Sustainability

If you continue to work at the pace you’re working right now… in the way you’re working right now… can you last?

What does sustainability involve?

Sustainability includes many factors

Personal dimension

When it comes to you as a person and as a professional, sustainability includes:

• having a sense of physical, emotional, and mental vitality and energy;
• having a sense of autonomy and self-determination;
• being resilient, flexible, and tenacious;
• balancing competing demands for your time and energy;
• having a clear purpose and clear sense of one’s own values;
• making time for personal/professional development (you’re doing that now!); and
• having routines, structures, and systems that make it all possible.

Having a clear sense of purpose and priorities is especially important.
Many things will bid for your time and energy, and you’ll need to know where to put your resources to be as effective as possible.

Social support

Sustainability is also built on strong social support, such as:

• strong personal relationships (friends, family);
• strong professional relationships with colleagues and others working in the field; and
• strong links to community.

Making sustainability happen

You juggle one or more jobs. You juggle school. You juggle family responsibilities. Or travel. Or the demands of your personal trainer or nutrition coach. Or early-morning and late-night client calls. Or a million other things.

How can you make this all sustainable?

Here are some suggestions.

First, simply be aware of the issue of sustainability.
Ask yourself:

1. Could I do this for a long time? Could I keep running at this pace?
2. If not, how can I slow down or pace myself?

Second, focus on one thing at a time.
That’s the underlying principle behind my entire coaching method. And it works.

Research on human cognition and attention shows that we do our best when we focus on one thing at a time — one goal, one habit, one behavior, or one task.

Yeah, everyone wants fast results, whether that’s turbo-charged fat burning or massive muscle gain. But you know it doesn’t work that way.

You can only go forward one step at a time. And you can only do one job at a time.

Which steps are you choosing to do?