What Can You Fall Back On?

Most of the time as Leaders, we try to always get results.

However, there are some days where any result feels like a struggle.

You wake up.

Get to the office.

Nothing seems to be going right.

You're irritated.

Technology seems to hate you.

Things happen out of your control.

Coffee doesn't help.

I don't often have days like this, but today has been one of them.

What do you do when these occur?

Most people try to power through, and in some very limited situations it may be required.

But more often than not this is a call to take a step back for a minute.

Generally, this is your body telling you that you need to rest.

It might not need a lot of rest, but it is almost always better to stop and listen to what your body needs.

When it happens, do you have a plan?

Most people do not have a plan, but our minds have a desire to do "something".

This is mostly a function of conditioning based on our, "always on" environment we are in.

It can be worked out of us, but the habit is deeply ingrained in most people.

Sometimes, it is easier to simply create a "Rest Plan" - what can you do in order to rest?

If we don't have a plan for rest, our brains will typically simply move on to what is next on our endless to-do lists.

But if you have a "Rest Plan", you can subvert the never-ending to-do list and add it moments to rest.

Usually, the more things you have on your list to use on your "Rest Plan", the more likely you will be to actually add in some rest.

In general, people can easily have a list of 1 or 2 items, but those items require a special set of "circumstances".

A typical item people include is "meditation", but requires a quite room, a mattress, or some waterfalls and butterflies to do it effectively - which are not easy to come by.

When those "requirements" are not easily obtained, our mind will simply try to go to the next thing on the to-do list.

However, if you have a list of 10-20 things you can do to "rest", and many of them require little to nothing "extra", you're more likely to actually choose rest.

Today I chose to listen to a song - Little Wonders by Rob Thomas.

It was a small 3.5-minute song, but it made a huge difference in my attitude.

Since it really only required me to have headphones (which I always carry 2 sets on me), it was extremely simple to do.

Instead of trying to force myself into the next thing, I was able to stop and release.

If you've followed my work for any period of time, you will also see that this is the Flow Cycle in action.

Struggle is what occurred in the morning.

For me, it was a higher level of struggle than I normally have, higher levels of Dis-Stress, which meant that I really needed to decrease it before Flow could be obtainable.

From there, I listened to my body and understood the Dis-Stress.

I fell back on a list of things I could do for Rest to reduce the Dis-Stress.

I chose to listen to a song that I really enjoy.

That allowed me to reduce my struggle, and I went straight into a release phase.

Now, I'm in a Flow State.

If I had attempted to write earlier, it would have been excruciatingly painful.

However, because I had a plan to fall back on, a way to rest from Dis-Stress and reduce my levels of struggle, I had a clear (and easy) path to Flow.

When you are struggling, when you are feeling Dis-Stress, what do you have to fall back on?

What plans do you have to listen to your body and provide it with some rest?