Success and stress often feel like they have to come hand in hand. We want to be more productive and excel in our careers so we work harder and harder until we feel completely exhausted and overwhelmed. With job security being one of the top stressors for women especially, I know that a lot of us are probably feeling stuck in that cycle of overwork which is why I brought business and leadership coach, Emily Cassel, on to The Stress Less Show this week to share her insights on how to be successful without so much of the stress.
Emily has dedicated much of her life to helping women entrepreneurs in their careers and lives because she knows what they are going through. As a super ambitious woman with an interest in spirituality and positive psychology, she found herself wishing there was a more holistic approach to entrepreneurship advice while she was starting her own business.
“In the journey of entrepreneurship, a lot of what we hear is more strategic business wisdom. But actually, I find that as much as we think we're growing a business, the business is also growing us and that entrepreneurship is very much a personal development and self-discovery journey.”
Through building her own business and helping women across the globe lead impactful businesses, Emily has come up with three great tips to share with us on how to optimize our productivity and be successful at work without sacrificing our wellbeing.
Tip #1: Track Your Menstrual Cycle
Emily’s first tip is for all of us out there with a period. For many of us, our menstrual cycle might be something we don’t think too much about when we aren’t experiencing bleeding or PMS symptoms. However, our hormones can be affecting our mental and emotional state all month long which we can use to better optimize our productivity.
“When we work with that natural rhythm and flow - with it instead of against it - we can accomplish so much more and it doesn't feel like an uphill battle anymore. It actually feels really effortless.”
Tracking those hormonal and emotional fluctuations in our cycle will help us notice patterns in how productive we feel so we can plan our days more effectively. We can better identify days in the month that we will likely be feeling more or less energized and plan accordingly.
Tip #2: Stay In Your Own Lane
I’m sure we’ve all had those days when we hop on Instagram, see all of the glamorous vacation photos and wonder why our lives aren’t as perfect as everyone else’s. As much as we all love social media, it makes comparing our success and happiness seem almost inevitable. However, Emily’s next tip in order to cultivate more success and productivity in our careers is to stay focused on ourselves instead of looking at the lives of others.
“We can siphon off so much energy when we're giving it away to everybody else instead of just staying focused and clear on what matters most to us and pursuing that.”
When we are spending all of our time looking at others, we can’t give 100% to ourselves. Comparison causes us to miss the opportunities in front of us because we are looking to create the same success we see in others. By keeping our eyes ahead and on the road in front of us, we can be ready to take action in our lives when our time comes.
Tip #3: Re-set Your Metrics For Success
When we are trying to be successful at work, our culture often relies on one thing to measure that success - money. Money seems like an easy way to define success, but Emily stresses that simply looking at how much money you are making doesn’t paint the whole picture.
“How many times do I smile each day? How joyful do I feel? How great are my weekends? Am I moving my body? Am I nourishing myself?... All of those things are also important ways that we can measure our success.”
When we are so caught up in the numbers on our paycheck, we can get discouraged and defeated when those numbers stay the same or even decrease. But the reality is that these numbers have a lot less to do with how successful we are.
It is important to take a look at what drives us as individuals to want more money and be successful. What kind of life do we want to live? When we focus on the things that truly make us happy and fulfilled, we begin to find that we may already be more successful than we imagined.