Mysteries of a Gen-Y Confidant

Stress is at the epicenter of many of our biggest productivity robbing pillars. We base our productivity on factors including mood, energy, and health. If any of these are out of balance we experience a decrease in our productivity. Remember a time of unusually productive circumstances, I would bet that none of them entailed a bad mood, low energy, and poor health.

Realizing the scope of our reach is one element of understanding our limits. By exploring the boundaries set by our reality we can then enter level of control over ourselves.

Mood

Our mood is not always dictated by the events, which populate our lives. We are always in control of our mood; moments exist when we realize that we are over reacting to a situation. These moments always occur, it is a matter of whether we take advantage of them or not. Events that have already taken place represent my favorite example. Here we have something, which has already taken its course, and it is within our power to control how we react to it.

Energy

Energy is not only dictated by our nutrition, but other factors such as sleep and exercise. This one happens to be the easiest to control, each part is directly within our control we just need to realize and prioritize them into our schedule.

Health

Health is not as simple as the others but is the aggregate of the other pieces: stress, mood, and energy, all of the systems working in balance to create a productive environment. Realizing the limitations of our control can help us define what is truly worth our attention. It is not the event that already occurred; it is not the missed exercise session. It is the mood we let overtake us when the event happens or the next opportunity to exercise or catch up on sleep. Remember that worrying or stressing about a situation out of your control is fruitless.

Consistency is boring right? Sometimes the benefits outweigh the costs, the activity in question concerns the free time that we can always find. Which activity relieves the most stress? Is it running, maybe you like yoga or kickboxing. Whatever your stress reliever make it a part of each day. Even when you think you don’t have time, find a place for it in your schedule.

This activity is one of the most important things grounding your mood, energy, and stress. The exercises, which put the body through eustress, are vital to the healthy functioning of our body. This might be the one thing that keeps you sane. Strength training is my favorite form of eustress; it forces you to focus on what is important in that moment, not killing yourself with each lift.

Often we find ourselves stressing over the workload we have to accomplish for the day. Exercise is often forgone to keep working when in reality it may improve our productivity. Because we clear our mind, increase our heart rate and release endorphins our bodies respond positively with more energy, focus and less stress. Combining these factors creates the perfect storm of productivity.

We should all strive to consistently make the choice that will enhance our performance. “Detoxing” our bodies through some form or exercise will allow our minds to refocus, relax and rejuvenate. Consistency is crucial; consider very imbalanced times in your life. These times represent the most stressed and unhealthy periods we face. Mentally and physically we are drained and unhappy. By casting this daily anchor we provide a firm handhold for unfailing health and productivity.

Everything grand in life is an aggregation of something seemingly insignificant. Everything is a piece of a larger whole that makes up our reality. Although we don’t always see the connections some are easier to appreciate and apply than others.

Look at something as fundamental as our health. We are built of many systems controlled by our brain to facilitate our life. Each system could be further broken down, but that would take forever. Focusing on our general health, we could assume it is the aggregation of many factors such as sleep, nutrition, and exercise. If we wanted a very precise model we could consider things like stress or mood.

Consider the aggregate, one whole day. All of the behaviors, and subtle actions we make. Each time we choose a Coke over water, or another TV show instead of sleeping. One of the questions I hear most often concerns exercise advice, more specifically what can be done to combat gaining weight. I tell people one of the simplest steps is just switching to water. Consider that if you had just 3 Cokes a week, which is much less than average intake, you would be consuming 420 calories.

Without considering your normal metabolic rate this would take you about 45 minutes on a treadmill at 6 mph. 45 minutes is a formidable amount of time on a treadmill, barring your exercise habits, this switch to water would significantly help your body maintain a healthy weight and you’re not even going to the gym! I’m not picking on Coke because I think they are evil, it is actually my favorite carbonated beverage and happens to be one of the largest drink manufacturers. Sorry Coke.

From a business standpoint, we could apply this rule of aggregates to our productivity. All that time on Facebook and Twitter adds up. Although they are very powerful tools they also happen to be very distracting. Consider all the extra time spent on these tools, it may be helping, but used irresponsibly that time and effort could be applied to result producing activities.

Add up the minutes and it could change your life!