Applying performance science

Keywords

Resilience – Performance Science – Purposeful Thinking – Goals – Decision Making – Brutal Focus

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled Carla Fowler an executive coach and founder of Thaxa shares her unique journey transitioning from a background in medicine and science to performance coaching. Carla emphasises intentional thinking as a skill to develop through practice and stresses the need for structured thinking processes and engaging with dialogue partners to clarify priorities for progress.

In discussing performance science, Carla outlined strategy or focus, execution efficiency, and mindset resilience as key areas. She highlighted strategic thinking's role in decision-making amidst uncertainty, focusing on good processes over specific outcomes. She also described obstacles to decision-making, including rushing decisions or over-analysis, advocating for brutal focus and simplicity over complexity to achieve success with greater intentionality.

Carla's methodology centres on using performance science to help leaders achieve ambitious goals. She urges deliberate thinking development, akin to building a muscle, emphasizing time for structured thinking and clear priority setting. Embracing brutal focus, Carla champions doing less with greater intentionality rather than seeking more, challenging the need for complexity when simplicity can lead to success.

Main topics

• Building transferable capabilities.

• Practicing purposeful thinking

• Setting goals and priorities to drive progress.

• Being comfortable with uncertainty in decision-making processes.

• The need for a structured approach to decision-making.

• Considering time constraints and opportunity windows.

• Focusing on simplification and removing unnecessary tasks to enhance decision-making effectiveness.

• The "brutal focus" approach to problem-solving by eliminating distractions and excess initiatives.

 Timestamps

1: Introduction to Coaching Methodology. Introduction to a coaching style using performance science to approach ambitious goals. Building transferable capabilities based on science and medical background. 00:59 - 03:25

2: Importance of Purposeful Thinking. Challenges of making time for thinking in a fast-paced environment. Practicing purposeful thinking through dialogue and asking important questions. Strategies for sticking with the thinking process and building endurance. 04:14 - 09:00

3: Applying Performance Science. Multidisciplinary nature of performance science, focusing on thought performance. Breakdown of performance science into strategy, execution, and decision-making elements. Importance of mindset in facing uncertainty and making decisions. 11:58 - 15:17

4: Clarity and Focus in Decision-Making. Process for making decisions in uncertain situations and having a clear plan. Common obstacles in decision-making processes and the need for sufficient time.  Importance of focus and brutal prioritization in problem-solving. 16:23 - 21:20

5: Coaching Process and Cognitive Reengineering. Explanation of the term "Greek" in relation to tasks and achievements. Cognitive reengineering in coaching to break down goals for clarity. Sharing resources for learning more about coaching and performance science. 22:46 - 24:53

 Action items

To find out more about Carla please visit www.thaxa.com or the welcome page https://www.thaxa.com/p/resilience-unravelled for a free download of The 8 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Choosing a Coach (and how to avoid them!)

You can connect with Carla at https://www.linkedin.com/in/carla-fowler/ or https://twitter.com/DrCarlaFowler

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.   

Productivity – balancing consistency and intensity

We’ve always been told that the harder we work the more successful we’d be. However, the definition of what success is and how we achieve it changing, and one of the ideas now being considered is whether working consistently gets the same results of working longer and harder - but without the burnout.

It’s younger members of the workforce who are driving this, by recognising that you can achieve goals without having to compromise your own physical and mental wellbeing. That being consistent, even for short periods each day, can be as important as intensity in achieving longer term goals. In terms of productivity, it’s a relationship that varies depending on the individual and the context.

Finding the right balance is the key. Consistency is often associated with establishing habits and routines. It helps create a stable and predictable work environment, making it easier to plan and manage tasks. Regular, small efforts over time can lead to significant progress. An overemphasis on consistency alone though may lead to a lack of innovation or the ability to tackle big challenges that require bursts of intense effort.

Intensity, or focused and concentrated effort meanwhile can be highly effective for tasks that require deep concentration or creative problem-solving. It can lead to quick progress and breakthroughs, especially for complex or challenging projects. But relying solely on intensity can lead to burnout if sustained for long periods and may also make it challenging to maintain a consistent level of productivity over the long term.

