Self-care is a concept that can seem unnecessary, but it is actually quite crucial to success. The role self-care plays can often be overlooked until a setback requires you to slow down. When setbacks happen – an illness, a job loss, whatever it is – there is one important strategy to implement that will change your perspective and lead to growth.
Setbacks Never Happen At Convenient Times
Life is filled with unexpected setbacks that seem to come out of nowhere. The truth is, they often occur at the worst times when you literally do not have the time to stop and adjust, and you certainly don’t have time to “self-care,” but the truth is, you don’t have a choice. You may break an arm, like I did, or have a health scare or diagnosis that is more serious. Maybe, when stress begins to pile up, your body reacts with nagging issues that pop up at the worst times, like migraines or fever blisters. Your body is telling you that you must slow down, but how can you find a way to make self-care a priority in your busy life? It requires a shift in mindset.
Look For The Gift
When setbacks happen in your life, the most important thing you can do is look for the gift. Human nature will have you do the complete opposite of this; you will begin to question why things have happened and view everything negatively. It is human to have these thoughts and questions – Why is this happening to me? What have I done to deserve this? Why am I so unlucky? When you begin to dwell on these negative thoughts and questions, you can start to feel alone and singled out with unfair treatment – at that moment, you have reached the time to pause and look for the blessing in disguise. This setback that happened when you absolutely did not have time for it may just be a massive wake-up call to change your direction and learn to take care of yourself – the jolt you needed to let you know you must begin taking care of yourself and focus on self-care. When you stop viewing the setback as a curse and start to view it as a gift, you can begin to transform how you do life.
Time and Space Allow for Ingenuity
To begin the process of finding the gift amid a setback, you must assess your world – what is going on around you? Maybe you are working crazy hours, sucking up every minute of your life. If this is the case, which it was for me, I didn’t realize it until I couldn’t do as much as I usually did. I couldn’t drive myself as hard as I had become accustomed to, and I required more rest. What I found in this time of rest — that I would have typically seen as a waste of time — was that by resting, I opened up new channels of information.
The paradox of self-care is that you don’t have time for it but don’t have time not to do it. When you fill every single minute with – Go, Go, Go – you miss the most critical moments that allow you to actually find success. Not only are you missing your life and perhaps the lives of those around you, but you are also missing out on productive thought patterns. The sweet stuff happens in the space between work and an idea. It is actually in the resting moment when productive ideas come to mind. Rarely will a fantastic idea come to you in times of stress and obsessive work patterns.
Resist Judging The Experience
When it comes to self-care, the most important thing you can do is resist the temptation to judge the experience. Don’t travel down the rabbit hole of “why me?” or “poor me.” Embrace the moment with one of my favorite tools – curiosity. Go look for the gift. Dig in and figure out the amazing things you can take away from this unexpected experience.
At the Growth Architect, my goal is to help you develop strategies that will give you the tools you need for success. If you want to learn more about how to find self-care opportunities in setbacks, watch my video and contact me when you are ready to create your growth strategy!
Let’s grow!
Beate
Beate Chelette is The Growth Architect & Founder of The Women’s Code, a training company specialized in providing companies an ROI on Balanced Leadership. She has been named one of 50 must-follow women entrepreneurs by the Huffington Post. A first-generation immigrant who found herself $135,000 in debt as a single parent, she bootstrapped her passion for photography into a highly successful global business and eventually sold it to Bill Gates in a multimillion-dollar deal.
Beate works with business leaders and supports organizations by developing and providing training the training, tools, and expertise to create and maintain a balanced, equal, and inclusive work environment that fosters creativity, employee engagement, and corporate growth.
Recent clients include Merck, Women’s Legislative Caucus of California, Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), NFTE, CreativeLive, the Association of Corporate Growth, and TracyLocke.
Beate is the author of the #1 International Amazon Bestseller “Happy Woman Happy World – How to Go From Overwhelmed to Awesome” a book that corporate trainer and best-selling author Brian Tracy calls “a handbook for every woman who wants health, success and a fulfilling career.
To book Beate to speak or train please connect here. Your Time Is Valuable!
