This month we rev up for the holidays by taking it easy. We recognize we are sick & tired, so we give some insights into maintaining health and sanity.
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Katie: Hi! Welcome to the Hot Flash! The monthly leadership tip for women in leadership – successful woman like you.
Carol: I’m Carol.
Katie: And I’m Katie.
Carol: And as you can tell…
Katie: Are you sure you’re not Carl today – instead of Carol?
Carol: I sound like Carl. I sound like a frog.
And I just want you all to know that I’m taking one for the team. Probably a year ago, Katie and I came up with what we’re going to talk about on a monthly basis. And November’s topic is…
Katie: Appropriately – “Being Sick and Tired.”
Carol: And as you can tell – I actually have laryngitis for the last 10 days.
Katie: You are really sick of it.
Carol: I know. And this is the best I’ve sounded.
Katie: This is my mom. “I am sick and tired! You kids are driving me crazy. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired!”
Oh, at work? Are you sick and tired?
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: I think women across the country are suffering. I know we are – from being really work out, over-committed and worn down.
Carol: That’s true.
Katie: We want to share with successful women this month – how to manage yourself just a little bit more, when you’re going through those phases of being sick and tired.
Carol: And it does happen. I mean, we have ups and downs. But when we have the downs, there are things that you can do to get yourself back in balance.
Katie: Without medication.
Carol: Sometimes it takes medication. In my case – Well, my second round of antibiotics. But I’m on demand and my voice is actually working.
Katie: I think there’s a few things for women to look at – when you’re looking at becoming sick and tired. First of all, the recognition of – “You know what? I’ve worn myself down. I’m likely to compromise.”
Well, here’s the most important thing. You’re compromising your productivity because you’ve worn yourself down. So how do you get yourself back on track?
[Inaudible][0:01:49.2] has a list of four areas of maintaining balance for keeping that health back in healthy area, really focusing on how we want to be more productive in four very distinct ways.
Carol: Yeah.
Katie: And these ways – they’re so obvious. But if you’re not paying attention to each of the four’s, we want to share what those four are with you.
Carol: Okay. The first one is physical. And as you can tell, physically – I let myself get worn down. And then I think… again, like you say when you are physically worn down, you really do need to take care of yourself.
Katie: So did you stay up late several nights in a row to get worn down, Carol? Weren’t you on a trip?
Carol: I was on a trip and I was partying a little bit…
Katie: Do I sound like her mother right now?
Carol: Yes, you do. And I do believe that’s…
Katie: But you had fun.
Carol: I was also working very hard so my productivity has been decreased since then.
Katie: Right – because of that.
Carol: The other things is I’m really trying to pay attention to my physical and take the time I need, sleep when I need, etcetera and not overdo it anymore.
Katie: How many of you at home, watching on TV – would say that you have a very clear understanding of what your endurance and your capability is.
And it varies because the other three factors that we’ll talk about here in just a minute – all take play at the same time. But the physical aspect of wearying yourself down, it starts to catch up with you and then it’s going to affect each of the others – which is the cognitive and the mental and the emotional and everything else that starts to go with it. So you don’t want the physical aspect of your life to be the trigger of what’s making you sick and tired.
Carol: Right.
Katie: Okay. So that’s the first one.
Carol: Okay.
Katie: Tell us the second one.
Carol: Psychological. I’ve actually thought about this illness in a way that I didn’t want to be the spokesperson for a certain thing – and so, I’ve lost my voice. Isn’t that interesting?
Katie: Oh! I wonder.
Carol: Could it be?
Katie: You’ve created a response in your body subconsciously.
Carol: But keeping yourself psychologically a bit happy and…
Katie: That’s moods and emotions.
Carol: Right.
Katie: To this morning, I was actually exercising and I was not completely into it yet. And I just caught myself realizing that I was in a bad mood. I’m not often in a bad mood, but I really was. And I asked myself – “What do I need to do to get out of this mood?”
