POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

WANT A THRIVING WORKPLACE? CREATE POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE
April 12, 2021 Work Well Comments Off on WANT A THRIVING WORKPLACE? CREATE POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

By Jessica Brownlee

Our tips and insights into being successful at work you do, by valuing and investing in people …

Growing your business and being successful is hard, especially in times like these. We all want to make more money, smash those business goals and just feel like we are achieving our best lives at work. And yes, your customers are the heart of your business. But your employees and people you work with are the life blood. Think about it, you cannot get a single thing done without your people. Literally, not a single thing (barring what you can achieve on your own steam, of course).

When we think of increasing our business or product value we often immediately think of the customer. But what about the employees and people driving the value? Just as customer service has transformed over the years, along with the customer, into customer experiences (the holistic perception customers have of your brand or business stemming from every interaction they have with it) so too do we need to transform our employees’ engagement and happiness by intently focusing on their employee experience. After all your employees are your first customer, and the human side of your brand. 

If the fiscal side of employee experience doesn’t captivate you (we all have different motivations) consider how much of our lives we spend at work and that you as a brand or employer have the power to make someone’s workplace, and by implication life, better, more positive and happier. If there is ever a time to flex your altruistic muscles and show some kindness to others, the middle of a global pandemic and on-again-off-again lockdowns would be it!

POSITIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

The deal with Employee Experience

A positive employee experience is more than just a decent place to work. Employee experience is a combination of your workplace culture, the physical work environment and the tools and technology which enable the work. As an example, when you go to work you want to experience a sense of belonging and shared purpose (culture), where you feel safe, can attain goals and grow while working in a healthy, safe and well environment with a technology or machinery that enables you to be efficient and perform. As leaders or business owners if we don’t address and manage all the factors impacting our employee experience we may pay a heavy cost. To convince the stoic and unmoved out there, here are some tangible examples of employee experience impacting the bottom line:

 

  • It is a proven fact (by science, people) that a happy employee is 20% more productive, imagine losing 20% of your employees’ production every day for a year. That’s a full day a week, almost full week lost a month just because your employee is unhappy. 
  • An engaged workforce outperforms one that is lackluster by tripling profit to 147% profit per share.
  • A positive employee experience creates an engaged workforce. Annually disengaged employees cost the USA $450 to $550 billion a year!
  • Managing your employee experience allows you to shape your culture and culture eats strategy for breakfast.
  •  To have talent and the best employees who give of themselves at work, they need to feel appreciated, and that means more than a competitive paycheck. Google increased employee satisfaction by 37% thanks to their investment in employee support.
  • Another hidden cost of poor employee experience is the increase in sick leave and absence, an unhappy employee takes 15 more sick days a year.
  • If you are in a highly competitive industry, positive employee experience can give you the edge with increased innovation and performance from your employees. Happy people just think and work better!

Insights into Your Business’ Employee Experience 

If we want to focus on cultivating positive employee experience, a good starting point is understanding what and where it is now, establishing your status quo. Understanding your employee experience can be simplified into two main focus areas:

  • What do your employees expect, want and need?
  • How does your business design the solutions to meet the wants, expectations and needs of employees?

You can understand your employee experience by evaluating three things:

  1. The physical space: 

Evaluating your workplace design and its impact on interactions, daily work life and wellness.

  1. The workplace technology: 

Embodying frictionless technology that enables and supports performance.

  1. The company culture: 

Understanding and building the right behavioral norms, values and policies on what is acceptable inn your workplace.

Tips to cultivating positive employee experience

So you have a good idea of what employee experience is, why it is important to you and how to evaluate and understand your current employee experience. Hopefully, you feel energized to take action in addressing your employee experience, for your business value and for your employees. Here are some tips to assist you in starting to build a more positive employee experience:

Foster Psychological safety

Yes, it sounds complicated, but no it is not. Simply, psychological safety is merely about giving people the freedom to bring their whole selves to work while feeling valued, connected and accepted. To create increased psychological safety at work we need to approach others with positive regard, allow failures and successes, treat people with dignity and act inclusively. Our interactions, especially the leaders at work, need to down regulate fight or flight responses and allow people to be calm, energized and focused.

