Investing in everything else except yourself?

I have known leaders who are there for their team, their board, their customers, but not for themselves….. They are so focused on investing in everyone else that they forget about themselves! I have to confess that I also know this firsthand because I was that person earlier in my career. I didn’t know what on earth people were talking about when they said I needed to take time for myself… but there's so much to do I thought, there's not enough time, I'm already working really long hours …… So I did what many of us would do. I totally ignored these wise people around me…… but while you can work like this for a while, it's not sustainable, nor is it productive for you or the organisation or business that you're leading. Sooner or later you will run out of steam, become disillusioned and burnt out.

What I didn’t realise at the time was that it wasn’t that I had to work faster, I had to work smarter. I was so caught up in ‘doing’ that I believed I didn’t have time to invest in myself and anyway what on earth did that mean???

Over time I learned that investing myself meant putting myself on the list, making time for me, acknowledging I had needs and that in order to be effective and more successful I had to take time out and get in that metaphorical helicopter and look at what was going on from a totally different perspective. With the help of a great coach, who asked me tough, challenging questions I was able to see things differently, to look at what was really important and take steps to ensure I kept focused on the things that were important for the future and not just the things that were urgent. I was also able to learn about myself and learn strategies to help keep me energised and motivates and inspired so that I was able to fully jump back into what was going on.

So what did this investment require of me? Oh….. one hour, once a fortnight....And what was the return on my investment? ….. Oh it was priceless….. It transformed me and my world. It made me feel like I was in the driving seat and took me from a reactive place to a proactive place!!

My fear had been that if I stopped I'd never be able to catch up, but actually, it was in the stopping (don’t you just love the paradoxical nature of life) that I was able to be more focused, more strategic and more conscious about what was going on around me and who I was in all of that.

What will be the thing that will make you stop and look at how you are doing things?

Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller in their new book Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life say, "Growth is what separates living things from dying things, growth brings energy, vitality, life, and challenge. Without growth, we're just going through the motions."

What are you doing to invest in your growth? Don’t work faster, work smarter by making a commitment to invest in yourself. There is no better time than NOW!

How to increase the chances of success in what you do………

I recently attended an event at Entrepreneurial Spark and was bowled over by the palpable passion of the early stage or start up business owners.  It was inspiring and infectious and if you could bottle that stuff up and sell it you could make a fortune!!

It got me thinking about passion…….. There are many ingredients that contribute to an individual’s success, but at the heart of it lies passion. There are countless examples of this in history eg Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Beethoven (did you know that he was deaf!!)…… And in business today…... James Dyson, Richard Branson and Alan Sugar…….

Each and every one us of is capable of extraordinary things if we tap into our passion……..  A really inspiring example of this is Amy Purdy. Her passion was snowboarding, but aged 19 she lost both legs below the knee…… Many people would think that this was the end of the dream but Amy didn’t and went onto to win Gold medals as a pro snow boarder…….. her passion compelled her to see beyond her challenges and as she would say it made her ‘get creative!’

Passion in action is wonderful to watch. It translates into conviction and consummate belief in what you are doing and the difference that you are going to make in the world whether through a product, a service or an organisation. Passion helps us see obstacles differently, without it we tend to give up and the obstacles become roadblocks that mark the road as a dead end. Passion means we persevere, we take risks, we get resourceful, we don’t accept no for an answer and we keep striving to move forwards towards our goal. Passion takes courage, courage to overcome fear, courage to overcome setbacks..... To see a vision bigger than ourselves......and to keep moving towards it......

When we align our passions with our goals we can go far……. This is particular true in business.  Passionate people who believe in what they are doing convey an authenticity that can’t be faked….. A person’s passion can often inspire us. I often hear the phrase, ‘people buy from people’. 

So….how can you increase the chances of success in what you do? Be passionate about what you are doing. It will come across in your energy, your language and your body language and in business those who are passionate about what they do are much more likely to be successful than those who are doing something without heart……. What difference are you making?