Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Mindful leaders know that serving others is the key to better business results, greater team involvement, happier followers and a sustainable future.
Act Mindfully
Many of the leaders I see in my emotional intelligence-based executive coaching practice of over twenty-five years are working long hours and are stressed-out. Some of my clients complain of low energy and exhaustion. They frequently are sleep deprived. Getting adequate sleep is an enormous help in restoring mental clarity and the drive to succeed.
Act mindfully and savor your relationships at work and at home. Create the powerful habit of "pacing" yourself to restore energy, build resiliency and create well-being.
quot;Respect yourself and others will respect you.quot;-Confucius
The Power of Habit
Watch this hilarious video:
Bob Newhart-Stop It https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow0lr63y4Mw
In his thought provoking book "The Power of Habit", Charles Duhigg, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, tackles an important reality head on. That is, people succeed when they identify patterns that shape their lives--and learn how to change them. This idea--that you can indeed change your habits--draws on recent research in experimental psychology, neurology, and applied psychology.
Duhigg looks at the habits of individuals, how habits operate in the brain, how companies use them, and how retailers use habits to manipulate buying habits. The author#39;s main contention is that quot;you have the freedom and responsibilityquot; to remake your habits. He says quot;the most addicted alcoholics can become sober. The most dysfunctional companies can transform themselves. A high school dropout can become a successful manager.quot;
quot;The Habit Loopquot; explains exactly what a habit is. According to the author, habits make up 40% of our daily routine. The process within our brains is a three-step loop. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which behavior to use. Second, there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is the reward.
Your daily habits create the foundation of your life-your health, wealth, happiness, productivity, quality of relationships, and energy level. You can become more mindful creating the intention to interrupt patterns that don't serve you. Establish positive habits that lead to a happy and prosperous life.
You create habits as an efficiency mechanism. Neuroscience research tells us that the brain quickly transforms as many tasks and behaviors as possible into habits so that we can do them without thinking. This frees up the brain to deal with new challenges. But first, we have to integrate the new habit and that can feel challenging.
Think about when you start a new activity. Your brain works hard to integrate it into your life, processing huge amounts of new information as you progress through the activity. As soon as you understand how it works, your behavior starts becoming automatic and the amount of mental effort required to perform the activity decreases.
The best way to approach creating positive new habits that will last is to take baby steps bringing them into your life one at a time. This gives you the opportunity to repeat the habit over and over until it is a part of your automatic behavior, and also allows you to focus the extra brainpower required for the habit on one or few activities so you aren't overwhelmed. Then when your habit is automatic, you can add another one.
It might seem counter-intuitive, and that this approach will bring slow results. But, when you consider that studies show most people only make changes for a short amount of time before giving up, this approach actually brings results fast. Plus, you can say goodbye to that discouraging yo-yo cycle of starting and then breaking habits! Dieting is a good example of an intention that often goes awry, and demotivates people.
Keystone Habits
Watch this video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embeddedamp;v=4H0fTwtPLfo
"It wasn't the trip to Cairo that had caused the shift, scientists were convinced, or the divorce or desert trek. It was that Lisa had focused on changing just one habit-smoking-at first. Everyone in the study had gone through a similar process. By focusing on one pattern-what is known as a "keystone habit"-Lisa had taught herself how to reprogram the other routines in her life, as well."
~ Charles Duhigg in "The Power of Habit"
This is my favorite Big Idea in the book. The basic idea: There's a habit that when we change it will have the greatest positive impact on our lives. It's a KEYSTONE habit. Keystones are good.
As the Apple dictionary tells us, a keystone is "a central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together."
So...what's your keystone habit? What's the #1 thing you could change that would have the most positive impact on your life? Is it quitting smoking? No longer drinking? Drastically reducing your internet time? Getting your inbox to zero? Meditating every day? Think about it. And pick one.
This is a keystone habit for me that I commit to changing: Frequency of checking e-mail
So, let's look at my Cue Routine Reward.
Old pattern: Cue = Checking my e-mail first thing in the morning. Routine = Tell myself there might be something important that needs my immediate attention. Reward = Convinced myself that there are no problems lurking out there for me.
New pattern: Cue = Getting out of bed bright and early ready to get a fast start to my day. Routine = Tell myself how much more productive I will be getting some "real work" (writing a blog post or article etc.) before checking my e-mail. Reward = Honored my commitment to be more focused, strategic and productive. Stopped fooling myself that checking e-mail incessantly is helping me reach my goals for the day!
Back to you: What's your keystone habit? And your Cue Routine Reward?
The book goes into more detail that will be very helpful for you as you look to re-shape your habits, but let's take a quick inventory:
My keystone habit:___________________________________
My current Cue:_______________________________________
My current Routine:____________________________________
My current Reward:__________________________________
My new Cue: ________________________________________
My new Routine:______________________________________
My new Reward:____
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