Communicate with your employees

An important part of employee experience is communication between the business, leaders and employees. Great communication starts with listening. Actively listen to your employees. You can create discussion boards, virtual collective spaces and even schedule team lunches that allow open communication. Really listen and try to understand what motivates and demotivates your employees, try put yourself in their shoes and understand their day-to-day lived experience. Storytelling is a great way to share ideas and communicate with employees. Host town halls or social media campaigns to keep them feeling connected.

Make people feel valued

Focus on fostering a culture of acknowledgement, people have a fundamental need to feel valued and this is true for the workplace. Recognize contributions to the team and company success in meaningful ways beyond monetary incentives. Create the habit of frequent feedback and make a point of letting people know you see them and their efforts.

Give employees’ growth opportunities

A big part of a positive work experience is feeling like you are growing and contributing to something bigger than yourself. Ensuring employees have routine learning and development opportunities gives them the chance to grow and progress. Growth can take the form of free access to Udemy courses or short courses, personalized development plans to one’s career aspirations or creating a learning culture in the organization with knowledge sharing and learning lunches. 

Work Life Integration and Balance

We all want to feel like we have a good work life balance, in essence we want a positive experience at work and at home. As work and life become more integrated it is really up to leaders and business’ to enhance employee work life balance and show employees they genuinely do care for their happiness. Small steps such as increased autonomy and flexibility at work can go a long way to making employees feel empowered and valued. Consider others schedules when booking meetings, perhaps try have stand up meetings instead of sitting in a board room. Be mindful of the emails your forward and who’s mailbox you are filling. And most importantly encourage employees to switch off and recharge, often. 

Integrate the desired experience into people practices

You can’t achieve the employee experience you want without ensuring all other initiatives in the business align. If you want to encourage feedback, make it a weekly habit in the team. If you want people to act inclusive, build it as a measure into your performance management system and include it in onboarding initiatives. Once you have identified the pillars you will use to build your employee experience make sure you integrate it into all the employee touch points to reinforce the change in behaviours and make it stick.

A word from Jessica Brownlee

Through the sharing of knowledge and experience, we want to help build communities, organizations and individuals become the most optimal version of themselves, both physically, emtionally and mentally.  

Your health is your wealth so make lasting changes, one habit at a time.

The WellBe Team

About Jessica Brownlee

Jessica is an industrial and organizational psychologist specializing in learning, leadership, talent, neuroscience and wellness. A self-proclaimed wellness geek, Jessica writes The Humble Humanologist blog to inspire, motivate and uplift others on their work and wellness journey. She is her own boss, running a consulting company, Psychology360 (www.psychology360.org) and consults globally to some of the leading organizations. Jessica also strives to find balance and is an avid yogi and yoga teacher (who is yet to master a hand stand).

Instagram: @thehumblehumanologist

Facebook: Psychology360

Website: www.psychology360.org

Let’s be positive

Set yourself up for a positive day, everyday
April 12, 2021 Move Well Comments Off on Set yourself up for a positive day, everyday

Do you feel like everyday is a struggle to find the motivation to do anything? Well then it’s time to make some serious changes! Adding some positive daily habits into your life can definitely help with creating a bullet proof routine that will ultimately encourage you to have a great day, everyday.

Being positive is a choice. I truly believe that if we have our mind in a positive space we can become unstoppable in all aspects of our life. But finding a way to keep ourselves motivated and positive takes work and conscious effort. You need to create a morning routine to get your mind into a positive space. This way you will feel motivated to tackle everything in your day!


7 Tips to get onto the positive train

 

Get up and get going

You know when that first alarm goes off? Don’t press snooze! Get up right away and get going. Trust me, I know it’s much easier said than done but it really makes a difference in helping you feel less groggy and more motivated! 

What am I grateful for

Waking up and thinking about or writing down what you are grateful for will really help you focus on the positive things you have in your life. It doesn’t need to be more than 5 minutes every morning, but make this a priority! This will set you out in a positive direction and will put you in a good mood.

healthy and happy

Drink water

Even though it may sound obvious, drinking a big glass of room temperature water first thing in the morning BEFORE you grab your coffee will make your body feel good and revitalized. Drinking water will hydrate you and wake you right up!

Meditation or deep breaths

Taking 5 minutes in the morning to meditate or even do breathing exercises is a great way to clear your mind before your day starts. It doesn’t need to be anything formal, you could literally just sit down while doing your gratitude exercise or drinking your water and take a few deep breaths!

