Well-being: 4 Areas to Lead Yourself In
Well-being: an often overlooked yet key component of self-leadership. And depending on the source you’re researching, there could be any number of categories connected to the state of well-being. But in the broadest sense of the word, it’s defined as, “the state of being happy, healthy or prosperous.”
Well, at Building Champions, we’ve identified four specific areas of well-being, believing that each of them is equally important, and all of them matter to self-leadership. In this article, we discuss how to address your physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being so that you can lead yourself well and show up as your best self in all aspects of your career and life.
Poor Well-being Linked to New Chronic Illness
Gallup recently released some sobering data on how poor well-being is linked to chronic illness. They learned that U.S. workers with poor well-being are almost twice as likely to develop a new chronic illness within a three-year period than those with a high well-being. This is a leadership issue. We are all responsible to lead ourselves well and take care of our well-being. But we also have the privilege to encourage others to grow in their self-leadership. And whether you realize it or not, you have influence. So let’s dive into four key areas of well-being so that we can lead ourselves well and, in turn, positively impact those around us.
4 Areas to Consider for a Healthy Well-being
Physical well-being. This consists of our fitness and nutrition. We may have injuries or illnesses to combat, but for the health of our physical well-being, we can control what we eat, what we do and how we care for our bodies. Diet plays a huge role in how we feel. Consider your caffeine intake—too much can make you anxious. How are you nourishing your body? There will be days when a quick meal option is all you can manage to snag, and that’s okay. But if you can plan your meals intentionally, not only will your days go more smoothly, but your body will be more energized. And exercise—that doesn’t mean you have to get a gym membership, so go with what works for your body and your finances. Sometimes a 30-minute brisk walk outside is just what is needed to boost your outlook and enhance your well-being.
Mental well-being. We can all put effort into maintaining a healthy mental state. In the workplace, this can often look like how we cope with stress, obstacles, failures and competing priorities. There will be seasons in life and leadership when our mental well-being is tested. So what does that look like for you? Do you know what triggers you? Do you know how you react under pressure or stress? How do you respond to failure? It’s important to spend some time understanding yourself—and the underlying thought patterns that surface when you make a mistake or experience stress. By understanding yourself, you’ll be better able to engage your EQ (emotional intelligence) in those moments so that you can show up in a healthy and reasonable way. That doesn’t mean you won’t have moments of frustration—because you’re human and that’s normal—but it does mean that you can maintain a healthy mental well-being.
Social well-being. For the introverted types, a healthy social well-being may look less active than it does for the extrovert (or ambivert)—but that doesn’t mean it’s not integral to an overall healthy well-being. Relationships have a huge impact on our health and well-being. And the quality of our relationships really matters. So what part are you playing in the relationships that matter most to you? How are you nurturing them? Do the people closest to you know how much you care? And are you taking time to invest in those relationships? Does anything need to change in your schedule to allow for more social interaction? Make sure you’re prioritizing your social well-being as it can often be overlooked when the pace of life gets fast.
Spiritual well-being. This doesn’t only reference a faith or belief system; it definitely encompasses it, but spiritual well-being can also extend to your convictions, your sense of purpose and how you derive meaning from your life. If you are living in alignment with your stated convictions, then you’ll experience a healthy level of spiritual well-being. And if you’re making decisions that go against your convictions, values or belief system, then you’ll experience a poor state of spiritual well-being. It can take time to determine your purpose, but it’s vital to do so if you want to experience fulfilling days. Our 3B Personal Vision tool can help you determine your purpose and convictions (and we walk you through it in our Lead with Vision digital course so check that out, if you haven’t already).
As we shared earlier, Gallup released some revealing data in their report—so we want to remind ourselves and encourage you to stop and assess your own self-leadership in the area of well-being and all categories that follow. Sometimes we need some help to get our priorities straight and our schedules aligned with our convictions. And that’s what our executive coaches love to do. In our Elevate Your Self-Leadership coaching program, you’ll create a plan for your life to help you get clear on your life priorities and develop a healthy state of well-being. Reach out, we’d love to work with you.
