THE TOP 3 THINGS YOU NEED FOR A HEALTHY WORK/LIFE BALANCE.
Have you noticed the amount of marketing selling you the Top 3 things?
Why is it always 3?
According to blogger Brian Clark, it comes down to the way humans process information. We look for patterns and the magic number ‘3’ is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern.
This combined with its brevity results in “memorable content.” Blogger Stefanie Flaxman states, ‘If it’s not memorable, it’s not working.” Making something memorable makes it more attainable. So, 3 things offer you hope that you can change, you can have the life you want.
What 3 things are you reflecting on? What “memorable content” are you holding onto? What anchors do you have to live the life you want to live? I’m not talking about goals here, but rather intentions for living well or coordinates and values for being the kind of person/organisation you want to be?
I moved into my house 3 years ago and the porch had no hooks, nowhere for shoes or wellies. 6 of us live here and so coats, boots and shoes were everywhere. It was a hot mess.
But, the porch wasn’t on our list of important places to decorate. The Kitchen was far more urgent. However, the Porch became so jumbled, so messy and disordered that in the end, we had to invest in it, it became a necessity. I got someone in to build a bench with drawers for shoes and wellies. He put up hooks, 1 for each child. Suddenly coats, shoes and wellies had a home. Somewhere they belonged. It meant that we all knew where to hang things and order came out of chaos.
The same is true for me with the rule of 3, (or of 4/5/6/7.) Having an intentional focus in our life is a bit like having hooks for our brains, hooks to hang our thoughts, our development, our values, our team objectives onto.
Without having any clear intention, our cognitive function will look like my porch pre-redesigning it. You will get by but your soul (emotions), body and brain will feel like a hot mess.
To function well, we need clarity, we need hooks.
So back to the rule of 3.
This Christmas the 3 things I need as a (nearly) 40-year-old working mother of 4 in West Sussex are likely to be very different to the 24-year-old, single man living in Birmingham.
Many people can cut and paste the 3 things that have worked for them and suggest it’s what you need.
As a business you can offer 3 things to your employees to get greater performance, like a biscuit cutter, you chop out the “things” you think people need and give it to them BUT the people you are trying to help or incentivise are each so different.
So, what am I getting at? The top 3 things you need this Christmas are:
Whatever you want them to be
BUT
Do have 3 things.
Without 3 (or 1 or 5!) things you might live an accidental life where nothing gets accomplished that you want. Without having a focus, again, I’m not talking about goals but rather intentional lanes on a motorway; without those lanes set before you, you will live a life of survival and reaction rather than performance and purpose.
Look around, ask other people, and cherry-pick the top 3 things you need for this season. Get yourself some anchors to hold onto, because if you’re like me and many of the people I’m speaking to, life is a little bit like being on a ship on a choppy ocean. Swishing this way and that. Having hooks are key to keeping cognitive function intact and for keeping our reactive brain settled. When we do this, we can bring our best self to our work, our family and ourselves and be growing into the people or organisation we want to be.
My 3 things for work/life balance at the moment are:
1. Read a novel every day – it helps me zone out and relax and have time out
2. Have a study morning once a week – this helps me move my business and growth forwards
3. Take the dog for more walks – gets me outside and have an endorphin hit.
What 3 things are you doing?
If you need clarity in discovering your intentions, get in touch to see how I can help you find the future you want in your career or business or life.