Have a healthy wholesome breakfast

Instead of skipping breakfast completely, eat something healthy and nutritious. If you don’t have too much time you could throw together a smoothie that is jam packed with wholesome goodness! Eating healthily goes hand in hand with feeling good about yourself and your day. 

Put together a playlist

Put together a playlist of your favourite happy songs! That way you can just press play and that positive feeling will come your way. Music really can bring in those feel good vibes into your life, so try to incorporate that into your morning (whether it may be when you are getting ready for work or when your commuting to work).

Move your body

Finding time to move your body and get a great workout in definitely has a massive positive impact on the body and mind. I’m sure you’ve heard it before, but exercise helps release endorphins (happy hormones) into your body which make you feel happy and positive! I suggest trying to fit in your workout in the morning but if not set a time that works for you everyday.

Let’s be positive!

Ultimately, you have the control on how you live your life and how you decide to look at things. Using the above tips will really help set you up for success and get those positive vibes flowing throughout your day, everyday! 

“The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible!”

 

Gratitude

Living with Gratitude: How To Make Every Day Count
April 8, 2021 Eat Well Comments Off on Living with Gratitude: How To Make Every Day Count

by Jessica Gaynor

You’ve got one life. These are our tips on how to get the most out of it!  

It’s easy to see the glass half empty right now. After COVID-19, Stress has been labeled as the number  one health pandemic, the global economy has hit one of its all time lows and poverty is rife.  

How can we possibly see the glass half full?  

The Secret to Happiness  

Ah, the age-old question!  

There was a 75 year-long study at Harvard focused on uncovering the most important factor in human  happiness. You might be thinking: financial stability or having a purpose right? The conclusion might  surprise you… It’s a human connection.  

When we talk about human connection, we’re not talking all that social media stuff. We’re talking real  physical and emotional connection with other human beings, and the quality and depth of those  relationships.  

Human interaction can foster a great sense of community and sense of support. 2 Things we have always  needed and will always need as humans to grow within ourselves and within the world. When we have a  sense of community and support, we feel safer and more willing to try new things because we know 

we’ll be backed up by our tribe regardless of the outcome. Not to mention, it’s been proven that daily,  quality social interaction can slow the onset of memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease.  

So get out there and socialise (socially distanced of course!), make those connections, find your tribe and  try new things to get the most out of life and keep your mind healthy. But this isn’t the only thing you  can do to elevate your life…  

We can actually rewire our brains  

Until fairly recently, scientists firmly believed that the brain is unchangeable when we become adults.  Who we are is who we are. Solid, concrete, unalterable brains. Once we’re adults, that’s who we are – no  buts about it.  

Now we understand that the brain can be remolded and rewired to think differently – a term known as  ‘neuroplasticity’.  

If you’ve always got a gloomy outlook on life, fear not – you can change your mindset! If you have a bad  habit, you can change that too (phew!). All thanks to the ever-changing miracle and mystery that is your  brain. The secret to changing the brain is repetition.  

It’s all about habits  

To start thinking differently, you need to create new habits that support the life you want to live. You  need to implement changes consistently. The tried and tested way to build a habit is to ‘habit stack’.  

Habit stacking means doing the “new” habit right after an existing one. For example you could try  meditating and brushing your teeth in the morning – because that’s something you do every day  (hopefully!).  

The more we repeat something or think in a certain way and make it a habit, the faster our brains will be  rewired in line with those thoughts and actions. So let’s make sure it’s a positive change!  

Creating an attitude of gratitude  

Expressing gratitude is the single most powerful way to create a more positive outlook on life. When we  focus on what we’re grateful for, we focus on what’s good in our lives. Then, by repeatedly focusing on  the good, we start to create a habit of thinking positively which ultimately extends to the way we see the  world. 

There are a few ways we can change our view on life:  

  1. Keep a gratitude journal 

Did you know that the information we learn with multiple senses sticks more easily? Writing in particular  is a very powerful tool we can use to learn because it engages both our senses of touch and sight. This is  known as ‘multimodal learning’.  

Get yourself a notebook in a size that floats your boat. A bonus for this one is if it looks nice on the  outside so you’re more drawn to pick it up and use it. Keep it in a place where you’ll see it often – next to  your bed is the best.  