Combining consistency and intensity can provide a solid foundation for productivity. This might include setting regular work hours, creating a dedicated workspace, consistently prioritising tasks, identifying key tasks or projects that require intense focus and dedicating specific periods of time maybe through time blocking techniques. It’s also important to recognise the importance of rest and recovery. Balancing intense work periods with breaks and time away from work can help prevent burnout and maintain long-term productivity.

Ultimately, the right balance between consistency and intensity will depend on individual preferences, the nature of their work, and personal circumstances. Experimenting with different approaches and being adaptable to changing needs can help you find the most effective productivity strategy for yourself and also ensure you stay physically and mentally healthy.

The ethics of Impression management

Wanting to create a favourable impression is a basic part of human nature. Once someone forms an opinion of you, it can be very difficult to change and, whilst we can’t control people’s opinions, there are ways in which we can present ourselves which are more likely to get a positive opinion.

Impression management involves consciously or unconsciously controlling the way others see or perceive us so we can manage what we say about ourselves and make the best possible impression. It’s something we all do to a greater or lesser degree but whether it’s ethical or not depends on the context, intent and means we use to manage our impression to help us achieve professional and personal goals.

If impression management is to be both effective and ethical, it's important to strike a balance between projecting a positive image and remaining true to our core values and principles. Authenticity is key and while it's essential to create a positive professional image, it should be based on our true skills, abilities, and values. Being seen as overly inauthentic can lead to issues around trust and our credibility.

One of the most obvious ways impression management is used is during a job interview. Candidates and interviewers both feel the need to appear ‘authentically perfect’, pleasant, competent but not so perfect as to be disingenuous. Whilst some self-promotion can help candidates and potential employers leave a positive impression, interviews are not the time to make false claims – a lack of skills, competencies or difficult working conditions will be found out pretty quickly so, as well as being unethical, it can be a lot more damaging to your reputation in the longer-term.

Another way of using impression management in the work environment is in how we build relationships with our colleagues. People often have a work ‘persona’, which might involve behaviour, appearance and interests that they think their managers and colleagues want them to have. This isn’t unusual and isn’t really a problem as long as people don’t try to own ideas or achievements that aren’t theirs or manipulate situations to their own benefit. If they do they generally get caught out - think of the numerous influencers who've tried - and again it’s not only unethical and reputation damaging but a very quick way to divide teams.

Impression management is only effective and ethical if it’s based on transparency and honesty. It becomes unethical the minute it involves deception or manipulation. Whether its appropriate depends on the context in which its used. Used correctly, it can help in the success of your career and in building strong relationships with colleagues and managers. Ultimately, authenticity is the key, and impression management a tool to help us achieve our goals rather than something that compromises our identity.

Be inspired by success ... and failure

Keywords

Resilience – Success – Failure – Vision - Goals

In this episode of Resilience Unravelled, Dr Russell Thackeray talks to Jim Harshaw, a personal performance coach and host of the Success Through Failure podcast. Despite humble beginnings as the son of a construction worker and secretary, Jim became an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler and later the youngest Division I head coach in the country.

Jim initially struggled to achieve his goal of becoming an All-American wrestler but on the eve of his last season as a senior wrestler, he gave up on obsessing over the outcome and instead focused solely on putting in his best effort without worrying about whether it would lead to achieving his goal or not. This mindset shift allowed him to perform at his best and enjoy competing more than ever before.

Now as president of The Harshaw Group, his performance coaching firm, he has helped CEOs, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 leaders, and athletes from the NFL, UFC, NCAA, and Olympics maximize their potential, build high- performing teams, and increase resilience by leveraging failure for successim. Jim emphasises that while having a vision and goals are important for success, it's equally crucial to let go of any fear or fixation on outcomes so that you can focus fully on performing your best in each moment without being held back by anxiety or pressure.

Main topics

• The elements of the four-part framework for success

• The importance of mental focus, hard work, and inspired action.

• The importance of focusing on the process rather than the outcome.

• How creating a vision in all areas of life (relationships, self, health, and wealth) is critical for setting goals that align with one's purpose

• The importance of failure in personal growth

• The need for infrastructure to support resilience in real-world situations

• The difference between hard work and inspired action and the significance of having both in alignment with one's vision.

• The importance of having a clear vision and values to create an environment of excellence.

