This is already Part VII in our new blog series on who should hire a coach.

Last time I argued that if we want to live a successful life we must practice PERMA (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Achievement), regardless of our perceived genetic or neurological predisposition for emotional well-being.  In fact, only outliers achieve what is worth achieving while remaining miserable.

Now I will double down on my claim.  You are more likely to actively seek out and experience PERMA and achieve your goals if you are physically well.  In short, physical health is the positivity and achievement multiplier.

Emotions run high whenever we discuss diet and exercise.  Just take a look at your Facebook newsfeed.  I would be surprised if there was not at least one link to a health topic near the top of the feed.  Go ahead and read the comments.  Yikes it gets heated.  Neither particularly useful nor helpful, but sometimes amusing.

It is not amusing however, for those people who struggle with their health.

This blog will inform you on how I help my clients think about health in a manner that reduces their judgment and increases their awareness.  From awareness these clients choose how to affect their chances of maintaining physical well-being.

B-SANE

Comprehensive well-being, the physical and the emotional, is not boundless.  In fact we all have a finite level of bandwidth to enable us to live a day steeped in productivity and well-being.  Kinetic’s B-SANE Daily Tracker is a tool that informs us, modifies our behavior, and promotes an experimental ethic.  (Note: This is a new acronym Kinetic is using, formerly it was called SSEAS and/or BASES, but rest assured, same concept, just a better acronym.)

As you increase your B-SANE score you increase the likelihood of experiencing happiness and achievement.  And if your B-SANE score is in the crazy zone, well, we create small incentives to change this pattern in the days ahead.  No judgment, just realistic expectations for you, each and every day.

The B-SANE Daily Tracker also helps us to decide when it is best to rev up or press the pause button on our lives.

I know everyone is dying to know what B-SANE stands for.  Quite simply, B-SANE identifies five critical areas of physical well-being . . .

B = Body

This is about a daily body check-in.  If you have a chronic or an acute illness you have to get real.  Rest and respect your body, rely more on family and friends, and reschedule nonessential activities.  Powering through may seem prudent or necessary in the short-term but long-term well-being requires patience when ill.

No one is a bigger baby when ill than I.  And although illness is rare for me,  I have to let it pass before I jump back into achievement mode.  Perhaps my accomplishment in this instance is allowing myself to get well.

S = Sleep

First, figure out how much sleep you require for optimal performance and then make it happen.  Sounds so simple yet this is one of the hardest of the five to optimize.  Try going to bed at night and waking up in the morning at the same time.  Experiment with this for two weeks straight, without exception.  I bet you will sleep better by night 4 or 5.  Also stop revving up before bedtime with stimulating activities that usually involve a screen.

Lack of sleep affects me profoundly.  In fact, over the past three nights I have been battling urban wildlife.  There is a mouse in my home and I am on a mission to destroy it.  My sleep has been dramatically affected.  When this happens my mind closes down, I lose perspective, PERMA appears elusive, and before I understood the power of my BASES, typically I would make poor choices.

The good news is I am aware of this tendency, so when sleep deprived, I resist catastrophizing and work on solving the real issue.  Heck, it’s nothing a few mousetraps cannot solve.  Ratatouille, your days are numbered!

A = Attention

This category is all about how we focus on the things we care about in our topsy-turvy 21st century world.  Multi-tasking does not just harm us psychologically, it also means we may be using precious physical energy to attend to things that may not matter a whole heck of a lot.

Technology is wonderful but the negative side effects are reaching epidemic proportions for many of us.  I get so distracted trying to answer emails and texts while I am with family, friends, or even clients.  I lose opportunities for the meaningful connections I say I crave yet unconsciously undermine.  So I have recently instituted “technology checks”.  This means when I am with others I will announce that I need to check my device and that it requires 100% of my attention.  When finished I do not look again unless I announce I am ready for another technology check.

I do not expect the other people in my life to follow suit (since it is a bit kooky), but lately I notice how other people in my life are not fiddling with devices while talking to me and instead wait for me to announce my technology check.  The improvements in focus and connection are quite profound.  Funny how helpful habits have a way of expanding without the need for pontification.

N = Nutrition

Learn what fuel works best for your body.  It takes time and research on you to determine this, but it is one of the most revealing experiments you can undertake.  I blogged once about how healthy I thought I was eating (and drinking) until I started writing down everything I consumed.  All of us self-deceive, so get the evidence you need to make the best decisions for your body.

For those who think carbs are bad, spend time around me when I am carb deprived.  I turn into the Hulk.  I know this after years of experimentation with my diet.  Stop silly diets, and start careful self examination.

E = Exercise

The promising news is the bar is set so low for most of us that any activity is a net gain.  Remember the way I choose to exercise may not work for you and vice versa.

Few people realize that injury is the number one reason people stop their exercise routines, not boredom.  Resist the temptation to go all out too quickly.  When I started my health journey 20 years ago I began by walking just ten minutes each day.  Small steps are rarely sexy . . . just incredibly effective.

 

With the help of the B-SANE Daily Tracker we begin to notice the connections between the emotional and the physical.  Emotional well-being (PERMA) and physical well-being (B-SANE) are a powerful one-two punch of comprehensive health.  The more we practice PERMA, the greater likelihood we will want to raise our B-SANE score.  As we raise our B-SANE score we will experience PERMA like we never thought possible.

Then watch how successfully you achieve your goals.

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If you have any questions about coaching please feel free to contact me at scott@kineticcoaching.co, and remember I always offer a complimentary 30-45 minute session to prospective clients to determine if we want to work together.