Leaders: 30-Day Challenge To Optimize Your Mind, Body and Soul The worst thing a leader can do is not grow. This 30-day challenge is designed to help leaders grow and improve their mind, body and soul.
By Bertrand Ngampa Edited by Chelsea Brown
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Webster's defines optimization as making the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource). In this situation, you are the resource that will be made better all around.
In just 30 days, you can train your mind, build your body, and connect your soul. This will allow you to access your most optimized self as a person and a leader. When you do this, everyone around you will be forced to get better too. Here's how to optimize your mind, body and soul in 30 days:
Sleep for seven+ hours everyday
We live in a mass hustle culture. Everyone praises those who work hard but demonizes those who sleep. As a leader, you have to lead the conversation with your actions. So, for the next 30 days, make sleeping seven hours or more a priority. Jeff Bezos makes sure he sleeps eight hours every night and preaches it to his leadership and the world at large.
As a leader, your influence helps others see the importance of a good night's rest. They will also see that making sure their bodies get enough rest is just as important as making sure they do their job when awake. Without proper sleep, you can't optimize, because sleep is the starting point.
Optimized leaders get seven hours of sleep every night. So, for the next 30 days, track your sleep and take note of how you feel. I guarantee you will have a heightened sense of wellness, tremendous energy and massive clarity like never before.
Related: Here's One Way to Relax and Get a Good Night's Sleep
Work out 15 minutes everyday
The body is meant to be moved each day. We are not designed or created to just sit at the desk all day, come home and binge watch TV mindlessly and do it all over again. Working out makes the body fit for the long haul and the daily battles of leadership.
Time and time again, I always hear from clients how going to the gym every day has a positive impact on their work performance. Regardless of how you may be feeling emotionally, the discipline to go each day will translate into your work performance and how you show up as a leader.
Drink a gallon of water every day
Our bodies are made up of 80% water. And just a slight dip in water levels can lead to less-than-optimal output from your body. As a leader, you always want to be in the best possible position to make the best choices for your team. So, making sure you are drinking one gallon of water daily will heighten your sense of well-being, bring clarity to your thoughts and sharpen your focus.
Order a gallon jug from Amazon, and fill it up with water to make it easy on yourself. Then, before you go to bed, make sure you have finished that water. Another way to ensure you get all that water completed is to focus on drinking water whenever you are hungry, because the body's signals for hunger and thirst are the same. When you feel like you want to reach for a snack, go for some water, you will be surprised by how you feel from doing that.
Journal every day
As a leader, you are in a constant battle with stress — not only work stress but physical, mental and psychological stress too. As a leader, you often have to put your stress aside and take on the burden of your teams. If all the responsibilities you carry through stress are not offloaded daily, you will experience rapid burnout, make wrong decisions or worse. Stress is a silent killer that leads to many problems, so you should journal daily to offload that stress onto the paper.
Stress is energy, and energy is neither created nor destroyed, but it is possible to transfer it. The most positive and one of the safest ways to deal with those daily stressors is to journal. I say safest, because you can write about whatever and whomever you want in your journal, and it is your safe space with yourself. However, if you talk to another person about the stresses in your life, it could potentially get out and cause more harm than good.
Related: How Journaling Can Make You a Better Entrepreneur and Leader
Read five pages of a book every day
Leaders are readers. With the way the world is rapidly changing each day, you must read to stay ahead, not only with the information, but to keep your mind sharp as well. The average person picks up their last book after college, and by your reading this far, I know you are not looking to be average at all. It is easy to believe that five pages are nothing and that you can do more, however, shoot for five pages, and if you get more, great.
Meditate for five minutes every day
You have thousands, if not millions, of thoughts racing every day. As a leader, you constantly think about others and put yourself second. As a result, you are giving yourself a massive backlog in your mind.
Set a timer for five minutes. Take some time to lay on the ground and just close your eyes. Allow your thoughts to flow freely while you just breathe. Meditating is my secret weapon in clearing my mind and renewing my thoughts so that I can catch up with myself. You cannot be the most optimized version if you are always giving to others and never to yourself. Being selfish and giving to yourself is critical for this task.
Express gratitude every day
Life does not allow you to be a happy-go-lucky person 24/7. That is impossible, and you would be committing emotional neglect to your other range of emotions. However, you can always hunt the good in all situations and focus on being content.
Happiness is an emotion that comes and goes. However, having a positive outlook is a character trait you can develop. You develop it by expressing gratitude toward three things in your life each day. It could be the birds singing in the morning, the hot water running or the leadership position you are grateful for. Each day, do this simple yet powerful task, and you will be optimized and start to be a more positive light in a dark world.
Related: Why Gratitude Makes Leaders More Effective
Put it all together
In just 30 days, you will see your mind, body and spirit more aligned, optimized and positive. But be careful, because your energy will be contagious, and the results will be addicting. Please don't force it, but remember that progress is always better than perfection. Even if you miss a task or a day, just reset tomorrow.