• Why having goals, micro-goals, coaches, and people around you is essential for achieving success consistently.

Timestamps

1: Introduction to Resilience Unravelled - 00:00-00:33
2: Four-part framework for success - 05:35-11:11
3. Applying the framework - 11:11- 17:57
4: Mindset and Performance Psychology - 18:22-22:43
5: Learning and Growth - 25:17-26:32
6: Conclusion and Call to Action - 27:39- 34

Action items

Visit Jim’s website, jimharshawjr.com/resilience to schedule a 30-minute conversation about how the framework applies to your life, or to listen to some episodes and access the action plans from those episodes.

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.  

The benefits of team collaboration.

A highly-motivated and engaged workforce that's in-tune with one another not only improves productivity and efficiency, but also the long-term well-being of individuals as well as enabling better idea-sharing and problem-solving.

A recent Stanford University study highlighted the benefits of effective team collaboration by showing that employees who were primed to act collaboratively stuck to their task 64% longer than those that worked alone, The research also reported higher engagement levels, lower fatigue levels and a higher success rate whilst another report by the Institute for Corporate Productivity showed that a collaborative approach helps companies by revealing that firms promoting collaborative working are five times more likely to be high performing.

Team collaboration refers to the process of working together towards a common goal or objective. In a collaborative team environment, individuals come together to share ideas, insights, and knowledge to achieve a shared goal and this is essential for achieving success in any organisation, as it allows individuals to leverage their unique strengths and expertise to create innovative solutions and drive results. When teams collaborate effectively, they achieve better outcomes than individuals working in isolation, by drawing on the diverse perspectives and experiences of all team members.

To foster effective team collaboration, it's important to establish clear communication channels, roles and responsibilities, and to set expectations around how individuals, teams and departments work together. This may involve defining shared goals and objectives, establishing processes for sharing information and ideas, and providing feedback and support to team members.

It is also essential to build a positive team culture that encourages openness, trust, and mutual respect among team members that will promote a growth mindset, continuous learning and development, and the recognition and celebration of individual and team achievements. The correct tools are also required so collaboration software and tools, such as project management software, communication platforms, and file-sharing tools, as well as training and support to help individuals use these tools effectively need to be in place.

Collaboration is all about making staff feel part of a team that is working towards the same goals so when everyone is fully invested and pulling in the same direction, the end result will be far more positive, for both the team and the company.

Ultimately, team collaboration can lead to more effective and efficient work processes, improved outcomes, and a stronger sense of community and purpose within organisations.

Setting goals so your resolutions work for you

Well, we’re already a week into January and many of us will have already blown our New Year Resolutions! A multitude of things could have got in the way - a lack of time, too little planning, bad communications or day-to-day routines – but the underlying cause is that we don't set goals.

Resolutions are doomed to fail because deep down we know there’s a very good chance they won’t happen – our objectives aren’t based on a clear assessment of what we are doing right, and what we could improve on. We need to set goals, to regularly check on those goals and to put the structure around them that ensures that they don’t just become another “things to do” list.

We’ve found these five simple points are really helpful when setting goals - and also in keeping our resolutions! 

1. Give yourself a timeline

A timeline can make goals seem achievable. It will help you to put a plan in motion, evaluate your progress, and ultimately see your goals realised.

2. Be specific

Be specific about a goal and make it concrete. For example, ‘losing weight’ doesn’t really give you something specific to aim for. If however your goal is to lose a particular amount of weight in a specified time through the improvement of your diet (by reducing your blood sugars) and increasing your exercise, you’ve really got something to go for.

3. Keep your friends and family informed

Regular conversations are a great opportunity to discuss your progress and to share any concerns, questions or feedback. If you need extra support, they will help you find it. It’s also a good way to ensure long-term goals and strategies are kept to the forefront of your mind.

4. Be realistic

Goal setting is essential providing you are realistic about your targets. Unattainable goals only lead to disappointment so regularly reviewing your long-term goals and taking stock of what worked and what didn’t allows you to adjust your goals accordingly.

5. Time for you

A healthy work-life balance demands time out. All work and no play is a recipe for mental and physical disaster. If you have trouble freeing up time to do the things you enjoy, diary some regular time to "meet with yourself" and stick to it.

