Welcome to episode 46 of The Executive Edge. This week’s guest is Jan Hoath, who talks about JOY.
Her message is to encourage leaders to understand and embrace the powerful benefits of experiencing joy. It may seem easy to do, but I don’t believe it is. Many Executives I work with are adrenaline junkies and want to push hard at life without ever really stopping. This becomes a deeply ingrained habit often sacrificing joy in the process. It can cause stress for some people, because they don’t take much down time or stop working. Jan’s message is about building joy in to your life so that it becomes a priority rather than a secondary benefit from achieving something.
What else?
We are wired for achievement. But, without realising it, everything we do can be celebrated at some level. So, the desire to constantly work may familiar to us, but it isn’t of much benefit if we burn out in the process.
Clients she helps typically benefit from being reminded of these messages. Especially, when they have lost a sense of personal purpose in their lives. Or, they realise they’ve striven hard for years, have a number of material things to show for it, but don’t feel very fulfilled.
Lack of fulfilment is something I find myself talking to clients about too. It happens more to entrepreneurs in established business, than young people, I find. This might be because they get to a tipping point in their lives. Maybe they have grown tired of the sector they’re in. This is often when I find they take a step back and look at what they want in life, and whether they’ve actually got it. Sometimes, it can even cost them their relationships when they’ve been in pursuit of their success.
Jan feels there are other times when people need to consider joy and that is in the face of difficulties. She calls this you ‘finding the fruit loop moment’. This was when she ate a bowl of fruit loops whilst in Hospital. The lift it gave her brought her strength and made her smile which helped her cope.
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