While mindlessly scrolling thru my newsfeed recently, someone (I’m not sure who or what organization or I would give them credit) posted something along these lines:
Self-care is not about bubble baths and champagne (though those are not bad things). Self-care is about creating a life you don’t need to escape from.
It really stuck with me and I’ve been thinking on it a lot lately, especially as I’m embarking on setting up a new life in a new country overseas, and really want to be intentional in keeping it sustainable and healthy, when my determined achiever personality might more naturally jump full speed ahead leading to burnout in six months’ time.
This week we also had a couple of dedicated staff development days and we were tasked with creating goals and objectives as leaders in our fields. As I was thinking on this I realized I want a similar ideal for my work and team: I want to create an environment at work where no one feels the need to escape. I never want to find myself living and longing for weekends and I would be devastated to find out my employees felt that way.
So it’s a work in progress but here’s some of my initial thoughts on how to do this. It’s by no means a comprehensive list, and many of these are the ‘minimum’ requirement – more would be ideal! I’d love suggestions or ideas so feel free to comment if you’ve got ‘em! What works for you?
Personal:
· One day completely off from work weekly
· One day tech-free every two weeks
· One long weekend off from work and mostly tech-free every quarter
· Exercise 3-4x/week
· Dedicated space for meditation/prayer/journaling 5x/week
· Intentional connection with someone I don’t often connect with weekly, whether by email or phone
· Make time every week for the podcasts I most enjoy and keep me grounded
· Make time to read books I enjoy
Professional/team:
· Weekly team meetings encouraging collaboration
· Biweekly individual meetings with each staff member
· Monthly group outings/meals
· Once I get my boots on the ground and get to know the team and culture, more of these types of things will hopefully become clear!
Theoretically, if I put all these things in the calendar in advance, I will be less likely to crash in a few weeks or months!
Well, it’s T-1 day to departure, so today’s goal is laundry and packing with a final run to the store to pick up some more luggage locks and straps in the hopes all of my worldly goods make it to the far side of the sea. Wish me luck.
--Krissy
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| Yesterday's self-care: Doughnuts and coffee for lunch on the beach. Because #america. |
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