In short, making resolutions is the easy part. Keeping them is tougher but with realistic, actionable and attainable goals by the end of 2023 you may find all the boxes ticked

From ladder to leader

Ryan Larson has been a fire fighter for 21 years for the city of Phoenix. When he left high school he didn’t really know what to do with his life so he joined the fire explorer programme. He now feels that not only did it introduce him to the fire service, it also helped to mold him into being a good citizen and human being. Ryan had had some issues when he was growing up. His upbringing had been pretty tough and he wasn’t the best kid .He got involved in street fights but the fire explorer programme helped him to develop into a good leader and a good advocate and voice for his clients in his second career, the financial service sector,

In the emergency services sector people often talk about the physical requirements, the structure, the sense of clarity and knowing what you have to do and your role. But you also have to use your brain. Being a firefighter isn’t just about running into a burning building, it’s about knowing your environment, knowing the structure and what you’re going into. You’re trained to use all your senses  - if you go up to a door and its really hot your senses tell you not to go through it so you have to change tactics. It develops you into someone who is able to use their skills to see the dangers. You’re planning, plotting, analysing and doing major risk management in your head as you walk through a building.

There are other skills the fire service provides in terms of being a leader. Getting out into the community and speaking about fire safety needs good communication skills. When Ryan started out as a young firefighter he didn't have these skills. He had struggled at school and the fire service helped him to articulate his words in both his professional and personal life.

As a firefighter you see a lot. On average there are 10- 15 calls per shift. You can be up all night, suffer from sleep deprivation and then when you come home you have to take care of your family and maybe juggle another career. There is the mental aspect of ‘how do I cope with things’. You can’t just tuck everything under the bed. When you see a lot of traumatic things over the years you can become a little desensitized but you need to talk to people because if you don't lower the wall you put up and show your true feeling that's where the mental struggle is going to happen. You need to talk to people. You see a lot of stuff and you need to share it. If you don't share it you lock it away and then you become a little bitter or angry. As a firefighter you see the worst of people sometimes as well as the best.

Nowadays there is a big push about sharing your feelings but this works differently for men. They talk about things in a different way – when Ryan is talking to his workmates they sometimes use dark humour to get them through sensitive issues. Making fun of things becomes a coping mechanism. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect them, it hurts to see people in their worst moments but you have to have some sort of dialogue. Many conversations take place at the table and are very intimate but they don't go outside the walls. You need to bring some light heartedness to the profession because it’s such a stressful profession especially in these days where a lot of things are going on in the world.

Many firefighters have a second income because being a firefighter does not pay enough.  They make a modest income but there a stability in the fire department with a guaranteed income coming in every two weeks and a pension that be accessed after twenty years service. Even so a lot of firefighters have side hustles because ultimately they are hard workers and just want to supplement living expenses and their lifestyle with more money.

It makes sense to transition into second career whilst you are still involved in your first career – it’s sensible to be getting started earlier rather than later. Ryan took the decision to move into the financial services area – moving from one of the most respected careers to one of the most disliked. Ryan realises there is a shadow over the financial world, that some salespeople are looking out for their best interest rather than their clients. Ryan had always looked after his own investments so his plan was always to exit the fire service and move into the financial sector. Initially he had conversations with his co-workers about his own investments and they became interested and started to ask him to look at their finances so he always had a lot of people watching him. He wasn't your typical salesman who comes in and sells you a mutual fund and then walks out the door and collects the fees. Had an obligation to accumulate their wealth so they could achieve their goals.

Ryan’s started writing his book in 2020 during the pandemic. He wanted to share his story of being resilient and the steps he took to achieve his goals. He hadn’t been a good student but that didn’t limit him from achieving all his goals.

You can find out more about Ryan at http://www.laddertoleaderbook.com where you also find his book Ladder to Leader: My Journey from Failure to Fire to Financial Freedom

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Turn towards your dreams

Machiel Klerk is a licensed therapist and expert on dreams. He is founder of the Jung Platform, an online space offering psychological and spiritual perspectives to live a life of meaning in which you are connected to soul and is also the author of Dream Guidance, Hay House/June 2022).

