- Stop what you're doing, and think about your health and wellness.
- Pay attention to the most important things before they become urgent priorities.
- Schedule activities that keep your why front and center.
Running your own business can be very consuming. You commit energy, attention and time to client wants and needs — often at the expense of your own. We end up measuring real estate success by our checks and put off the ongoing maintenance our business requires to remain healthy and vibrant.
Before you reach a crisis point try these four strategies for resetting your rudder. Just as a rudder helps steer a boat, your rudder in life helps you stay on course; to avoid being drawn off by life’s many distractions — including watching your health and cleansing your soul. Try these four tips to reset your rudder.
1. Visit your local heart hospital or cardiac care unit
Cardiovascular diseases claim more lives each year then all types of cancer combined (see: American Heart Association “Life is Why”). In America, that accounts for one in every three deaths or one life every 40 seconds.
If you want incentive to be healthy, visit patients holding cough pillows to their chests to control the pain of sudden movement. They are the lucky ones who made it to and through surgery! Do you want to be in their hospital slippers? Take care of your body as well as you take care of your business.
2. Volunteer in your local city mission or soup kitchen
Let’s have none of this packing of boxes or sorting donated food with a group of well-intentioned “haves.” I mean serving the actual meals followed by clean-up detail.
Then, each time your shift is nearing its end, sit and eat your meal among the people you serve. Talk to them, eat heartily, and be as grateful for the meal as they are.
3. Contact your local hospice
Offer to donate $50 or $100 or whatever you can afford — with one catch: you want to spend 30 minutes with an experienced hospice volunteer.
When you meet, ask the volunteer what he or she has learned about the end of life. Ask these angels what the people they serve value most in their final days, hours or moments.
4. Identify a young person who is a big part of your why
This could be your own child, grandchild, nephew, niece, etc. Arrange a play date with him or her and have materials prepared to help create a dream board with your favorite kiddo.
What does he or she want to be as a grown-up? What does the child dream about? Cut pictures out of magazines, and create a collage of this child’s dreams. While you’re at it, create one of your own, too.
What have you learned? The cardiac unit, dinner with the hungry, chatting about the end with the gentle souls of hospice and sharing the dreams of a child you love are all action steps that will help nurture our spirits and reset our rudders.
“A soul without a high aim is like a ship without a rudder.” – Eileen Caddy
Brian McKenna manages two residential resale offices for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Blake. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
