Before moving into life coaching, I had a ten-year career in the health and fitness industry. During this time, I helped many hundreds of people develop consistent, long-lasting training and lifestyle habits that support good living. However, over time what became evident to me was that lifestyle factors outside of the walls of the gym directly influence our ability to achieve the results we desire.
This may sound obvious, but upon further investigation with clients, I started to see how for example, the ongoing and consistent stress they were experiencing in the workplace was affecting their diet and sleep.
You can’t out-train a poor diet and hard training on top of an already stressed system only compounds the build-up of stress hormones in the body. Eventually, something has to give.
Understanding this, it became clear to me that to be “well”, we must take into account not just the health of our physical bodies but the health of our careers, relationships, and passions whilst paying particular attention to our mental and emotional wellbeing.
Having and maintaining a healthy body is great, and the benefits of regular exercise, good sleep and quality nutrition make up the foundation for good living. However, if, for example, you’re not fulfilled in your career or relationship or fail to authentically align yourself to what you truly desire, then a sense of dis-ease is likely to manifest within your life.
The journey towards optimal wellbing, therefore, requires us to carefully look at every aspect of our lives and get honest with ourselves if we feel like a particular area is not fully aligned.
What’s more, as time passes, our priorities change, so we must continue to update our decisions and actions accordingly.
We must move through life like a ship following our own true north, making small adjustments on our journey home.
Given this, I would like to extend to you a simple exercise that will help shed awareness on areas of your life so you can systematically assess and create actionable steps in raising your level of wellbeing.
Please approach this inquiry with honesty and self-compassion.
Carve out an hour of undistracted personal time.
Review the circle of life (as below).
Next to each, give yourself a score out of ten on how fulfilled you feel in this area.
List the actions you need to take to increase the fulfilment score by just one point in the area(s) that require the most attention.
Commit diligently to these actions.
Regularly review.
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