Machiel became interested in dreams in his early 20’s. He was stuck in life, didn't know where to go and had not dealt with the grief of losing his father at a young age. He became fascinated by the works of Jung, which opened the door to the world of dreams. He realised how dreams could help people connect with their lives, with purpose, with the worldview about life and death and all the other fundamental aspects of existence.

Machiel saw that his dreams reflected his own internal dynamics and displayed aspects of himself that he wasn’t aware of. He saw unhelpful behaviours being played out by dream characters and would then ask where in his life was it from. Once he admitted to doing the same things, he could then correct the more destructive behaviours but he also saw that dreams could be used to point out direction and the way to go.

If you go back to the last dream or a very intense dream you have had, you will remember that you were in an environment – you were somewhere where you were having an experience. A dream is a world you find yourself in during your sleep. Your mind is still awake in the dream but you are not very aware so you forget about it and don't even know you are in the dream world. When you know that a dream is a world that you find yourself in you can have and practice experiences. Most research shows that this state of consciousness stays with us the moment we wake up so we continue to live in this world with the dream world co-existing.

You might want to be able to join in the your own experience of the dream to make sense of it. Once you are there it is possible to learn the reality of how the dream is constructed, how your own mind creates part of the dream and your emotions, expectations and intent. You can also ask for experiences or to be shown something important. This gives us an enriched sense of experiences and makes us elastic and better able to carry out the broad range of emotions feelings and experiences in this world and be more resilient and effective with a more enriched balance of the experiences of life.

It is possible to interpret dreams but there are huge limitations to this. Usually interpretations come from the idea that the dream is a letter that needs to be deciphered whereas it’s actually an inner world or environment. If you ask a question such as ‘I’m in a maze and I cant get out’ almost inevitably this is an experience you are having in your day-to-day life. Your dream repeats this and if you can start to slow it down, start to feel in your body what it feels like to be stuck, not to know how to get out, you can start training yourself to feel that you have to hurry up to get out of this. By slowing down and feeling it, you may be able to sustain the tension of not knowing so maybe something else can come up as well. There is a self-organising mechanism inside of us that offers very creative solutions for the troubles we find.

Nightmares are almost like dreams with the eyes open.  The dream life and this world seem to intersect. Dreams often deal with fear and almost always there is too much or too little fear in the individuals life. Research after World War 2 was done with veterans who started to write down and acknowledge their dreams about what had already happened. The positive impact was that by paying some attention to what’s was going on inside of them instead of running away they turned to towards it.

Some people have recurring dreams that they get stuck on. Something in our habitual consciousness or ego hasn't been picked up on. The dream is trying to communicate a different style of living that's more conducive but we continue to run towards the thing we are doing that's not effective. If you engage with the dream then the dream will start rearranging itself and providing ways to deal with it. Write it down, engage with it or talk to dream character so habitual cracks open and the energy in the dream will provide a different state of consciousness that is a better adaption to life.  Turning towards your dream and engaging with it is the key. By pushing it away it’s making the dream reoccur. Dreams are providing information to interpret something from the past or to prepare for something in the future.

Dreams are often seen as goals and can sometimes be the catalyst to great innovation. Some breakthroughs in science, music and other art forms come from spontaneous, helpful dreams. People can proactively consult with their dream as if it's a counselor or a helpful friend in their dream who who responds to heartfelt, genuine questions about their life. It's a way we can engage with the world of dreams.

 You can find more about Machiel at http://www.jungplatform.com or http://www.machielklerk.com

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Growing a business to give back. Critical lessons in love and leadership.

Revanti “Rani” Puranik is co-owner, EVP and Incoming CEO of Houston-based Worldwide Oilfield Machine (WOM). Over 15 years ago, she joined WOM, an oil and gas equipment manufacturing firm, and has since implemented the framework for communication standardisation operations and business development. As a result of these frameworks, the company grew to more than $350 million in annual revenue. Rani has been named one of the “Top 25 Most Influential Women in Energy 2022” by Oil and Gas Investor and Hart Energy.

