Whilst 2020 has derailed a lot of things, we’ve never stopped working on helping SCFIT members stay focused. We’ve always made decisions based on our values and helping clients step back and assess what’s going on hasn’t failed us yet!
The concept of a flywheel was highlighted by some conversation in the mentorship group that we work with, Two Brain Business. Every person only has a finite amount of energy and time to spread across the stuff we’d like to improve or maintain.
If you visualise labelling a wheel that you want to spin and keep spinning with words like Family, Fitness, Friends, Finance and Freedom – you can imagine that spreading your energy across the five areas will let the wheel keep spinning.
If keeping the wheel in motion represents progress then surely we want the wheel spinning with as little effort as possible, because when one or more areas fall behind we have to spend more time and energy on that to bring it back up to speed and maintain momentum. We can define momentum as:
1: a property of a moving body that the body has by virtue of its mass (and motion and that is equal to the product of the body’s mass and velocity
broadly : a property of a moving body that determines the length of time required to bring it to rest when under the action of a constant force or moment
2: strength or force gained by motion or by a series of events ”The wagon gained momentum as it rolled down the hill.”
If we are working consistently on our goals using the time and energy that we have we see positive progress on a regular basis. That feeling of balance and prosperity is a nice one as everything feels like it’s in balance and ticking along nicely. 2020 may well have thrown a spanner in the works for you in some respects though.
If one thing goes off the boil like health and fitness, invariably stress starts to add up at work without a stress relief option of moving around and getting a sweat on with a workout. Once work stress builds up it probably impacts on your home life and your relationships with family and friends suffer. The knock on effect of home life being tough is usually your health getting worse as stress levels mount up.
We all know about that downward spiral as it’s probably happened to at least one person that we know…
So how do we fix things?
1 – Assess your flywheel and write down the areas of your life that need attention – the values and activities that mean the most to you. Which of those areas need most attention right now from you?
- If you need more time with your family then maybe it’s time to back off at work or with your hobbies.
- Are you off task a lot at work? Maybe you need a conference or mentorship programme to relight your fire.
- Are you as healthy as you want to be? It could be as simple as reducing your extra working hours and adding 2 hours of physical activity a week to get you moving in the right direction again.
Small adjustments can make massive positive differences. Don’t underestimate the power of changing small things in your life. A smoothly spinning flywheel makes everything seem easier and you’ll probably find more time for other things that you might want to do. Balance your focus and build your momentum!