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A Note from Deanna
Welcome back to Living
With Intention.
I am brimming with excitement to share
with you my newly released book, Living
With Intention: Designing
a Wildly Fulfilling and Remarkably Successful Life.
Yes, indeed, the final product will be available at
the end of this month! MARK
YOUR CALENDARS FOR NOVEMBER 30TH, the release
date for the book. If
you order the book on this date and this date alone, you
will receive hundreds of dollars in free bonus gifts from
some of the most respected experts in personal and
professional development.
I am honored that Jack Canfield, best-selling
author of The Success Principles, and Marcia Wieder, America’s Dream Coach
(and three-time Oprah guest) are just two of the experts who
have signed on to provide complimentary high-value resources
to my readers. What
a rush!
You will receive a special announcement
later this month sharing all of the details, but I wanted to
give my subscribers and their friends, families, and
colleagues a “heads up” about this one-day-only
opportunity. So,
make a note to change your life for the better on November
30th!
In this issue of Living
With Intention you will learn about a critical element
of wildly fulfilling and remarkably successful
lives—appropriate recovery time to help you stay at the
top of your game. We
will also treat you to some quick tips and simple strategies
for becoming an energy addict, which is particularly
important as we move into one of the busiest times of the
year—the holiday season.
And, you will learn about some great additional
resources for designing the life of your dreams.
If you like what you read here, please encourage others
to subscribe! If
you’re not a subscriber, here’s your chance to sign up
for this free monthly publication - click
here.
In this week's issue:
Ideas
for a Wildly Fulfilling Life…
Radical
Recovery
I’m sure I am not alone.
Others have, no doubt, experienced a fate similar to
mine at some point in their lives.
Here’s what happened:
My husband and I had traveled to one of our favorite
cities with my sister and her husband to spend two days
painting the town a rather striking shade of red, which I
have dubbed “crimson with brick undertones.”
We were concluding our stay with a fabulous evening
out—dinner and a trip to the theater.
The previous evening’s festivities
had ended at around
3:00 a.m., understandably compromising the potential for a good
night’s sleep. And,
as is often the case during town-painting marathons, none of
us had been adhering to a healthy diet by any stretch of the
imagination. Likewise,
we were having way too much fun to take a break for our
accustomed workouts. But,
life is short and so are weekends away.
So, we valiantly charged ahead with the evening’s
plans, lacking a certain amount of energy and focus.
We felt exhausted and it showed.
Truth be told, we looked like something the cat had
only considered
dragging in, but after careful deliberation, had decided to
leave in a distasteful and unflattering pile out on the
lawn. I
guarantee you that my sister and her husband will be calling
me as they read this, objecting to this unfair
representation of their appearance that night.
That is why I’m not answering my cell phone now or
ever again. But
I know the truth of the situation, and now, so do you.
Despite our ragged appearance, we had
committed to our final tour through the night life, so we
set out on our journey.
We started at an artsy little Italian restaurant,
where we consumed what I can only describe as a bakery case
full of artisan breads, which we washed down with heaps and
heaps of pasta. We
left for the theater full, happy, and a bit tipsy on
carbohydrates.
Since it was our last night together,
we shared a toast to one another and headed in to see the
show. We were
awestruck by the theater itself—ornately decorated and a
sight to behold. We
eagerly anticipated what we knew would be a memorable
performance. And
indeed, the first fifteen minutes of it was extremely
memorable. Great
music, dancing, and special effects.
I was intrigued, then impressed.
And then, I was unconscious.
In fact, we all were.
Well, maybe not totally unconscious.
We had all entered that state you might recall from
middle school when your history class was held right after
lunch and you had the frequent privilege of watching dry
black and white films in a warm, dark classroom.
Such situations are no friend to alertness or
attentiveness. We
bravely, and collectively, fought off sleep.
After all, the show was great, and this was our last
big hurrah in the big city.
Even more motivating was the fact that we had nearly
required a co-signor to afford the tickets in the first
place.
That being said, just think for a
moment about the math equation here.
Four exhausted people minus
sleep, healthy food, and workouts, plus
six thousand tons of carbohydrates (more or less).
Add to that one glass of good cheer each, subtract every molecule of light in a dark, warm, cocoon-like
theater, and what is your result?
It equals
four reluctantly slumbering show-goers.
We had effectively emerged as the world champion
head-bobbing team.
You know what I’m talking about here.
It was one of those times when you think
you’re awake but you actually keep hopelessly sinking into
mini-coma states, much to your dismay.