Rani grew up in Houston, Texas for the first nineteen years of her life. For the next nineteen she lived in Pune, India were she founded and ran a dance company for leadership and empowerment. In 2007 she moved back to Houston where she joined WOM and in 2014 she graduated with a MBNA in Finance from Rice University. In 2016 she became the global Global CFO at WOM before becoming the incoming CEO. A different part of her life is that she is the Chair for her family foundation. The Puranik Foundation operates a residential school in Pune India for under-resourced children with 250 children currently living on campus. Three generations of Rani’s family are involved with the foundation, her mother who set it up, Rani who is very active in multiple programmes across the globe and Rani’s eldest daughter who is the managing director for all of the US based foundation projects. Rani also has a third hat, with her first book due to be published in November 2022.

The oil industry is still heavily male dominated so Rani has needed to be resilient.  She feels that there have been a number of women ahead of her who paved the way and allowed her to be stronger in the business. She also believes that the industry goes beyond gender and is more about merit. If we show up as human beings, are dedicated, committed, understand our skills and talent, are open minded and able to collaborate with a variety of people it goes beyond what your gender is. When people start to look at you in a meritocracy you are taken forward and that is what has helped her to stand her ground.

There a lot of women in senior positions who feel they are more talented than their male colleagues because they've had to fight twice as hard to get where they want to be. Rani would give these voices credit because they have had to fight a little harder, been stronger, showed up a bit more, been more resilient and had to give the benefit of the doubt. It has happened in the oil industry but it is easing up a little bit and Rani has seen a change with a push towards hard work and merit.

Rani’s family has always had an ‘earn and return’ philosophy. WOM was started by father and he was always focused on business growth but her mother is more about what can we give back to society. Rani can understand the views of both parents and the way she sees is that we are not immortal. With that in mind she is building and growing the business to really give back. The goal for the next five years is to be a $1 bn company but in tandem with that is the life goal – the company wants to positively impact one billion lives around the world. This is more than a company philosophy, its the culture and fabric of who they are as a company and team.

By wrapping meaning into the working day people can see that they are there to achieve not only a financial goal but that they also have a goal of purpose. When things get tough you know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Their customers are not just clients who pay - they are every life they can touch. This can be the lives of people working in the company though employee programmes and benefits or the career ladder but also by impacting positively and making life better for the end customer. What keeps the company going is innovation and efficiency. If they can bring the overall coast down that gets handed over to the customer so their expenses come down and the end user eventually gains the benefit.

The company is also very clear on its impact on the environment. They do provide equipment to drill for oil and gas but use technology to minimise the disposal, the materials used and the overall harm to the environment. In operations they consider the people out on the fields to make their life safer, better and easier as well as produce at a more economical rate. Their philosophy is about people.

The nature of business is to innovate and many businesses in the sector are getting into more renewable alternative energy. At WOM they consider themselves to be a vertically integrated manufacturing company with their core competences being in bending and molding steel with very specialised coating processes. They are primarily an engineering and manufacturing company who can cater for any heavy industry requirements out in the field, for example rail, defence or shipbuilding, so that is the type of expansion they are looking at in addition to renewables.

Being the founder and CEO of a dance company in India and now CEO of a multinational, Rani has realised there are 4 stages to leadership.  Stage 1 is listening, Stage 2 is acting as the bridge, Stage 3 is providing inspiration and Stage 4 is letting go, which Rani feels is the best part of leadership. Employees have gone through the different stages and now have the inspiration, confidence, and know how to lead.

The idea of legacy is important to Rani. This hit her when she lost her brother in 2018. He was 8 years younger than her and his sudden passing made her realise that we are not immortal.  She feels that if she can make conscious and mindful decisions today she will have the potential to make the next life better and her efforts will pass on from one life to the next. To Rani the effort and intension of making a life better are a legacy. This can be linked to her creation of meaning. When things get tough there is a sense of purpose and legacy in both the organisation and the foundation.

People often see large companies with huge resources and wealth but whether it’s in good times or bad, Rani feels we are all just stewards. She has always been spiritually inclined and has looked for a larger purpose and meaning in life. This isn’t just because she is part of a big family business but because she feels very responsible and that has made her look for that meaning. There are always situations when we have to dig in our heels, stay determined and keep going but there are also times when we have to surrender and say I’m not in control here. Not everything goes our way and that's when it clicks and you realise you are just a steward, a bridge to connect one generation to the next. If you give your best then everything else will come together and when you give with a good heart in some shape or form it does come back.

