I would like to tell you a story about someone I know.

Without being aware of it, my friend Mr Ron Hard was living a highly linear life.

He worked long hours, rarely shutting down even when he got home. He was relentlessly spending mental energy answering calls and text messages, without getting much needed recovery time.

This gradual build up of fatigue prompted anxiety, irritability and sometimes self-doubt.

He had very few positive sources of emotional renewal, even from his primary relationships.

In the language of sports, Mr Hard was overtraining mentally and emotionally and undertraining physically and spiritually. As he expended precious little energy in activity and exercise, he had lost endurance, strength and resilience. Because he had grown disconnected from deeply held values or a sense of purpose, the spiritual dimension represented a flatline in his life – a potential source of energy that has not been cultivated.

Mr Hard is not so different from most of us.

These choices he was making are so socially sanctioned and even promoted by the very company (and world) he lives in. We live in a world that celebrates work and activity and ignores renewal and recovery.

We fail to recognise that both are equally necessary for sustained high performance.

Please take a moment to ponder… Is this the kind of culture we want to create in our company?

Sincerely,

Joseph Bismark
Group Managing Director, QI Ltd