Enjoy Being You

So says a Work Safe Australia report on workplace fatalities, injuries and illnesses, released this week. Combine the costs of mental and body stress and the figure rises to $30 billion. The total cost of all injuries etc was $60.6 billion for that year. The figures will no doubt be much higher this year.

We live in turbulent times. The human mind is under unprecedented attack in every sphere of life. Even physical work is mentally stressful. The problem is the OHS&W provisions have traditionally focused on physical risk management. The powers that be are having serious problems knowing how to deal with the dramatically increasing need for mental stress risk management provisions.

Since stress is 24/7, what hope do business managers have of managing mental health risks? We’ve learned a lot about how to keep people physically healthy and safe and now we need to learn how to keep people mentally healthy and safe.

The answers are found in the emerging strength and passion of the human mind. We have to stop thinking some people are more talented than others and recognize that everyone has talents that are begging to be released and allowed to blossom. They find their potential for release in everything they do – at work, home and especially at play.

Following a passion is the most natural form of stress release. When you lose yourself in any interest you love, you unlock the talents, creative capabilities and sheer joy of living. Self esteem, self confidence and self belief flourish. The mind becomes the driver of mental health rather than the source of mental ‘illth’.

A good start is to encourage and value the right of people to enjoy a life outside of the work environment, where they can switch off from work rules and enjoy the freedom of self expression through passionate personal interests. ·

Click here for more on this.

I have programs to help make this work, with due respect for management obligations and due sensitivity of the right of staff to privacy in their personal lives. Call (0417 817 027) or email me if you would like to know more.

Tweet

I got this message last week from a subscriber who is a very experienced businessman:

“Peter, I have been receiving your messages for a long time now. Recently I had a near-death experience, an operation that went wrong, no one to blame just the way things happen; I am glad I had a very good medical team! ·But the point of this note ·is the incident has been an eye opener for me ; the importance of living every day to the full and expending one’s time on the things that really matter have certainly been reinforced . I have remarked more than once in recent weeks to business colleagues that we all tend to take work a little too seriously!· Peter, your message is a strong one!"

How ready are you to cope with a life-threatening experience so strong that it shakes your very being to the core – emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually? It can happen at any time and usually without warning. I too sometimes wonder how I will respond.

Like anything else in life, the more prepared you are when the going gets tough, the better you will deal with it. Basically I believe that the more often we emphasize the positives in life, the better we cope with the negatives. Perhaps at times I get carried away by my zeal to send out these messages, but the above re-affirmed my belief that I am in my right place doing my right thing.

Take my subscriber’s tip. Get out there and enjoy the good things in life more often than your busy time schedule will allow.

Tweet