Every day – before bed or when you wake up – write down 3 things you’re grateful for. It’s powerful to  write down full sentences that result in affirmations. For example: “I am grateful for my healthy body”.  

When you’re feeling low, have a read through your journal (which over time becomes prey  substantial!). After a year you’ll get to read more or less 1000 things that you get to be grateful for. 

  1. Take -me off social media  

Ever had a “(s)he’s got it all” moment when you’re scrolling? It’s really easy to get down into a slump  because your life seemingly isn’t as good as others’. It’s important to remember that people don’t post  their life’s lows. All you’re seeing are people’s highlights and that’s not real life.  

Set up the screen balance feature on your phone – they all have one! Make sure you’re not  scrolling through unrealistic expectations all day. Put your phone away and sit in the present to  acknowledge what you have in this moment. Why not even have a read through that gratitude journal?  

  1. Breathe 

It’s something we do without even thinking but really should. You know that thing where the air moves  in and out of the body and gives us life? Yeah that one!  

When you focus on the breath, you bring yourself into the present moment and that’s what we all need  the most. We’re always living in the past or the future but very rarely in the present. When we live in the  present we become more aware of what we have and how we feel. Basically, we live life in HD and who  doesn’t want that? Breathing in and of itself is something else we can be so grateful for. 

  1. Exercise  

We’re working even longer hours now that many of us work from home and struggle to set work/ home boundaries. We sit for way longer than our bodies were ever designed to do and our spines  compress, giving us all those (very common) back aches and pains. Set a timer on your phone to take a  break from your desk – that might mean just gebng up and walking around the house a few times.  

Try and exercise for 30 minutes, 5 -mes a week or 20 minutes every day. Your body will release happy  hormones and instantly give you a mood booster.  

  1. Give back  

As we spoke about before, community and connection are a big part of who we are as humans. When  we perceive that we are supported and can support others, we instantly have more purpose in life – and  that’s been proven.  

Why not support a charity or cause? Donate clothes or even your time? Taking the -me to help others  will give you a sense of gra-tude and pride in our communities by working towards the common good  for everyone.  

A word from Jessica Gaynor

Through the sharing of knowledge and experience, we want to help build communities and individuals  become the most optimal version of themselves both physically and mentally.  

Your health is your wealth so make lasting changes, one habit at a time.  

 

About Jessica Gaynor

The human mind fascinates me beyond words. After I was diagnosed with stress-induced Epilepsy, I  started to revaluate the way I was living my life and I became acutely aware of the global stress  pandemic. It’s become my life mission to help others become aware of it too, through meditation and  mindfulness – because awareness is the first step towards change.  

I’m a registered Yoga Teacher and Employee Wellness Coach with a focus on mental health and  wellbeing. I am currently studying towards a certification in Yoga Therapy – a discipline centered around  helping people understand and manage both their physical and emotional imbalances in the body. 

Chicken soup

CHICKEN NO-NOODLE SOUP
March 17, 2021 Lunch, Recipes Comments Off on CHICKEN NO-NOODLE SOUP

DIFFICULTY: EASY

TIME: 20 MINUTES
SERVES: 2

This light chicken soup with added cabbage is an immune-boosting power combo that helps improve hydration, reduce inflammation and ward off bacterial infections.

 

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 Tbsp. olive oil or butter½ celery stalk, sliced finely
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 1/3 cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 1 tsp minced garlic
  • ½ tsp each dried onion and parsley
  • A pinch of salt and ground black pepper
  • 225 ml chicken broth
  • ½ medium sized carrot, sliced into rounds
  • 120 g shredded rotisserie chicken
  • 2 cups green cabbage sliced into “noodle”
    strips
  • Slices of fresh lemon

 

Chicken soup

METHOD

Add the oil to a large pot on medium heat. Add the dried onion, diced onion, celery, carrots, mushrooms and garlic into the pot and saute for 3-4 minutes until translucent and fragrant. Add the broth, parsley, salt, and pepper. Simmer until vegetables are tender. Add the cabbage and simmer for an additional 8 to 12 minutes until the cabbage “noodles” are tender. Lastly add the cooked and shredded chicken and allow to heat through. Top with fresh lemon slices.

DOWNLOAD YOUR CHICKEN NO-NOODLE SOUP HERE

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE
March 17, 2021 Dessert, Recipes Comments Off on CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE

DIFFICULTY: EASY

TIME: 20 MINUTES + 2
HOUR REFRIGERATION
SERVES: 6

The cocoa and berry mix offers a healthy hit of disease fighting antioxidants – all without a gram of added sugar in sight!

