I have a belief that if we can work well, we can live well, and if we live well, we can work well.

This belief comes from years of trying to integrate my work and life. 

I think I have succeeded.  Work and life are a beautiful mash-up with no visible distinction.  In the earlier part of my career, and about a decade in when I became a parent, I really tried to keep work and life segregated.  However, I stopped as I was exhausted given the amount of energy, I had to use trying to do this.  Instead, I started to think about what fulfilled me.  Work and parenting both fulfilled me, so I had to find a way for these two aspects of my world to be equally fulfilling and rewarding.  What I soon realised is that if I paid more attention to good daily practices, I worked better.  And if I worked better, I did everything else better.  This is where “work well, live well” started.

In my research, and in speaking to hundreds of leaders I found that paying attention to four main areas could help us all feel more fulfilled.

These four main areas are:

Our Body

Our Heart

Our Mind

Our Soul

When we increase our focus on these four areas specifically, we increase our overall levels of fulfillment. 

Our personal level of fulfillment will have a range.  Our job is to find what our range is, so we know where we feel optimal levels of fulfillment.    We then need to know what to do to stay in the optimum range.  This requires a deep understanding of self and an exploration of what is the best range for you. 

Here are some reflections and insights on what you can do in these four areas to increase your sense of fulfillment and enable you to work well and live well.

For our Bodies

Here we are looking at all the obvious things – sleep, food, water, exercise, alcohol and or other illicit drug use, prescription medications, and genetics.  Reducing risk factors associated with these things improves physical and mental health.  Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep per night.  Ensure you are getting at least 30 mins of exercise daily, keep hydrated, eat well, reduce the booze, eliminate drugs, and well genetics we can’t do much about that, except have an awareness of any predisposition we may have to illnesses or disease. 

For our Heart

We consider the principles of gratitude, love, joy, fun, empathy, care for self and others.  A principle that is useful comes from the Resilience Project.  GEM – Every day, ensure you’re engaging in gratitude, empathy, and mindfulness.  This aspect requires us to see our role in the world as belonging to something bigger than us.  As part of belonging, we have a role to play in contributing and serving for the benefit of others and the communities we live in. 

For our Mind

Learning, endless curiosity, a growth mindset, reading, listening, engaging in conversation that stimulates our thoughts and our minds.  Art, cinema, books, theatre- getting lost in someone else’s creativity or our own to lubricate our minds.  Learning is brain fuel.  Engage in some form of learning every day to increase your fulfillment. 

For our Soul

This is about personal growth and having the humility to know that we learn something new about ourselves regularly if we are open to it.  Through journaling, art and expression of any form, our soul sings.  It’s bigger than what’s in our bodies.  Our soul is the energy that we bring.  It’s felt before and after we leave a room.  It can’t be seen.  It’s the impression we create and leave as a legacy. 

It’s important to remember that keeping our performance at an optimal level requires the same amount of effort in preparation and reflection, not just performance.  Your performance on the day, is determined by your preparation, your training, your mindset and most importantly your consistency.   

Sustained effort in the areas of your body, heart, mind and soul will support you to work well and live well.  Our health, relationships, performance and happiness all benefit, and who doesn’t want that?