Replenishing your jar!

A decent coffee and a good dose of people watching certainly replenishes my jar!

It was another Monday morning, and I was experiencing another episode of self-reflection …  Sat, sipping a café con leche at a cute Spanish restaurant in Edinburgh, I was waiting to attend a meeting located just round the corner. From the place I’d chosen in their outdoor seating area, I was able to indulge in one of my favourite past times – people watching. As I embraced the bustling activity unveiling before me, I started to feel energised, and this made me think about the importance of ‘replenishing the jar’.

It's all too easy for me to define what I think of as work by categorising activities into an acceptable list of tasks. As a recovering over-achiever, I can easily slip into being tasks orientated and somewhat legalistic about how I define work. Yet, being a people person and now being primarily based at home alone with little in person connection I realised how restricting and potentially damaging having such a binary view can be.

A different view

When I was based in a busy workplace, I prioritised space for relational activity and invested in making sure my team felt valued and connected. We would go ‘off site’ for meetings and creative sessions because I wanted them to feel significant and have the space to be themselves and let the ideas flow. I kept a constant supply of coffee and chocolate so that anyone could take a bit of time out for a chat if that’s what they needed. We even adopted ‘laughercise’ in the office; when the stress was growing, we’d stop and intentionally start laughing to help bring things back into perspective (this created some interesting reactions from other departments!). The point is, I never viewed this as anything other than an important aspect of leadership which most definitely sat comfortably within my paradigm of work.

So, sat at the café feeling the life and energy return as I indulged in people watching, I realised how important it is to feed the need for connection that runs deep through my veins. So, there and then, I committed to introduce other activities into my working week that I would choose to view as work because of the significant impact it has on my productivity and mental wellbeing. Since then, I’ve taken wellbeing walks and just enjoyed the resetting of my mind that happens when I get away from the screen. Unsurprisingly, without it being my objective, I’ve found the ideas start flowing and I return with a new excitement to the tasks that await.

What activities fill your jar?

We are all different and experience challenges that are as unique as we are. Discovering the things that help us in our current situation to fill our jars and replenish the enjoyment in our work is a crucial element of flourishing. For me, I must recognise my danger zones and align those with the deep need I have for connection to rewrite my definition of work. Then I must be super intentional to engage with the things that help me to thrive and not view them as less important than other tasks that I class as work.

So, what does it look like for you. What replenishes your jar and what can you do to build this into your paradigm of work?