INGREDIENTS

  • 250g cream cheese, softened
  • 1/3 cup powdered low carb sweetener
    (xylitol/erythritol)
  • 4 sachets sweetener (stevia/sucralose)
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder extract
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • Fresh raspberries, strawberries or blueberries
    to garnish

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE

METHOD

Beat cream cheese until smooth. Mix in erythritol, sweetener, cocoa and vanilla extract until well combined. In separate bowl, beat heavy cream with mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold half of the whipped cream into cream cheese mixture until well incorporated. Fold in the other half of the whipped cream. Beat with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Pipe or spoon into individual serving dishes. Top with fresh berries or fruit of choice.

CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSEDOWNLOAD YOUR CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE MOUSSE RECIPE HERE 

LOADED BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES
March 16, 2021 Lunch, Recipes, Uncategorized Comments Off on LOADED BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES

DIFFICULTY: EASY

TIME: 40 MINUTES
SERVES: 2-3

 

Sweet potatoes are loaded with gut friendly fibre as well as being an impressive source of immune-boosting Vitamin A and Vitamin C.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1-2 Tbsp coconut or olive oil
  • 500 g sweet potatoes, cleaned and wedged
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper

Toppings/sides:

  • Mashed avocado
  • Diced tomato and red onion
  • Plain Greek yoghurt + sour cream blend

LOADED BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES

METHOD

Preheat oven to 230 C. Scrub the sweet potatoes clean. Cut the potatoes into wedges – first, cut off the ends. Then, cut the potato in half. Cut each half in half, lengthwise. Finally, cut them into 4-5 wedges, lengthwise again. Rinse the wedges with cold water for 10-15 seconds and pat dry. In a large bowl, mix the oil with the seasonings. Toss the wedges with the seasoned oil, using your hands to coat each one. Spread them out on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet that has been lightly greased. They should have ample room and not be touching. Bake them for 20 minutes. Flip them over and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Watch them closely those last few minutes, they should be dark golden brown, not black. Cool a bit and enjoy!

 

DOWNLOAD YOUR LOADED BAKED SWEET POTATO WEDGES RECIPE HERE

Financial Health

FIVE SIMPLE HABITS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND INVESTMENTS
March 8, 2021 Eat Well Comments Off on FIVE SIMPLE HABITS TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH AND INVESTMENTS

By Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Fostering good habits can be the key to achieving your goals. Here are 5 simple habits that will improve your health and investment outcomes:

 

1.    Seek Ongoing Professional Advice

Consulting a dietician or personal trainer upfront to construct a diet and exercise regime that is appropriate for your goals, although coming at a cost, will save you much frustration and drastically increase your chance of success. Their role is to set achievable goals and appropriate programs to follow to which they will hold you accountable. The interaction should be regular as they can check up on your progress and tweak your program over time (which is especially important should you reach a plateau). Having someone to report back to means that you will be more likely to be engaged and committed.

The same is true for investments. Consulting a Certified Financial Planner® professional will enable you to set up a suitable investment strategy that is affordable and most importantly, one that you can stick with. Active, regular engagement is crucial to prompt you to keep putting funds away when possible (and opportune!) and to help you stay the course. At the same time, a Certified Financial Planner® professional will review the long-term performance and makeup of your portfolio and make suitable recommendations on a forward-looking basis.

As investment returns do not come in a straight line, but rather in a lumpy fashion, staying invested in your strategy is the most important determinant of success. To do so requires emotional control and not making impulsive decisions when investments are down or volatile. A Certified Financial Planner® professional can act as a rational sounding board, to talk through your concerns and to give you additional insight enabling you to avoid costly missteps.

2.    Diversification – the only free lunch!

Although there are myriad diets and nutrition options available, a well-balanced diet is essential for good long-term health. This can be in the form of balancing your macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) or including a balanced variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet.

In a similar way, when it comes to investments, diversification is crucial in building a robust portfolio that can withstand the ups and downs of different business, economic and market cycles. Appropriate diversification allows you to achieve your desired goals whilst lowering the risk of permanent capital loss and reducing the ups and downs of your portfolio.

