Your best just got better

Life/Work Balance in action

When I stop and consider how fortunate I am, the reminders come flooding into my mind. Just this morning, I awoke in Ojai and walked outside to find a star-filled sky. Looking to the west, I saw two shooting stars in the space of 5 minutes! Immediately, I noticed how warm it was...the Santa Ana winds last night brought us a temperature of 68 degrees...at 4:45am!
I began writing at 5am, and spent the next 95 minutes pouring ideas onto lined paper. Soon, the alarm rang (again)...it was time to go back outside.

Picture taken 02/17/2007  ~ 7:30am

The plan was to meet in Ventura. Our triathlon club puts weekend rides together, and today was one of my favorites. Ojai to Ventura to Santa Paula to Ojai. Along the way, before I met everyone at the starting point in Ventura, I stopped off at the beach and asked a couple to take my picture.

A colleague of mine - a financial analyst in NY and an Ironman triathlete - e-mailed recently to let me know it's very, very cold in NY these days. "Well," I say, "come out to CA for a little winter training!"

Another view on the "pie" of life

Link: More About Work-Life Balance.

It was at that moment that I realized that work and life were being viewed as slices of a pie that could somehow be sliced, with every piece equally tasty and available for consumption when desired.

Steve Roesler has an amazing (and detailed) blog where he discusses many of the topics I find interesting: work, life, expression, and more. Take a visit...let him know what you think!

What "is" balance, anyway?

I used to work especially hard to balance my work, interests and priorities. I now believe that it is not possible to do so.

But, I really want MORE!

Ok, admit it...are you really looking for "life/work balance?"

Before you read on, consider what that would even mean to you!

(From Inc.com) - Concerns about stress, productivity and the correct combination of work and personal time are issues whose importance extends well beyond the winter holidays.

More tips "from the trenches"

Mastering Work and Life Balance & Having More Fun

Do you need some advice to balance your work and your life? Well, here are several tips for balancing life, work, kids, inspirational quotes, and more.

Top Five Signs Your Work/Life Balance Needs Adjustment
Mastering Work and Life Balance & Having More Fun Here

The White Space - is there room?

Link: The White Space.

I think our life is just like a Chinese painting. In order to have balance and inner peace, you need sufficient "white space". Look at your own life now, how much "white space" do you have? Is your "life painting" overly cluttered and there's no breathing room left?

Sleep...is it really that important?

For a long time now, I've been interested in watching, tracking and re-thinking "sleep." How much do I need? When is it best? What happens during that time?

These and other questions are ones I find answers to every now and then. For a great book on the topic, check out this one. And, if you know of any research on the topic, and are willing to share, please pass it along...

There is an incredible article in a recent issue of Harvard Business Review, focusing on the topic of sleep deprivation on performance. Here is an abstract:

"Companies today glorify the executive who logs 100-hour workweeks, the road warrior who lives out of a suitcase in multiple time zones, and the negotiator who takes a red-eye to make an 8 a.m. meeting. But to Dr. Charles A. Czeisler, the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School, this kind of corporate behavior is the antithesis of high performance.

Self Care

What have you done for you lately? An interesting aspect of being FitAndEffective is implementing a meaningful and appropriate self-care program.

Massage, meditation, and classes like yoga go a long way in nurturing your body.  One way to implement the strategy is to make the inventory of things you find inspiring, restful, or nurturing.

You, at your best

I’ve got two questions for all readers:

What IS the top of your game? Do you know what improvement would look like?

Recently, someone asked, “Jason, what IS FitAndEffective? Is it just more information about work/life balance?”

I started to answer, and then I asked a favor. “Can I have a couple of days to get back to you?” I knew what I wanted to do, it was just going to take some time to do it. I went home, logged on to the Internet, and read through the posts on the site so far.

What I’m coming away with, after that exercise, is that FitAndEffective is a way of living. It’s an approach to life, work, and expression that goes beyond balance; it offers people the information, motivation and inspiration they can use to be who they are by enhancing how they are.

Thanks, Nancy, for that prompt. You’ve encouraged me to dig deeper into all of this…

What's the point of balance?

BALANCE: Our bodies seek a state called homeostasis.

When we face a stressor, your body AND your mind both respond. We each respond differently - emotionally and mentally - to each thing that comes "in." And, it's that response that affects us physically.

Take a moment, and consider the last thing that came in and grabbed a piece of your attention.Your response to that - either negative or positive - was the experience you take in to the next stressor.

One way to maximize your own productivity, and achieve and surpass your potential, is to track your own "normal" points. At the end of a day, or a project, check yourself. Are you comfortable? What's your self-talk? Would you do it differently next time?

Keep on reviewing your own progress. And, realize that you're always going to go "back" to the normal that you've set up. So, decide what your own homeostasis point(s) will be, and get back to that when you can!