Friday Review: Renewal
What do you do to renew and rejuvenate yourself? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”
“Exhaustion is not a status symbol.”
Tag Archives: renewal
“Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”
“Never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”
—Thomas Edison, 19th Century American inventor and businessman
Image from Unsplash by Shane
For some of us a new definition of happy hour as we get older is a good nap.
In my most active working years, I always admired the hard driving folks who often boasted about how little sleep they needed.
While coaching top performing professionals over the years, I, however, came to notice that these individuals often suffered in other areas of life without the wondrous restorative effects of adequate sleep.
Without going into all the science, we can rest confidently in the fact that sleep clears out the clutter in both our bodies and minds.
We need and deserve it to step into each new day to realize our full potential.
EXERCISE:
What requests will you invite into your subconscious as you turn in for the night?
What might you invent with a refreshed and renewed mind and body once you awaken?
When we feel burned out and depleted
When we feel burned out and depleted sometimes we need to plug into a new source of energy that renews and restores. Resting is only one available option.
—Calm App Reflection
Image from Unsplash by Clint Patterson
When was the last time you experienced burnout or a significant state of energy depletion?
To what degree was this experience physical, mental, emotional, or even spiritual?
Beyond our frequent default of resting, what other ways have you discovered to plug in to a different energy source when your get up and go is gone?
EXERCISE:
Imagine you were a vehicle with four separate fuel tanks labeled physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.
How might tapping into another tank when your current tank points to “E” be a hidden source of renewal you’ve never considered?
Consider checking out the book The Power of Full Engagement for other ways to manage similar situations when you are out of gas.
Nature offers us wonderful examples of growth
Nature offers us wonderful examples of growth, renewal, and transformation when we allow each of its seasons to guide our life.
Calm App Reflection
Image from Unsplash by Ian Schneider
What is your perspective on winter? What activities make up most of your days during the winter months? How much time do you spend outdoors?
Except for periodic brisk walks and sprinting from one building to another with my car acting as a shuttle service, I live a predominantly indoor life when it’s cold. Although I admire the grit and fortitude of people who choose a frigid lifestyle, I prefer to hibernate or fly south.
Instead of feeling bad and self-critical during these months, I’ve learned to embrace more inner efforts as a necessary and valuable aspect of living on a planet that circles the sun on a 23 degree angle.
EXERCISE:
How can and do you embrace each of nature’s seasons and the opportunity they offer? What inner and outer work lies ahead for you in this new year?
FRIDAY REVIEW: RENEWAL
FRIDAY REVIEW: RENEWAL
What do you do to renew and rejuvenate yourself? Here are a few renewal-related posts you may have missed.
“The will to win … the will to achieve … goes dry and arid without continual renewal.”
“Are you doing what matters, or just reacting to the noise?”
When something small loudly demands all of our attention
“When something small loudly demands all of our attention, its noise often drowns out the whisper of what’s enormously important.”
—Craig Groeschel, American Clergyman
Image from Unsplash by Sai de Silva
We live in a very noisy world. If you are like many folks these days, the decibel levels and shiny object distractions have reached new heights and the pace is accelerating exponentially.
Although there are extraordinary opportunities through the abundance of these worldly demands for our attention, we all require gaps in our days to recharge and renew.
EXERCISE:
Create two lists for your personal and professional life. Label the first list Important Whispers and the second Loud Demands.
What strategies can and will you employ to increase the time for items on the first, and reduce or perhaps eliminate items from the second?
Friday Review of posts on Renewal
FRIDAY REVIEW: RENEWAL
What are your strategies for renewing your energy, your sense of self, and regaining balance in your life? Here are a few renewal-related posts you may have missed. Click to read the full message.
“The problem with doing nothing is not knowing when you are finished.”
“Exhaustion is not a status symbol.”
Are you doing what matters
“Are you doing what matters, or just reacting to the noise?”
—Brendon Burchard, American motivational author
Image from Unsplash by chairulfajar
It is a rainy Sunday as I write this. I am at home in my designated writing and reading chair, where I am rarely interrupted. Reading and writing are two activities that matter a lot in my life, so I proactively carve out time – especially on weekends – for both.
Rest, recharging, and renewal efforts on these days have also had me limit my cell phone use, primarily to family and friends. I’ve also cut back on virtually all forms of noisy media, to about 20% of what it was a year ago.
EXERCISE:
Consider taking five or ten minutes to create two lists. Label the first “What Matters Most in My Life?” and the second “What Represents the Noise in My Life?”
Once you have a solid list for each category, please apply the More/Less, Start/Stop Strategy to enhance your happiness and life satisfaction.
Never throw out anyone
“People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Never throw out anyone.”
—Audrey Hepburn, 20th century British actress
Image from Unsplash by Olia Gozha
The human body has the miraculous ability to renew almost all of its various cell types.
Did you know that we have 30 trillion red blood cells, and approximately 100 million are being formed each minute? If you do the math, it gives each red blood cell the life expectancy of about four months.
Here are the renewal rates of some other cell types:
| Small Intestine | 2-4 days |
| White Blood Cells | 2-5 days |
| Bone Osteoclasts | 2 weeks |
| Bone Osteoblasts | 3 months |
| Fat Cells | 8 years |
| Skin Cells | 10-30 days |
| Liver Cells | 6 months-1 year |
EXERCISE:
In what ways beyond mother nature can you support the restoration and renewal of yourself and those around you to live a longer more fulfilling and happier life?
Exhaustion is not a status symbol
“Exhaustion is not a status symbol.”
—Brené Brown, research professor at the University of Houston
Image from andtodaysidiomis
Do you ever hear yourself or others making statements such as:
- I work 24/7
- I work 60, 70, 80 hours per week
- I only need 4-5 hours of sleep
- I can’t remember when I took all of my vacation time
- I usually eat at my desk, and sometimes in my car
- I bill more hours than anyone else in my firm
- I’m burning the candle at both ends
Somehow, many of us took the idea of hard work, and got carried away. Some of us have gotten to the point that our self worth and value equates to “giving it my all,” taking it to the point of endangering our very lives.
The evidence that we need to conserve and recharge our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies before it is too late is overwhelming.
EXERCISE:
Select at least one personal or professional activity that you will do less of or stop entirely, so you can step back from the ledge of exhaustion. See if you can reclaim at least one hour each day, and then consider reducing or eliminating a second activity.
I highly recommend reading The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr if you want to take this concept further.