Organizational Health

Inoculate Your Mind: Individual & Organizational Health

  1. November 10th, 2015  | 

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Published in Organization Health

It’s flu season.

Have you gotten your flu shot?

Most of us know the idea behind getting a flu shot is to introduce into the body a tiny amount of the very bacteria that would make us sick, thereby producing a less severe infection while inducing immunity to the sickness. However, individuals no more just rely on flu shots. Nowadays, people tend to consume a good amount of the best liposomal vitamin c supplements to boost their immunity so that when they get sick due to the flu, their bodies can recuperate easily and quickly. But is that all done by people to combat the symptoms of flu? Of course, not! There are many more things on the list.

For instance, some people will also stock up on different medications like nasal sprays (https://serp.co/best/nasal-moisturizing-spray/), cold and flu tablets, thermometers, etc. so they can track their symptoms and hopefully not get hit too bad if they do catch it. Should they be unlucky enough as to catch it, there will be a number of things they can do in order to help some of their symptoms. For example, those who feel nauseous as a result of flu may wish to look into the link between cannabis and nausea and how this could be a potential way for them to get some relief from the unpleasantness they are feeling. Other symptoms will come with their own ways of overcoming them, so it’s about individuals understanding how the flu affects them and what they need in order to combat this.

Either way, the practice of inoculation has been around for centuries and is generally thought to have earned widespread adoption for the prevention of smallpox.

For leaders looking to finish the year with a flourish, it’s worth remembering that it’s difficult to inspire organizational health when you’re not at the peak of your physical health.

As a head of the department, you may have to play the part of being a fitness inspiration in your office. You can start a health and fitness initiative with office colleagues, set up a small office gym, and encourage employees to get involved. Moreover, you can hire a part-time gym instructor who can guide people through workout plans, diets, necessary supplements intake (check out Steel Supplements – provider of muscle building supplements as well as other fitness products), and a few more activities.

It’s also a good reminder to inoculate your mind in order to be at your best mentally. To provide support to your team, you can also hire mental health counseling professional for the workplace to help improve the overall mental health in your office environment.

It’s All in Your Mind

In 1937, Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich in which he introduced the importance of positive thinking as a condition for success.

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe,” Hill wrote, “it can achieve.”

By the time of his death in 1970, Hill’s book had sold 20 million copies.More recently, medical evidence supports the power of positive thinking. Health experts now view biological and psychological causes as being intertwined.

“You really can’t separate the brain and the body, because psychology is biology,” James F. Jones, M.D., a chronic fatigue expert with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told PsychologyToday.com. “Everything that takes place in the brain is chemical or electrical. You can’t have the one without the other.”

5 Steps to Be Your Best

To produce high levels of individual and organizational health and performance, follow these five steps.

1. Take time to reflect. Phil Jackson won 11 NBA championships, more than any other coach. “When the mind is allowed to relax,” Jackson says, “inspiration often follows. That’s why I subscribe to the philosophy of the late Satchel Paige, who said, ‘Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.'”

So invest a little time and change your surroundings to put yourself in a more relaxed frame of mind. Take a train trip over a weekend. Or check into a luxury hotel for a one-person mini-vacation. What about a stroll along the sea shore, a hike on a mountain trail or a walk in the country to free your mind, get your heart pumping and your creative juices flowing?

Going away is not mandatory. Finding solitude for reflection is. For your quiet time alone, bring paper, blank journals, pencils and pens. Bring your laptop and mobile devices if you like, but make sure you’re focused on your personal quest and not the gizmo that will surely interrupt your thinking.

Ask: Am I willing to invest in uninterrupted alone time for myself?

2. Be clear about what you want. Most business leaders aspire to their positions because they envision a better life for themselves. More freedom. More personal fulfillment. More of the good life. Their natural abilities and passion to succeed help make them winners.

As their responsibility grows, some leaders gradually discover they’re working harder than ever. They may have cool toys and call the shots, but they may also find they’re having less fun. Work-life balance is a joke. The idea of a “better life” is an elusive goal. Sound familiar? Then answer these two questions: What do I want out of life? Is my business helping me get it or keeping me from it?

Make a list of personal goals that define winning on your terms using a goal-setting approach I developed called “The 7 Fs.” The exercise prompts you to consider what seven significant life categories— Family, Friends, Faith (spiritual), Fitness, Financial, Function (career) and Fun— will look like by a given time period. Download the free 7Fs template here.

Ask: What is it that I passionately want to achieve for myself?

3. Set deadlines. My wife, Janet, says, “If you want to get something done around the house, throw a party.” As the date of the party approaches it’s amazing how much gets accomplished. A deadline is one of the most powerful tools we have available to us for getting things done. What you do between when you make the commitment and when the deadline comes due is up to you.

Whatever you decide, your deadline is your party. And for high-performing leaders, the party is always just around the corner.

Ask: What contract am I willing to make with myself to hold myself accountable?

4. Identify your inner circle. The people on your team— in life, in sports, in business— are important because none of us ever accomplishes anything meaningful alone. The talent on your team is the best predictor of your future success. Organizational success. Individual success.

“My philosophy,” said Phil Jackson, “is that you can’t motivate players with speeches. You have motivated players that you draft. You cannot teach competitiveness.” Perhaps it’s time to retain an executive coach. If elite-level athletes have coaches, shouldn’t an elite-level leader? Iron sharpens iron.

Ask: Who are five people I spend most of my time with? Are they helping me or holding me back?

5. Rejoice. We are fulfilled when we accomplish something meaningful. We all have dreams. It’s true that some of us dream bigger and are more focused about turning those dreams into reality. It’s also true that things will not always go our way. But when we are clear about what we really want, set a deadline for achieving it, and then surround ourselves with people who bring our best, the chances are good we’ll hit what we’re aiming for.

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,” said Abraham Lincoln, “or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”

Ask: What’s the impact of achieving my goals? What’s the impact of not achieving them?

The human mind is a remarkable tool. It constructs roadblocks that don’t exist, and imagines possibilities previously unseen.

So inoculate your mind to be your best.

Then free your mind, allow it to soar and fly along with it to a new destination.

About the Author: Greg Bustin advises some of the world’s most admired companies and leaders, and he’s dedicated a career to working with CEOs and the leadership teams of hundreds of companies in a range of industries. He’s facilitated more than 250 strategic planning sessions, he’s delivered more than 700 keynotes and workshops on every continent except Antarctica, and he coaches leaders who are inspired to take their career to the next level. His fourth leadership book— Accountability: The Key to Driving a High-Performance Culture (McGraw-Hill) —is a Soundview Executive Best Business Book.

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