So, we would begrudgingly alternate between what felt
like an REM sleep cycle and a startled state of
semi-consciousness. For
all I know, Beethoven’s Fifth could have been booming in
the background, with each of our heads taking part in an
intricately, if not disturbingly, choreographed ballet. One
that no one would really want to see.
When the show was over, we stumbled
from the theater in a mass of yawns and blinks.
Through drowsy eyes, we looked at each other saying,
“That was good. I
think.” That
night, we learned a valuable and rather unfortunate lesson.
Both the body and the brain require
recovery time, whether you’re working hard or playing
hard. And, if
you don’t provide them the necessary rest and rejuvenation
they need, they will seek these things out at the most
inopportune times, like during a highly anticipated evening
out.
Building adequate recovery time into
your life is one great technique for supporting peak
performance and yielding better results in your life.
It is just one of the many topics covered in Chapter
four of Living With Intention.
Here are a few ideas for building more recovery time
into your life:
1)
Time-outs
Time
outs, or regular breaks throughout your day, are one of
the most basic forms of recovery.
They help you calm your mind and relax your body.
You may have heard of the term “circadian
rhythms,” which are the body’s natural system for
regulating your sleep and wake cycles.
You are probably less familiar with the term
“ultradian rhythms,” which are the energy and focus
cycles you experience throughout the day.
Research shows that your body experiences about 90 to
120 minutes of strong focus and high energy, followed by a
20-minute low point where you may feel less motivated, less
energetic, and have difficulty concentrating.
These rhythms are built in to prompt us to take
a quick break from whatever we are doing to refresh
ourselves both mentally and physically so that we can
continue to perform well and yield positive results.
Start taking “time outs” every 90
to 120 minutes throughout the day, even if they are brief,
seemingly insignificant amounts of time.
Take a walk around the office.
Practice deep breathing for a minute or two.
Step outside and chat with a co-worker.
Actually take your lunch break.
Tell a joke. Read
a quick article. Make
a phone call to someone you care about.
Whatever you can do to separate yourself from your
work and your stress even for a few minutes will help
refresh you, recharge your batteries, and reorient your mind
to what needs to be done.
2) Reset
Buttons
It’s true that sometimes you will be
absolutely be under the gun with a deadline, a crisis, or an
overwhelming volume of deliverables.
That is what can make life both exciting and
challenging at times. What
do you do then, when it’s not practical to take structured
recovery time? First,
you need to evaluate whether this is truly
one of those circumstances, or whether you are just falling
into old patterns by thinking, “there’s no rest for the
weary.” If you
truly have to push through a period of time without
significant recovery time, and you have made a conscious
decision to keep going while the going is tough, it’s time
to turn to rituals or habits that provide built-in recovery
time for your brain and your body.
To do this, just identify one or two
positive, energy-enhancing rituals that you can perform
without thinking or needing to exercise any free will.
These will be your reset buttons.
Then, over the course of three or four weeks,
practice your reset several times a day to make sure that
you have mastered it and that you can utilize it any time
you need a focus or energy “pick me up.”
Your ritual might be stretching or breathing in a
certain way, saying a calming phrase to yourself several
times, or performing a simple movement.
You can choose any action that will work for you as a
reset button. In
general, reset buttons take less than a minute.
Let’s get real—if you can’t find a minute to
recharge your batteries, you are really
in trouble.
I have had clients whose reset buttons
involve lying on the floor for one minute with their feet on
their chair, running in place for 15 seconds when they feel
like…well…like they’re running in place, or saying a
mantra or singing a few bars of a motivating song in their
mind. Whatever
it is that serves as a reset button for you, choose one or
two rituals that can help you use that reset today.
Within a couple of weeks, with regular practice, your
reset button will be both automatic and renewing.
3) Work-free
Zones
The final practice of building recovery
time into your life is setting iron-clad times and spaces
that are work-free zones.
You get to decide what that means to you but, in
general, everyone needs to be able to look forward to
periods of time and places where they can relish in the rest
and rejuvenation that comes from a significant time out.
To do this, you will choose a combination of
evenings, weekends, holidays, vacations, or other key times
to designate as work-free zones.
Accomplished success coaches and peak
performance experts advocate the need for rest or recovery
time as a key practice for achieving great outcomes in all
areas of your life. What
these practitioners have found, over many years of work with
their clients, is that increased time off leads to greater
productivity, better results, and often even more income.
What a concept! This
suggests that the more effectively you use your time away
from work to truly rest and recover, the better the results
you will have while
you are there. You
need rest opportunities to disconnect and disengage from
work in order to effectively navigate the demands of work
and life, and to feel good in the process.
