How Healthy Is Your Leadership?

When I was first starting out in my leadership journey, I was anything but consistent with my health. I was definitely consistent with my dedication to the job but that was the problem. I poured everything into my career and nothing into my health. I seriously thought I would live forever and my health would be ok no matter what. Cue the crash and burn… Of course it all caught up to me. My body and my mind had enough of me not seeing health as a part of my leadership. I needed to be a leader in my own life and not just for everyone else. I needed to make changes and that is when things started to turn around for me. I shifted gears, refined my goals and values, and started focusing on how I could give back to myself so that I could keep going.

One of the intentions I set for myself was self-care. Self-care is all about your own uniqueness and so it looks different for everyone. Once I did this, I realized how important it was to not just be a leader in my school but in my life as well. It changed everything. I became more energized and felt a sense of renewal instead of feeling run down all of the time. I found that I could streamline and simplify things and do more with less. When I started showing up for me and pouring into self care consistently, that’s when I saw not only my energy grow, but all of areas of my leadership improve as well. If you want your leadership and life to improve, show up for yourself consistently. This will allow you to nurture your mind and body and build momentum so that you can be in this for the long haul. Plus, when the time comes to make a tough decision or get through some hard times, you’ll be more likely to make the right one or be able to pivot because your mind is more clear and has that energy to persevere rather than feeling burnt out and overwhelmed. The secret to healthy leadership is you’ve got to show up for yourself consistently. It is time to get your life back again my friend! So I ask you this question….how healthy is your leadership? What are you doing for your own health so that you can lead on your terms?

I wanted to share a few of my own self care tips to help you infuse some self care and health into your leadership style to give you some ideas:

1. Develop a Morning Routine Just For You Getting up an hour earlier and doing some dedicated self care just for me before my day begins has been a real boost to my energy and my mood. Because I feel like I have some me time before the circus of the day begins, I don’t feel cheated or that I never had time for myself. I am intentional and rigid with that time and no one can take that time away from me because I have carved out a corner where no one is up yet! I get up and I read with a tea/coffee, move my body, journal, and meditate (ok this meditation one is a tough one but I am getting it in at least once a week…). It doesn’t matter what your morning routine is just make sure it is about you before you hit the ground running for the day. It will energize you and set you up for the day.

2. Declutter Your Space This matters! I know….no one likes to clean or tidy up but it really does make a huge difference in your energy levels and clarity of mind if your space is clutter free. The great thing about this is, as soon as everything has a home and is organized, you don’t have to do it again. This is because of that feeling you will get when you are done. Organizing my space was one of the best things I ever did for myself! I felt proud of my space, motivated to get work done in it, and I built momentum in my productivity because I knew exactly where everything was (no more wasting time looking for stuff) and it felt good – really good. It was easy to maintain because of the mood boost I got just from having a clutter free space. I did not want to go back to the clutter. Try it! I promise, once you get into it, it will change your life!

3. Essential Oil Diffuser Blends In Your Office As soon as I walk into my office feeling drained or tired, there is nothing better than firing up my diffuser with my favorite oil blend to give me a boost. There is a diffuser blend for every mood and it can make a huge difference in energy levels and overall comfort. To me, there is nothing better than having a fresh smelling house or office. It feels clean and it feels good. I highly recommend getting that boost in your day from having a diffuser in your office. The Peppermint, Fresh Start, and Yoga are my favorite blends from Sage.

4. Fab Four Green Smoothie Every Day For Breakfast I am not going to lie, I have never been a smoothie fan. Not even a little bit. However, I started reading and learning from Kelly Leveque and she spoke of the benefits of replacing one meal a day with a fab four smoothie in order to boost energy and clarity of mind. I started to replace my breakfast with a green smoothie and it actually worked! The Fab Four Smoothies are just the simple addition of the Fab Four ingredients – protein, fat, fiber and greens. She shows you how simply starting your day with a Fab Four smoothie can kickstart your Body Love journey so I recommend checking her out. I personally ‘love’ (ok…not love…tolerate) the green smoothie and it doesn’t break the bank! My smoothie has spinach, chia seeds, almond milk, almond butter, and collagen powder or protein powder. It has completely boosted my energy and gave me a new appreciation for smoothies. But….it isn’t amazing in taste….but sooooo worth it!

5. Amped Up Skin Care Routine I have always washed my face but I did it quickly to get it over with and never really paid attention to what I was using. Now that I know more about the importance of certain products and more about my skin type, I am being more intentional and it has made a huge difference. My skin has always been a little sketchy. I didn’t realize having a very intentional skin care routine with the right products for your skin type would make such a difference in my overall feeling about myself! I began making sure that I not only had a skin care routine for my face but also my body. It helped beyond having clearer skin. The dry skin feeling went away so I felt better overall which helped my mood. It gave me energy and even helped with the wrinkles. Now who wouldn’t want that!

6.Blocking Out Time For Fun Leaders, you need to have fun too! This is self care at it’s finest! This pandemic has given me the time to look at how I have fun. I love to go out and have a nice glass of wine with friends and that probably won’t change anytime soon. It is still one of my favorite fun things to do. But I found that fun things always came last. I learned the power of my calendar and scheduling in fun. I make sure that set very intentional times to let loose and have that glass of wine, play at the park with my kiddos, have a dance party, play a board game, watch a classic Disney movie, etc. I even found my old love of playing card games came back. Connection is important too. I set aside Sunday mornings for an hour to facetime with a friend and have coffee. I make sure we have some zoom parties and watch hockey or movies with family and friends too. I can’t wait until we can do this in person! The point is make sure you have fun in a consistent basis and not just when you get around to it.

Being intentional about looking at how healthy your leadership is should become a priority. If you take care of your own health and mindset, everything else will rise right along with it. You deserve this! I challenge you to take a step back and reflect on how healthy your leadership is. Set an intentional plan moving forward to start infusing some self care into each day and see what happens! Here’s to healthy leadership!

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