Review your personal balance sheet - make yourself sustainable for the autumn of 2024

16 July 2024

Guest Column: Jana Söderberg

When it comes to company’s balance sheet, there are well-educated auditors who meticulously examine the organisation’s health status with a magnifying glass. However, when it comes to the organisation “YOU INC.”, that is, your own life, there is no one else but you who can conduct the balance sheet, focusing on indicators such as work satisfaction, energy level, your health, space for hobbies, family, and relationships.

Similar to a company’s balance sheet, it’s good to regularly reflect on your life-accounts and review balances to come up with an action plan. How did the training during the spring go, which was supposed to improve your fitness? What happened to the plans of reading the books sitting on your bedside table? Have your withdrawals through late work nights and mental absence been compensated with deposits in the form of laughter and the presence of friends and family?

Speaking of sustainable societies and regenerative organisations, we often forget that the prerequisite is the sustainable individual, you and me! But how does one create a sustainable lifestyle, a positive outlook to the future, and inner motivation in the everyday life?

Even though there’s a lot to be done at this time of the year, I hope that the summer break offers the opportunity to book a moment with yourself from time to time. Put on your auditor’s hat and review your life accounts. Are your excuses for possible negative balances and misplaced priorities still sustainable? What actions would you recommend if the account belonged to someone else and not yourself?

To make it a bit easier, here are some ideas for a more sustainable life. Remember, good leadership always starts with sustainable self-leadership.

Give celebration more space!
Why is our focus so often on what’s missing, what didn’t go perfectly, what we forgot, or on the next item on today’s ‘to-do list’? 

The brain’s threat system’s task is to constantly look for possible risk factors and disruptive factors that could be a potential threat in our life. A fantastically efficient function from the past - but not always to our advantage in welfare life. The lack of life-threatening daily challenges can make us create potential fears and worries, amplify existing challenges, and focus much more strongly on all the negatives. Therefore, celebration gets far too little space in everyday life.
 
Make it a habit to more often start or end your workday with a positive reflection on what you are proud of. Focus more on your ‘have done’ list instead of the ‘must-dos’ awaiting. Start your work meetings with a positive round to create energy before discussing challenges.

Choose monotasking more often
Our brain does not have the capacity to focus on several things at once. When you think you’re multitasking, you’re actually jumping between different tasks and fragmenting your focus, which increases the amount of time needed, the brain’s stress levels, and the risk of errors. Make yourself sustainable and practice on working sequentially with one task at a time. 

Did you know that more than half of the participants in digital meetings are doing something else simultaneously? Establish clear rules in your meetings!

Plan for mental “fluid checks”
Long-distance runners have the habit of mentally breaking down the total distance into shorter intervals in between fluid checks. This is how you manage to go around a track of 42 km. An adult brain has a focus time of about 55 minutes before we need a short break where we can shift focus to manage a longer effort. Have you ever been sat in a meeting lasting longer than an hour, and it lost its quality? Never book meetings longer than an hour! After that you need a ‘brain break’. 

If you write ‘to-do’ lists for the day, let longer work moments become several shorter points on your work list. That way, you can manage life’s marathon while keeping your motivation intact!

Switch perspectives more often
Did you know that the length of your field of view affects the length of your thoughts? When you look into the distance, you can think strategically, creatively, and in a problem-solving manner. On the other hand, when your gaze is directed at a computer screen, you solve short-term tasks and operational problems best. Therefore, the possibility of successful strategic digital meetings is very limited. 
To keep your inner motivation intact and achieve long-term goals, it is therefore important to switch between short and long-term perspectives more often. Make it a habit to look through a window in the distance once an hour and ask yourself questions like: Am I prioritising correctly right now? How am I feeling today? That way, your mental horizon gets a broader perspective where you can see the full magnitude of a task.

Perform sustainably with emotional distance
To perform sustainably and to reduce your inner stress, it is important to have emotional distance to your challenges. When you feel stressed or have trouble letting go of your work problems when you come home, try to find places or mindsets that give you perspective. From the hospital parking lot, the world and our daily problems often look different. Asking yourself what really is the worst that can happen, and visualising it, is also an effective way to reduce the dimension of many stressors. Just like the eye, the brain needs distance to perform at its best.

Balance your self-esteem and self-confidence
Your self-esteem is about being enough as you are with all your flaws and qualities. Your self-confidence, on the other hand, is your awareness of your competencies, achievements, and your skillfulness.
The balance between these two dimensions is crucial for your well-being. Many build their identity solely on their achievements, which often leads to stress and performance anxiety. 

Try to complement today’s “to-do” list with “want to do” activities, that you write down in order to make room for your needs and recovery. Celebrate yourself more frequently with positive appreciative thoughts and reflect on qualities about yourself that you are proud of. 

Let the summer of 2024 be a starting point for a balanced autumn with personal sustainability as the starting point!


About Jana Söderberg:
Jana Söderberg has a background as an economist, psychotherapist, coach and athlete in Germany, the USA, and Sweden, which has given her unique knowledge about the human capacity for self-motivation and self-leadership. Jana shares this knowledge as a lecturer, author, and coach in personal development and mental training. Her areas of focus are neuroleadership and neurocommunication as well as personal sustainability.