The price we're paying for success in terms of our health and well-being is rising.
We're stressed out of our minds. We're busy beyond belief. We're overworked, over-connected online and under-connecting in real life.
One of the things I've learned is that if you don't take time off now, your deteriorating health will force you to take time off later.
Our culture is fueled by stress, sleep deprivation and burnout.
The lack of well-being we experience in striving to "get ahead" negatively affects our creativity, productivity and decision-making.
Yet, it doesn't have to be this way.
The truth is this: How we measure success globally is changing.
In Arianna's book THRIVE, what she's found is that the people who are genuinely thriving in their lives are the ones who make room for well-being. That means we need to reexamine the assumptions that being plugged in 24/7, getting less sleep and multi-tasking are express elevators to the top in today's world.
One of the key tenets that Arianna talks about in THRIVE is getting more SLEEP. She states: "Over 30 percent of people in the United States and the United Kingdom are not getting enough sleep." She even cites a study that shows that sleep deprivation decreases our emotional intelligence, assertiveness, sense of independence, empathy toward others, impulse control and a lot more.
So by not getting enough sleep, you're actually doing something worse than nothing... you're actually negatively effecting WHO YOU ARE at a real core level.
So, what's the solution here?
In THRIVE, Arianna suggests some things you can do right now. Let me give you just ONE SIMPLE THING she suggests to increase your well-being: Unless you're getting all the rest you need, then right now, you can start immediately improving your health, your creativity, your productivity and your sense of well-being by simply getting 30 minutes more sleep than you're getting now. All you have to do is go to bed earlier, but you can also take a short nap during the day.
In THRIVE, Arianna gives two more suggestions in addition to getting more sleep.
She also outlines a six-step process for reducing stress, increasing your creativity, increasing your compassion and increasing the amount of peace you have in your life. And there are 12 specific online tools you can use to help you put this into action right now.
There's so much more Arianna shares on well-being; I encourage you to read THRIVE. It's a fantastic book. You can get it here.
I'll leave you with this short story Arianna tells about her mom...
When Arianna was 12 years old, there was a very successful businessman who came over for dinner. Things were going great and he was building his career and making deals happen, and that's when Arianna's mom shared some terrific WISDOM with this man. Arianna's mom said:
I don't care how well your business is doing, you're not taking care of you. Your business might have a great bottom line, but you are your most important capital. There are only so many withdrawals you can make from your health bank account, but you just keep on withdrawing. You could go bankrupt if you don't make some deposits soon.
Wow. Arianna's mom had amazing WISDOM.
And in the next article I'm going to share with you, we'll talk about Pillar #2 of the Third Metric, which has everything to do with WISDOM.