Rani’s book Seven Letters to My Daughters (Morgan James Publishing, Fall 2022), pulls together different threads and strands of her life. The motivation to write it came from her girls who said she should write her story so her message can become her legacy. She dug into the science of ourselves and found that conceptually we regenerate ourselves every seven years so as human beings we are new people every seven years. She wrote a letter for every 7 years and each contains a critical lesson of love and how to lead. What is it to be a leader How do you lead? What does legacy mean and how do you build that? They are things she believes has made her successful, satisfied and peaceful in this day and age.

For more information, please visit https://ranipuranik6.wpengine.com/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Welcome to 2022!

Well, after what’s been a long year, an exciting year and for many, a challenging year, we’ve made through 2021. Whilst some people found it a tricky year to navigate, others found it a lot easier, but however we got through 2021, its what we do next that matters.

2022 has all the makings of being a fascinating year, a pivotal year and what’s needed is the mindset to make the most of it. A lot of people start the New Year by drawing up a set of resolutions but don't build the plan with the means to achieve it. Without a breakdown that takes you from the beginning to the end you’re set up to fail.  

Writing resolutions can though be more of a bigger picture exercise. Using something like the Wheel of Life can help you look forward to the future in 10, 20 or 30 years time. By looking at things like where am I going to be psychologically, in my career, financially, or relationship wise, you can see the bigger picture that can then help you figure out resolutions for the short term.  Of course, if our goals aren’t long term enough or ambitious enough, our resolutions can sometimes become trite and meaningless so don't grip our imaginations. For 2022 why not tackle your resolutions differently – put a plan together for the whole year … with a reward attached when you achieve it.

Another option is to forget goals and resolutions and sit down and review the previous year. Figure out the things you want to stop, start and continue. Look at where you’re going and what you can stop doing. You’re probably not setting goals or resolutions based on what went before so look at what you want to do more of and what you want to do less of or stop doing. We’re all guilty of taking on more and more, whether it’s work or social commitments and we don't think about what we can mindfully remove from our lives.

The idea of stop, start and continue is very simple but it mind give you a better idea of how 2022 might find into the general direction of things. Maybe 2022 can be the year you can really sort out where you are going. Work-wise, it might be a case of asking yourself whether your work still has purpose and meaning? Is it where I want to be? The future of work is changing and the rebalancing of the labour market and the way we are working means there is the opportunity to make changes.

Some people have already made considerable changes, moving from the idea of financial reward to that of seeing a tangible outcome. This year there is the potential to ask ‘do I really want this or am I just doing it for for the money’. Four criteria you could use to look at your job are whether it brings money, intellectual challenge, fun or achievement. If you’re not getting any of these from your role it’s possible that it’s total lack of meaning and interest could lead to burnout. Ask yourself what do I want from this year? If you don't know what you want, reverse it and ask what don't I want? What is the purpose and meaning of work in your life? How important is it in the scheme of things. Remember your focus will change at different stages in your life. You could also try to write a bucket list, bunches of different ideas and things you haven’t tried. We can easily get stuck in a rut doing the things we always do and finding meaning is not always about having things or going places rather finding happiness in what we do.

2022 is about change. The culture of organisations, the world economy and coming out of Covid will all lead to change which in turn will creates opportunities … and risks. The more we can plan for the future, the less anxious you will feel about it. Once you’ve worked out what you want or don't want to do you can apply self-discipline and focus to achieve it.  Here’s where it can go wrong through. Sometimes we get distracted by things that give us a greater or short- term reward or procrastinate too long so we miss the discipline of long-term goals.

Whatever the root-cause of your distraction, take away the decisions and just go out and do it! Dump the rules and just make choices. Decide what you want and then go out and do it. Chose to do one thing, enjoy it then choose something else to do the next day. Choices are what help’s us to make the life we want. Decision fatigue comes from having too many decisions to make so in a way it’s easier to say no to everything rather than having to challenge ourselves by making lots of small decisions.

Maybe we should make 2022 a year of choice. Whether we choose to be different, choose to get something special for ourselves, choose to deliver more than we think we can, the first choice we need to make is to have a plan behind us!

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.