Are you investing in yourself?

As we start heading in to the last stretch of the year, I’m aware many of us are feeling tired and lagging the energy to feel inspired and motivated to our usual level.

I had a conversation with a coaching client about this last week. She was quite overwhelmed, feeling bad about not functioning as per normal or living up to her own expectations, personally or professionally. Even though she knew many things that she was dealing with were outside her sphere of influence, she noticed her inner critic was loud, eroding her energy and positive outlook.

Her big question in all of this was how to jump off the treadmill and shift gears to create a different trajectory for herself. She really didn’t want to end the year totally gutted and have nothing left for her family over the summer holidays.

This is such a common dilemma at these times. Expectations are through the roof. Huge, humanly impossible workloads are common.

Finding mental space to pause and reflect can be hard.

I feel that this week, an extra public holiday has emerged as a little life-raft. A day to pause. A day to take stock of how you are travelling.

I'm planning to make the most of the sunny Melbourne day and head out to the country for a bush walk. But before I do that, I'm putting aside time in the morning to reflect on how I am investing in myself and what I need to keep going in a sustainable way till the end of this year.

So what do you need at the moment to keep your energy up?

How can you step up and invest in yourself slightly more each day? Even an extra one minute of connecting with ourselves, can make a difference. It's like compounding interest, it is good for a healthy, energy balance.

If you're looking for more ways to make a deeper commitment to yourself and self-care, we have our popular programs Professional Resilience and Self-Leadership coming up in October. Links below.

I can also highly recommend Mel Kettle's great book Fully Connected: How great leaders prioritise themselves, reclaim their energy and find their joy. I have just finished reading part 1. The link to Mel's book is below, it is easy to read, very thoughtful and personal exploration of self-care and self-connection.