4 Key Factors for Self-Preservation

What role does self-preservation play in our life, career and relationships?

Your life can sometimes become overwhelming. You have so many responsibilities and commitments that you feel busier than a beaver.  There is always something to do, someone to see and somewhere to go.

You get consumed with work, family, chores, activities and events.  Then the hours, days and weeks run together and after a while you find yourself physically tired, mentally drained and emotionally frazzled. You hit rock bottom and there is no quick fix.

But protecting yourself from harm and preventing self-destruction is essential to your drive for success. So, it important that you build and execute a personal self-preservation plan to aid in combating anything that comes against you in your quest to achieve. And when you set out to create and implement such an agenda there are 4 important factors that should be included.

Key Factors for Self-Preservation

Nurture – Develop, use and take care of your talents, gifts and skills.

Monitor – Check your progress and verify that you are on track.

Re-evaluate – Continuously re-assess your whole being and your goals paying close attention to the changes in your life, changes in your personal desires and changes in your surroundings.

Lifeline – Willingly seek support, covering and assistance (help) without fear or shame.

Nurture

Nurturing your whole being and pre-empting fallout relies on careful selection of your commitments.  You must take the time to soul search and identify the true calling on your life.You cannot fulfill every role that comes your way; but you can excel when you use the gifts and talents bestowed on you.

And there is no need to compare and get caught up in what someone else is doing.  Focus on your own skills to further develop and utilize what is at your disposal to create the best you.  In so doing, you will reveal your strengths and weaknesses and will be better equipped to harness both as you strive to achieve your calling.

Believe in yourself! If you don’t believe, it doesn’t matter if everyone else does.  It begins and ends with you. Never be afraid to express and reach for that thing, that goal, that calling that exists only in you.

Monitor

Perform a self-check. Stay in-tuned with yourself – your physical, mental, emotional needs as well as your goals and commitments.  You have to develop a habit of monitoring your personal gas tank and initiate refueling long before it hits E (empty) or you may find yourself broken down, stalled and off track.

Monitoring can be as detailed as a daily diary/checklist or as simple as a morning meditation.  Either way it should allow you to truthfully acknowledge your stress level, the degree of comfort or enjoyment you are experiencing as well as the results of your actions (e.g., what you have or have not accomplished) and identify your progress on meeting milestones and finishing the tasks you took on.

This allows you to recognize when your plate is getting too full or see that a task cannot be completed as expected.

Re-evaluate

When you properly nurture and monitor, you gain inputs for re-evaluation.  In so doing you give yourself the chance to re-assess your plans, goals, commitments and expectations.

Life is ever changing, so what you outlined a year ago may no longer be relevant based on new advances, developments, personal life events (planned and unplanned) or even a change in power(people in charge or who have the ability and resources to contribute to your development).

Through re-evaluation you may find an easier path,identify a new idea or you may realize that a new contact has the connections you need to help you become successful. Re-evaluation is not a license to throw your hands up and give up, it is an opportunity to adjust, re-tool, redefine and even improve your plan.

When you perform this evaluation it should be conducted as a full self-assessment and should not be done as a negative activity where you bash your plans, activities and dreams.  Instead, it should be a positive pursuit where you improve your proposal, and if necessary refine your objectives or simply confirm your original strategy so you can forge ahead.

Lifeline

Recognizing you need help and seeking it is commendable.  If after nurturing, monitoring and re-evaluating you find yourself confused about your direction, depressingly behind schedule, upset at failures, setbacks or obstacles, over committed and fearful of a fast approaching avalanche; or you just find it difficult to find joy in your activities, then you need assistance outside of yourself to preserve your being.

It’s time to reach for your lifeline.Pro-actively engaging your lifeline can stop escalation of situations and prevent the need for emergency resuscitation.Your lifeline can come in various shapes and forms:

• A person
  • A spiritual or faith leader who you are comfortable opening up to knowing they will not only comfort you, but provide honest feedback and direction.
  • A close friend or family member who understands and is familiar with your goals and dreams as well as your social/professional/familialroles and responsibilities and will give you a frank and direct appraisal.
  • A professional counselor/therapist who has no personal attachment and can give you unbiased wisdom from which you make considerations and draw conclusions.

• Purpose filled and inspirational media (e.g., writings, music and video). These resources can give you a lift and aid you in sorting out your concerns to see clearly, so you can get past obstacles and thrive.

• Relaxation activities are a great way to ease your mind, rejuvenate your body and invigorate your emotional health. For some relaxation can be as simple as taking a regular yoga class.  For others, it requires a complete get-a-way (a vacation away from the regular crowd and setting).   You can choose one of these or something in between.  It doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you find an activity that invokes tranquility and removes tension or anxiety, allowing you to begin again – refreshed, recharged and refocused.

Your Success Requires Self-Preservation

Although, you know difficulties will come from time to time, your life should be loaded with fulfilling experiences. You should not simply aim to survive.  You should expect to live to your highest and truest level.  You should presume that your life will be prosperous.

Gaining as well as maintaining this peak life experience is an act of self-preservation.  And self-preservation requires you to stay vigilant and protect your mental, physical and emotional being by nurturing, monitoring, re-evaluating and reaching for your lifeline without fear or shame.