From Chronic pain to Clarity

I was totally out of my mind

There I was, lying in my daughters bed having read her a bed time story completely unable to move.

That was the start of over a month of chronic back pain.

This happened 10 years ago now but it was a bit of a breakthrough experience for me.

Across the month I became acutely aware of both my change in behaviour and my feelings across the day.

I was less patient with people

I reached a point where my tolerance for people and problems spilled over into intolerance more quickly

My energy was much lower

My choices were poorer around food and alcohol

Most importantly, my skill, my ability to see the big picture and so ask the right question and simplify the problem had all but disappeared.

I had to survive entirely on habit

When I worked out the problem and fixed my pain it was like a light switch coming on.

Suddenly I was me again

My patience’s, kindness, energy, discipline and skill returned in a moment.

I started to realise that I existed on a scale

a state of flow at one end of the spectrum

a state of fear at the other

Interesting fact: 30 - 50 year old experience pain to a greater degree than those outside of the age bracket. It’s thought that this is due to having a greater level of responsibility and more people that depend on them. Pain is significantly increased by the fear of not meeting our commitments to others.

I started to notice that every single one of my actions, beliefs and environments either moved me towards fear,

where I was spreading urgency, panic, frustration, confusion, and judgment to those around me.

or flow

where I was spreading clarity, direction, focus, strategy and the feeling of certainty to those around me.

In that moment I realised that putting myself first WAS putting others first.

Who I was being and the actions I took to create that was more important than anything I might be doing and in many ways the cause of what I was doing.

I started to ask myself, if I could create flow in someone in order to have the greatest impact who would it be?

The answer was obvious - leaders

If I could support leaders to a greater level of flow in their lives.

There energy, health, relationships, business, would all improve but also the experience of everyone in their company too.

If you would like to experience flow in your life and you are in a leadership position where you can influence strategy then send me a PM saying YES or something like that if that feels weird.