Give it a try and notice the tremendous benefits this
practice will yield for you.
These three strategies—Time-outs,
Reset Buttons, and Work-free Zones—are powerful tools for
experiencing radical recovery on a regular basis.
As a companion to radical recovery, the next article
looks at a few great ideas for building a healthy energy
addiction into your life.
Ideas
for A Remarkably Successful Life…
Energy
Addiction
Jon Gordon, affectionately known as
“The Energy Addict,” has made a splash nationally with
his book, Energy
Addict: 101
Mental, Physical, and
Spiritual Ways
to Energize Your Life.
In his book Jon offers simple but profound ways to
enhance your life experience by boosting your energy.
Here are a few ideas he shares:
-
Eat more
calories earlier in your day.
Jon cites a study of 2,000 individuals, which found
that people who ate more of their calories earlier in the
day had more energy and lost more weight than those who ate
more of their calories later in the day.
So, eat a hearty breakfast, have healthy snacks during
the day, and cut back on late-night munching.
-
Get more
sleep. Research
shows that if you sleep less than eight hours each night,
you are operating in an “impaired” state that decreases
alertness, productivity, creativity, and general health.
It’s the last hour of sleep—between hours seven
and eight—when you experience a full hour of REM sleep,
which allows the mind to repair, renew, and recharge.
Don’t miss this important time!
-
Turn off
your television. Gordon
recaps a figure from USA Today that states the average
American spends 1,669 hours each year watching television.
That is seventy days per year. Consider
how you would feel and the changes you could make in your
life over the course of seventy extra days!
And all it takes is the flip of a switch to harness
this lost energy.
-
Surround
yourself with other energy addicts.
By far one of the best ways to tap into more energy
is to surround yourself with others who are energetic.
Just as there are “energy vampires,” who suck
your liveliness with their negativity, there are also fellow
energy addicts out there ready to motivate you with their
passion for life and their vibrance.
Seek these people out and look for ways to support
one another’s goal for sustained (and productive) energy.
For more energy tips and resources,
visit Jon Gordon’s website.
Jon offers a variety of free resources, including a weekly energy tip and a seven-day energy challenge that will get you started on your road to energy addiction.
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Resources That Will Change Your Life
It’s no surprise that I highly
recommend Jon Gordon’s book, The Energy
Addict. It’s
a collection of 101 easy-to-master techniques for energizing
your life. He
offers simple, powerful strategies to replenish physical,
mental, and spiritual energy so you can regain focus, feel
healthier, work more effectively, and live life the way it
was meant to be.
Order Energy Addict from Amazon.com | here
Order Energy Addict from Barnes and
Noble | here |
Women Making a Difference...
Ideas
to Help You Thrive
The Sequoia Seed by Karen Wright
 I
couldn’t be happier to recommend a book if it were my own.
My friend and colleague recently released her
wonderful new book, called The
Sequoia Seed. Karen
Wright is a phenomenal writer and has pulled together a
collection of insights and stories that I know will make a
tremendous positive difference in your life.
It is with great pleasure that I urge you to pick up
Karen’s book today—you’ll love it!
Here’s a quick description:
You'd never believe that a 300' tall tree with a 120'
circumference that can live for centuries would come from a
seed smaller than a flake of oatmeal, but it does. Yet, that
sequoia seed is a minor miracle compared to the potential
that waits you. Filled with readers' stories and timeless
insights, The Sequoia Seed will touch that place in you
where you've secreted your most precious dream of life - the
one you've timidly hidden all these years, and show you that
it's not only possible, it's destined. It’s time to do
what you came here to do—to be who you came here to be.
It’s only a thought away.
Order at: www.wrightminded.com/products.html.
Thanks again for your interest in living with intention.
And, by all means, enjoy
the journey!
Copyright ©
2005 all rights
reserved.
Published by Deanna Davis,
PhD, co-owner of Applied
Insight. Deanna is a life and business
coach, professional speaker and writer who helps people
design wildly fulfilling and remarkably successful lives -
on their own terms. Deanna is an admitted laughaholic and a
strong proponent of adding chocolate as a key component of
the USDA Food Pyramid. For information about her
professional speaking and coaching services, contact Deanna
at
deanna@appliedinsight.net
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You
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long as they are carry the following notice: Copyright 2005
Deanna Davis, PhD, www.appliedinsight.net.
Applied
Insight
104 S. Freya St., Turquoise Flag Building #226-B
Spokane, Washington 99202
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