Creating Your Own Wellbeing
My general physician is Chinese, educated in China and his practice is called Wellbeing Medical. His logo is the Chinese letters for wellbeing. This is a common term these days and Organizations often discuss supporting wellbeing with their workers which might include health insurance and gym memberships plus counseling.
Wellbeing is a part of thriving, but in my mind not as comprehensive. I think you could have well being but not necessarily think you were thriving. Thriving has the extra element of feeling you are on a upward trajectory in your career and life. Thriving is very vibrant whereas wellbeing to me seems to be a more mellow enjoyment of good health.
How Does Wellbeing Fit in the Over All Picture?
Wellbeing is a necessary ingredient for thriving, so we don’t want to underestimate it. Health is about not getting sick, but it is also a feeling of being energetic. Planning for health usually means trying to prevent illness in having a good immune system, preventing disease and pain, and prolonging longevity; three main aspects.
As a certified health coach, I counsel people on good practices for all three aspects. Good nutrition, exercise, sleep, and relaxation are important for weight, energy, disease prevention, maintaining physical capabilities, maintaining a calm nervous system, and adding years to our life. These in turn should make us more productive creative, enthusiastic, optimistic, gratified, and happy.
This is a good basis to support our thriving. Once all these aspects are in place or getting them in place as we go, we can turn better focus on learning, leading, creating, and contributing. Wellbeing might make us better role models for anyone in our circles including our mates, children, friends, and co-workers. People can look at you and know immediately you take pride in your health and appearance.
Becoming More Effective is Important for Thriving
Stephen Covey whose family has been a strong voice in helping people become more effective was also a good first voice on how to thrive. His book on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a good guide for wellbeing and thriving. I think it is worth the moment to list his 7 points to effectiveness.
Covey’s ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’
- Be Proactive. Take responsibility for your life.
- Begin with the End In Mind. Define your mission and goals in life.
- Put First Things First. Prioritize and do the most important thing first.
- Think Win-Win. Have an “everyone can win” attitude.
- Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood. Listen to people sincerely.
- Synergy. Work together to achieve more.
- Sharpen the Saw. Renew yourself regularly.
I think points 1 and 7 speak directly to wellbeing in that taking responsibility for your life and renew yourself regularly say that you must hold yourself above the chaos that has become a part of our ecosystem in weather, economics, politics, and business. I have stopped reading newspapers because the problems overstimulate my nervous system and detract from my focus.
We First Treasure Who We Are Before Helping Others
Covey has also said that our influence begins internally and manifests outward. To me this means you create your own goals beginning with wellbeing and then use your energies to make the world a better place. But we have to start by taking care of ourselves. More people these days are saying that if you want to contribute you start with rest, rest, and rest. They mean you must be at peace first so that you can focus your energy like a laser rather than be bouncing off walls like a pin ball from too much external pressure.
Yes lets begin with our personal wellbeing and then turn the gratitude for having it into a desire to make a better contribution. This is how my process began. After working on increasing my health and fitness, I wanted to help others feel just as good and began blogging about it. Here I am years later talking about wellbeing and thriving.
I want to support your wellbeing and thriving by suggesting you also consider and plan. My meditating first thing after waking tells me my wellbeing is first before I begin to focus on helping others. Think about that in your life.
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As a Thriving Worker Consultant, I can engage in conversations with employers on how to begin the process of helping workers thrive and reach peak performance. It begins with a conversation to see how far an organization is willing to go to change the culture for workers.
Great practices for daily living can be learned with the Markap Series of Books. If your organization would like live presentations or Zoom meetings, they can be arranged for small to large groups.
