Starving on the inside🍞

Reflect & Respond✍️     

1.) In your opinion, why is personal growth and wellness a key characteristic of good leadership? 

Personal growth and wellness are the foundations of leadership, it all starts from within with proper grooming and maintenance. To lead others, you must be able to lead yourself first. Meaning if you're already on life support how could you bring life to someone else and effectively lead them. Taking time for yourself will make you an even bigger help to others--a nice, well-rounded leader (mentally & physically well). If not, you will quickly burn out and slowly lose your commitment to your activities and become like "Rob" in the reading, very bitter. Life will become overwhelming and unbearable you will start to self-destruct piece by piece. That is something that will bring you to your knees and keep you there until you pick yourself up again. So, ensuring that you are truly well is key to good leadership. 

2.) What is your biggest hindrance to taking time for personal growth?

My biggest hindrance to taking time for personal growth is my overwhelming desire to constantly be busy and occupied with something else besides myself. If I am not busy, I feel lost and I honestly don't know what to do with myself. I love being productive and getting things done, so I work till I am about to fall asleep. Overall, overworking and overloading myself.

3.) Ancient wisdom. An old proverb says: "If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, the worker must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success." The lumberjack story was inspired by this proverb. We all understand the importance of "sharpening the axe." Why do you think we fail to do it? Why does it seem like a waste of time?

I think we fail to do it because it is hard to challenge the process, quit a routine, and try something new. Challenging the process is a very difficult decision to make and many find it "unbecoming" with complacency and get stuck where they are. Plus, we are always self-justifying our actions and our failed actions. Essentially making excuses. Many feel It is a waste of time because it is something hard to admit to, our ego tends to get in the way "I don't need to sharpen my ax, I was made for this" type mentality--fear of incompetence.

4.) Why is it we often feel guilty when we stop to take care of ourselves?

I feel as if the guilt comes from something past generations have placed on American society that we must work, work, work, till we cannot work anymore. If you stop working or take breaks you will not be successful or losers are the ones who stop. For example, I have a friend who goes to the Citadel and he was always going to bed super late and waking up super early. I told him he needs to sleep for at least 6-8 hours to be replenished and his response was "sleep is for the weak". I found this to be very shocking that they have instilled that mentality in them--(I know it was part of their training process). I feel guilt too every time I feel like I am wasting time if I am not doing something productive. So, our guilt when stopping to take care of ourselves has some to do with how we were raised, societal norms, and impulses. 

5.) Staying "sharp" can mean lots of things. How do you do it? How do you feed and refresh yourself?

I keep myself sharp by showing up for myself each and every day and doing the things I do not want to do. Like the things, I don't want to do are hard but very necessary for me to feed and refresh myself. For example, I hate waking up at 8:00am for work on Fridays, however; I do it because it keeps my life in order and feeds my productivity need. I also, feed myself by completing all homework assignments before 5:00pm on Fridays, so I can relax, and hang out in peace without something lingering over my head. And lastly, I sleep 6-8 a night to keep myself refreshed.