Well-being Baseline - what, why, and how?

Well-being driven work is an alternative to the failed experiment of work/life balance. Work/life balance and integration have dominated the mainstream conversation for years and we are no better off today for having chased it.

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Last week, we used Cantril's Ladder of Success - a super simple exercise - to begin establishing a well-being baseline.

What is a well-being baseline? It’s a measurement , a check-in , of the status of your well-being.

Why care about figuring out your well-being baseline? Because you can't manage what you don't measure.

A well-being baseline raises self-awareness and gives us the direction in which we need to drive. Establishing a well-being baseline only takes a few minutes of reflection and the result is powerful. It's the ability to see yourself as you are and which direction you should head that can lead the way toward reaching your goals.

If Cantril's Ladder of Success raises self-awareness, how do we know which direction to head in? That's where the five elements of well-being become important. These five elements are - mind, body, belonging, work, and money. Each one represents an area in your life that contributes to your overall well-being.

Mind – mental health, emotion, presence, engagement, and fulfillment

Body – physical health, sleep, movement, hydration, and nutrition

Belonging – the quality of your social connections, local community, friendships, and family

Work – professional development and fit for company, position, and type of work

Money – financial security, spending habits, savings, investing, and giving

By reflecting on and rating these five elements, you can determine which element is the highest priority today. Your priority area will change based on what is happening in your life. That's okay. It is not meant to be fixed. Life is messy and fluid and we get better results if we learn a bit of flexibility and adaptability.

It is important to choose one area at any given time on which to focus. I'm often tempted to try tackling everything I want to accomplish at once. It feels good to be busy but ultimately there’s no meaningful payoff by doing many things haphazardly and inconsistently.

The result is frustration, physical and mental exhaustion, cynicism that nothing will make a difference, and a feeling of incompetence that you can't get anything right. In other words, trying to do it all is a recipe for burnout.

I can't, shouldn't, and won't "do it all". Identifying one element of well-being and taking one to two small actions that improve that element is all that is needed to make an extraordinary impact.

So, let’s find a direction in which to drive.

On a piece of paper (or the notes app on your phone), list the below categories, and rate each one on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the poorest state of well-being and 10 being the best state of well-being.

Mind:

Body:

Belonging:

Work:

Money:

Remember, it all starts with raising self-awareness and setting direction.

In summary, how do you measure your well-being baseline? Turn to the simple two-step process -

1. Use Cantril's Ladder of Success to determine if your well-being is Thriving, Struggling, or Suffering.

2. Rate the five elements of well-being - mind, body, belonging, work, and money - to determine which one is in the most need of your attention and focus.

An example of a well-being baseline could be: Thriving & Body. You are thriving and you know you want to focus more on your physical health in some way. Or, it could be Struggling & Mind. Your well-being is struggling and you know that improvements in your mental health would make the most impact.

Once you have a good understanding of what needs attention, the next step is taking small actions that will lead to big changes down the road. More on that next week!

Well wishes,

Kayla

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