Adults spend eight times longer watching on-demand TV than exercising, research suggests.
The average person spends 12 hours streaming programmes on platforms such as Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Amazon Prime every week, a survey of more than 2,000 people by not-for-profit fitness group ‘ukactive’ found. This compares to just 90 minutes of moderate physical activity.
This got me thinking - how long do any of us invest in ourselves so we are fit to always bring our best self to situations?
Personal mastery
Building upon my previous post, "The Antidote to Disruption", in the Unilever Standards of Leadership, part of the Inner Game is ‘Personal Mastery’. I love this - it is a big topic to get into but it is critical to success. It covers many areas around well-being and personal performance and it helps us consider how to take responsibility for our mood, behaviours and motivations.
Let’s consider something together; between an external stimulus and a reaction there is a 'thing'. That 'thing' is our response. Often there may be a difference from what we intend and the impact of our response and our behaviour on others. I know this is the case for me and this area is a work in progress for sure!
Personal Mastery is about how we can always bring our best self to any situation, how we show up and respond to changes. It includes how we
- Actively build our own well-being and resilience
- Use emotional intelligence to take feedback, manage mood and motivations, and build empathy for others
- Set high standards for ourselves
What about me?
With Personal Mastery being at the epicentre of the Inner Game, I was curious to understand how long I invest in developing my Personal Mastery, versus watching TV or going to the gym.
Then I considered how much time do other professionals including actresses, actors or sports people spend on their Personal Mastery? We know that elite actors and sports people prioritise time to be the best and to always bring their best self to the film set, stage or field of play.
I have asked this question to clients I have met all around the world. Why is it that so many professionals don’t prioritise time for their Personal Mastery over other activities?
The follow up question I ask is, what is the impact of not prioritising time for us to be fit to perform?
Finally, what is the consequence of doing nothing about this situation?
Let’s create a social experiment together
Let’s count up how many minutes we spent watching TV, exercising and learning in a week, and then share the information with each other. Click on this very quick Social Experiment survey to help you think about this.
To enhance our Personal Mastery, we need a systemic shift in our approach to how we sustain ourselves so we are fit for the future. It starts with our values, beliefs and attitudes to how we treat ourselves and how we learn.
If we value and believe that to thrive in a world of mass disruption we need to enhance our Personal Mastery, then we need to prioritise our time. Doing the same old things won’t get us anywhere. We need to invest in ourselves, be kind to ourselves and allocate time for our own well-being, resilience and emotional intelligence, to firstly set, then deliver against high standards every day.
Create winning habits
Making this choice encourages the creation of winning habits and behaviours required for success in our fast changing and dynamic environments. This investment in Personal Mastery helps build our confidence, lower stress, and enhance our ability to perform.
Go on, take the challenge for the next 21 days to make or break a habit and invest around 15 minutes or so every day to build your Personal Mastery. One blog and podcast that might help inspire you is by Doctor Chatterjee, "Feel better, live more"
#personalmastery #leadership #mindfulness #wellbeing
I would love to hear from you and to hear what activities you have experienced, as you build your
Personal Mastery. So add a comment on this post.
Please also like and share this article. So you can inspire, enable and support your friends and network, so they can also enjoy the benefits of learning every day by being fit for the future in a world of mass disruption.
To find out more, get in touch at Steven@expressionforgrowth.com or visit our website.
Steven Edney