An Important Message for You: You Are an Asset

Have you ever stopped to consider for just a moment how important you are?

Think about it. How many people depend on you? For big things and for small things - you are important to the people around you.

You are an asset.

An 'asset' is an item of intrinsic value. And, because of that value, it needs to be protected.

You need to be protected.

So, let me ask you, are you protecting yourself?

Here's what I mean. It can be so easy to push ourselves to continuously show up in life without taking breaks. With very little rest. Without doing the things we need to do in order to help us perform at our peak.

And then, when we falter, we're so hard on ourselves for not accomplishing enough or doing this as perfectly as we had hoped. 

I'm going to ask you to consider some different ways that you might support yourself with the hope that you'll think about them in the days and weeks to come. 

Boundaries

One of the key ways we protect ourselves is by establishing clear boundaries. Our boundaries are simply general rules about what we do and don't do, and how we do and don't do it. 

They're also one of the biggest missing pieces I see people over-look in terms of protecting themselves.

Have you stopped to think about how you'd like your key relationships to look and feel? Your relationship with your spouse, your kids, your parents, your boss, your team. How do you want them to function?

Who has access to you? When? How much? What topics are you ok with discussing...and not?

These questions, and more, are good ones to consider as you intentionally think about how you want your most important relationships to function.

Once you make some decisions, begin to communicate them with those people. Reinforce the way you want the relationship to go, and why. 

I think you'll be amazed at how different life feels when you have a set of good boundaries in place that help you avoid some of the resentful feelings that can crop up when people have access to us that oversteps what we would prefer.

Sleep and Rest

This one may seem obvious, but how much are you sleeping, and how much are you resting?

They're different things, you know?

Sleeping is the obvious. We've written a number of posts in the past highlighting the importance of sleep in our emotional regulation, decision-making, the sentiment and nature of our thoughts, and how we experience our day. Sleep is a game-changer. Fight hard to get enough of it.

Rest is a separate issue. Human beings evolved to work in sprints. To work hard for a period of time...and then to rest. 

I'll be the first person to raise my hand and say I'm guilty of not taking enough breaks during the day. I rarely build in rest time on my calendar, and it's to my detriment. It's to your detriment as well.

You do not need to 'earn' rest time on your calendar. Resting does not need to generate a measurable ROI (return on investment) to be beneficial.

You need both sleep and rest to be at your best. 

Self-Care

Self-care is something I am incredibly passionate about. And, I don't mean bubble baths and manicures. 

Rather, I view self-care as the curated set of activities that support you and allow you to show up as the type of person you most want to be.

What do you look like when you're at your best?

What qualities do you exhibit?

What self-care activities do you need to bake into your schedule to make it more likely you'll be able to show up with those qualities? 

We did an entire podcast episode on something we call the 'Self-Care Pyramid' to help people see just how robust and helpful a true self-care routine can be. I'd invite you to check it out if you're interested.

I'd also invite you to check out our program 'Self-Care [by design].' We created this mini-course because we saw that so many people, so many ASSETS, didn't have the self-care routine to support them in showing up the way they want to show up in their lives. 

Bottom line, if you take nothing away from this post, know this: You are an asset.

We see it. We see you.