please get in touch.

Thanks for reading and best wishes for a great start to the year.

Steven

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Wellbeing is a journey. We might not find the right path the first time. In fact, the path is always changing, evolving as we adapt to the way our life progresses, throws us surprises, setbacks and fortune, pleasure and pain. Such is the richness of life.

I am deeply grateful for my own journey. Writing the first edition of The Daily Reset in the summer of 2021 marked my twenty-year anniversary working in the field of wellbeing. It was in 2001, as a visiting researcher at Stanford, that I started to identify the questions that I’m still trying to answer today.

The first edition of this book was written in the shadow of the COVID pandemic. My intention was to help people move forward from that shared trauma. Yet, as time has passed and with reflection, I have come to realise that there was too much focus of the pandemic, which ironically might prevent people from moving on from that moment in time. A fresher, more positive tone was required, one that emphasises the journey-like nature of wellbeing, which you now have in your hands.

So, what have I learned about wellbeing in these 20 plus years? Here are six core beliefs that I think set up the year ahead.

First, wellbeing is not wellness. I truly hope that The Daily Reset improves your wellness. And your wellbeing. But let’s be clear: they’re very different.

Wellness connotes some notion of fixing. From the damage, let’s say, of your day-to-day life. Wellbeing is your daily lived experience. It’s not an add-on. It’s the way that you do things. Perhaps you enjoy 52 weekends of wellness. That’s wonderful. But wellbeing is about the things you do 365 days a year.

So, the separation of wellness is key. It is an admission that our normal daily lives will always be imperfect places, but at least we have the solace and refuge of wellness solutions to run to. For me, that’s not good enough. I want wellbeing to be at the core of what we do and how we live our lives every day.

The Daily Reset is at once a journal and a daily coach. Read it, write in it, highlight ideas you think are useful and disagree with those you do not. Above all, experiment. In these pages, you will find 365 (plus 1 for each leap year!) reflections or nudges—questions, hacks, facts, stories, methods, and memories for you to change behaviour for good—to help keep wellbeing and a positive working life top of mind each day of the year. What we do everyday matters more, much more, than what we do every now and then. Fall in love with the process.

Second, consistency beats intensity. The typical approach to achieving change is to make a big, impressive effort... every now and then. The more effective approach, the one that reaps far greater rewards, is one of small, consistent effort. The compounding effects of any change quickly add up. It’s also ironically, the easier approach. Just a little push each and every day.

How should you use The Daily Reset? There is a page to read each day of the year, perhaps in the morning or at night. This is one approach. If you prefer to read all the way through regardless of dates or jump to a specific section based on your interest or immediate need, that works too. My only wish is that you engage—by writing in the spaces provided or by moving to action and testing out the ideas each day. I’ve heard from people around the world on how they maintain that consistency with The Daily Reset, with the creation of WhatsApp groups which allow friends and colleagues to discuss the days nudge between them one option. How could you achieve consistency?

My third core belief. Wellbeing is the foundation for performance.

When I first started teaching wellbeing to busy executives in a traditional business school, I couldn’t use the word wellbeing. It was viewed as a compromise to getting stuff done. So, I focused on studies that showed how an investment in areas such as sleep, nutrition and exercise yield significant dividends in managerial performance—the critical thinking, decision making and empathetic leadership that are required for a successful business career. I was building the business case for wellbeing, with the overall objective being the sustainability of humans. All these years later, that business case is even stronger.

This journal is aimed at improving your health and wellbeing—on all levels: physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, career, social, anything you can think of and require.This is the personal operating system from which sustainable high performance is acquired. This performance isn’t just about work, it’s about life!

Fourth, leadership and wellbeing are mutual multipliers. Leaders have a tremendous responsibility in today’s world. To develop others and help create positive change.

This could be in the world of work of course, but leaders are required in all areas of society. How do you show up with your family, friends and community? When you adopt the tools of wellbeing, you become a powerful role model that creates a culture of human flourishing.

Better knowing and leading thy self is a critical part of leadership. Journaling helps in that process, reflecting on a busy life. For me, journaling helps keep me grounded and provides a daily anchor to what truly matters. It has helped me understand the importance of going with the ebb and flow as well as the power and freedom of focusing on my own reasoned choices.

Next, everyone’s path is different. Everyone’s needs are unique. We must all find our own secret recipe for optimum wellbeing—and have fun in the process.

Across the 365 days of The Daily Reset, there is sometimes a clear action or question to answer while others are open to interpretation. Sometimes I’ll try and push you, perhaps into a zone of discomfort (where we grow) and on some days, we’ll take it easy. This is how we learn. Through increments, we push beyond our current limits and then allow for a period of recovery before pushing again.

We all have the opportunity to write a new page of our lives each and every day. No matter if we have a fabulous day or a terrible one, we go to sleep and reset for the new one ahead. What we do in the future shouldn’t be constrained by what happened in the past, even when good. Each daily reset gives us an opportunity to improve by tiny yet valuable margins, and I hope to provide some guidance and inspiration for your own voyage of discovery.

Finally, the journey never ends. I think that’s a good thing. Even if we find our own “recipe”, this too will change because who we are as human beings also changes.

My approach to teaching wellbeing over the years has come from an awareness of my own failings and vulnerabilities in life. Sometimes, I find—like you might—that I just can’t make it work on a given day. I think there’s a valuable lesson in that too. Discomfort is often necessary to grow. To leave behind who we were and become the person we are to be.

So, I wish you well on your own wellbeing journey. Both journey and journal come from the same root, the Old French jour, or day. Every journey starts with a step, a day. If you don’t get it right today, simply reset. And go again tomorrow. 365 days a year.

There is magic in the everyday. Let’s begin.