What does your bottom line look like? Is your portfolio filled with growing stocks and bonds, balanced with other conservative investments? Have you put money away for a rainy day? Or, are you over extended?
What does your self worth look like? No, not the financial self, but the personal inside of you self. Have you taken time to invest in you? To determine who you really are and what is important to you?
Are you a workaholic? Are you so busy earning a living that you don’t have a life? Do you work out your body to keep physically fit but not your mind, your heart, your soul? Do you use a treadmill consistently to protect your heart but do nothing to nurture it?
How do you turn on a dime? How do you stop bankrupting yourself? Just how do you put an end to your constant need to work and fulfill your obligations yet find enough time to refresh yourself and nurture your heart to say nothing about doing the same for your spouse and family? That is truly the question for the new millennium. Can you have it all?
Let’s do a little mental exercise to help you focus. Picture the most relaxing place you’ve ever been. Go there mentally right now. If it’s near the ocean, feel the breeze, taste the salt in the air and listen to the waves. If it’s in the mountains, breathe and smell the fresh crisp air and actively see the beauty around you. As you have mentally placed yourself in the location, how do you feel … right now? Are you more relaxed, is your headache gone? Are you filled for the moment with less stress? Remember this image for use in the future.
Should a more balanced lifestyle be your objective? Balance is important in your financial portfolio isn’t it? What good is a balanced financial portfolio if your workplace and your home are not balanced and peaceful? This is all about the quality of the lifestyle you live. Isn’t that why you’ve created a balanced portfolio, so you can continue living a certain lifestyle when you’ve stopped actively pursuing your career? Without equal planning to protect and preserve your personal relationships with family and friends, you or they may not be around to enjoy that balanced portfolio.
So, let’s create a self worth portfolio that’s yours, not someone else’s but yours:
Step 1; create at least two or three relaxing escape scenes that you can mentally travel to in a moments notice. You only need to stay there 30 seconds for it to help. You’ll receive maximum benefit however by staying there for one minute. Use these escape scenes as frequently as needed depending on how stressful the day. Always go there for a full minute before you leave the office to go home at the end of each day.
Step 2; on your drive home, check out the radio for traffic conditions only if you must then shut it off and put on a tape or CD of your favorite relaxing music. Plan to have at least three choices because different ones will work better on different days. Be sure that the majority of your drive home is peaceful, not road reports and definitely not news or talk radio.
Step 3; your last step is probably the most nurturing and most important. The last thing you should think of when going to bed every night is “my life is balanced and I am at peace.” Say this to yourself right now “my life is balanced and I am at peace.” Write this in your Day Timer. Put it on your calendar as an appointment you need to keep nightly. Make this part of your nightly rituals. Make it so automatic that your mind will remind you if you forget to say it; “my life is balanced and I am at peace.”
These three steps are really all you need to balance your self worth portfolio. So, let’s review the benefits package one more time. When you nurture your heart and soul you can pass along positive energy to co-workers and employees. The benefit is happier more productive employees. When you nurture yourself you can share more positive energy with your family and friends. The direct benefit here is a more balanced self living in a more peaceful environment. When you nurture yourself, the most direct benefit is a less stress filled you.
© Pat Heydlauff, all rights reserved
Pat Heydlauff, a “productive environment” expert, speaker and consultant designs workplace environments that fuel focus to move beyond engagement, maximize productivity and yield future sustainability. She is author of the forthcoming eBook series, 21 Ways to Increase... Employee Engagement and published books, Feng Shui, So Easy a Child Can Do It, The Way We Go, Your Roadmap to a Better Future and Selling Your Home with a Competitive Edge. Contact her at 561-408-2708 or engagetolead.com