Well, I was doing exactly what I needed to at that time. I find that in my exercise – the physical part of mine, that factor will drive my other factors to be on the up and up. So I’m a very active – physically active exercise person. But I also know that very often – you don’t just go out and start taking a brisk walk and suddenly you feel a lot better.
Carol: Right.
Katie: It takes me almost exactly 18 minutes before my endorphin start to kick in.
Carol: Cool!
Katie: And then I’m in a good mood and then I’m great for the rest of the day.
Carol: So again, what you’re doing physically makes you feel good.
Katie: Clearly tied to it.
Carol: Psychologically.
Katie: In fact, it almost makes up for… there are factors in my life that I feel are going to be affected with my moods and my emotions. I will try to mask them with the good feelings that I get from the physical activity because it’s what works for me, it gets me through it.
Carol: Right. Cognitive – How your brain is working. And we’re talking about balance here. So how do you get your brain working?
And the other day, you told me some probably naive story about – again, if you’re moving physically.
Katie: Oh yes. You’re more likely to have neurogenesis.
Carol: Your brain grows.
Katie: Yes, exactly. I mean, we have done studies that show that those of us that are more physically fit will have healthier brains which means, you’re going to have better cognitive capability.
Carol: That’s right.
Katie: I think food and diet has a lot to do with this as well. So in the physical, it’s part of the food and diet also. But the cognitive is driven by how well you’re getting blood sugar to your brain.
Carol: Right.
Katie: There are some physical aspects of it certainly. How well you feel sharp. And on top of it, did you get a great night sleep? Are you compromising that? All those factors. Pay attention to those.
Carol: Do. And we understand because we are women, we work, we have kids, we do all of those things. It’s not always possible to stay on that balance.
But when you are out of balance, you’re going to look for those things that are like the teeter-totter. Where are you out of balance?
Katie: That’s the fourth.
Carol: Yeah. The fourth one is socially. Do you have a social network that is there to support you when you need it?
So if you’re feeling depressed, if you’re feeling down – is there somebody you can call that’s going to bring you up and you know that’s kind of their job?
Katie: We talked a bit last month about The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.
Carol: Oh, yeah.
Katie: One of the studies that he cites in that book – The Happiness Advantage is about those of us that are happier or healthier and live longer lives.
What’s the common denominator between amongst those of us that have longer lives? Is it because they lived in a healthy household? Is it because they ate well? Is it because they exercise? None of those. Do you know what it was?
Carol: It’s true.
Katie: They had a support network that kept them socially tied into others and empathy and emotional around them. So they have this network of other people. That more than so many other factors in our lives is really very critical.
Carol: There’s also a great documentary and it goes into some of this, but it’s called Happy. And it just looks at different people and their happiness factors.
You’ve got a gentleman from India and he’s happy. He’s got a great social support network, he’s got everything and he’s as happy as any American living the American dream because he is supported. So that it goes into that neat little documentary.
Katie: Well, we’ll leave it at those four factors for our social Skirt Strategists because I think as women, we are naturally social – we love that. The physical area, the psychological area, the cognitive area and then the fourth, being your social area. Check out those factors.
If you’re a monthly member, you’ll also get a one page PDF for each Monday of this month. You will receive the Monday Morning Detox which you are welcome to join us with that subscription any time you would like to.
Hold yourself accountable to follow through on each of these and have us give you an assessment or an assignment and keep you in the loop and make sure that it happens for you to be more successful as a high performance woman.
Carol: And I’m going to take some of our advice and try to get my life in balance.
Katie: I think you need a hot tatty.
Carol: I think. Oh! Fabulous!
Katie: I think you should have a hot… I’m going to go make you one – right now.
Carol: Yeeha!
Katie: Great!
Carol: Thanks.
Katie: We’ll see you all next month. Have a great one! Talk to you soon.
Carol: Bye, bye.
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