Investment diversification involves balancing your asset class exposure (local and offshore) between shares (equities), cash, bonds and property. The ideal balance depends on your investment objective, your investment time horizon, your ability to tolerate fluctuations, and your financial capacity to take on risk. You may further diversify between active fund managers, who choose the shares that you are invested in, or passive low-cost index tracking investments. When employing the services of an active fund manager it is beneficial from a risk/return perspective to blend fund managers with different investment styles such as growth and value.

Health and Money

3.    Consistency

Being continually conscious and discerning about what you put into your body whilst being consistent with your exercise routine is the only way to achieve your long-term health goals. The same is true for investments. By setting up a regular contribution with an automatic annual increase together with a reminder to top up your retirement annuity or tax-free savings plan before the end of the tax year, you will be amazed how much sooner you will see results.

4.    Think Long-Term

In today’s technological age of streaming and 24-hour delivery services we all want instantaneous results. Unfortunately, when it comes to your health and investments it takes time to see these results.

Once the appropriate investment portfolio has been implemented then the next step, which is probably the most difficult, is to stick with the strategy and give it time. This requires patience and immense self-control. Like a new diet or exercise plan, the biggest risk to not achieving your goal is that you abandon your plan along the way because you are not seeing the results soon enough. This may happen because you are investing sporadically, evaluating returns over too short a period (most fund managers invest with a 5 to 10 year time horizon) or falling prey to making emotional decisions.

Of course, a very real problem may be that you cannot stomach the ups and downs of your portfolio. This may require a meeting with your Certified Financial Planner® professional to ensure that your portfolio is in line with your risk tolerance level and a tweak or two may be needed. Another strategy is to only look at your investments once a year, after all, the less frequently you look at an investment the less volatile it will become!

5.    Always Look Forward!

We all have binge days when we overeat or periods when we do not exercise. Fixating on those times can create feelings of guilt making it difficult to move forward. Remember, we cannot change the past and the only thing that we have control over is what we do today and going forward. With investments it can be very tempting to base decisions on historic short term investment performance making it enticing to change your portfolio to follow last year’s best performer or to abandon ship when things are down.  This behaviour can be very costly over time as last year’s outperformer can sometimes be next year’s underperformer. By not giving investments time to deliver you can miss out when things pick up. Rather make investment decisions looking forward asking the following 3 questions:

  • Is my portfolio still appropriate for my objectives and risk appetite?
  • Is my portfolio well diversified locally and offshore, between asset classes and quality fund managers with complementary investment styles?
  • Do I need to put more away to make achieving my goals more likely?

The principles of investing are straightforward but implementing them is not. Like any diet or exercise training program, investing requires sacrifice now to benefit your future self. At the same time, avoiding costly missteps requires mastery of your behaviour and an understanding of the common pitfalls that can catch you out. Following the 5 habits above will help you navigate your health and investment journey, significantly improving the chances of a successful outcome.

__________________________________________________________________________________

More about Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Nicholas is an Actuary and Certified Financial Planner® professional specialising in retirement planning and investments whilst helping people protect their and their family’s financial well-being. Please follow Nicholas at https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/ and https://twitter.com/nick_bez

 

Spending

HOW TO AVOID BEHAVIOUR TRAPS THAT STOP YOU FROM BEING THE MASTER OF YOUR FINANCES.
March 8, 2021 Eat Well Comments Off on HOW TO AVOID BEHAVIOUR TRAPS THAT STOP YOU FROM BEING THE MASTER OF YOUR FINANCES.

By Nicholas Bezuidenhout

The first step to financial wellness is to create disposable income to invest for the future and to stay out of unhealthy debt. To create disposable income, you need to earn more and/or spend less. This is similar to any weight loss plan where getting in shape, no matter what nutrition or exercise regime you choose to follow, ultimately involves the hard work of moving more and eating less.

You may earn more by creating an additional source of income or taking steps to earn a higher salary but this is not always that easy so we will focus here on ways to spend less. So, what are two common behaviour traps that lead us to getting into debt or spending more than we should and how can we sidestep these?

1.    Pain avoidance

When it comes to going to the gym or exercising, we will often find any excuse not to do it because initially it is very sweaty and uncomfortable! This is like paying for something with cash or our debit card where we see the money go out of our wallets or bank balance, causing immediate physical discomfort. The discomfort happens because we realise that the money we just spent was actually ours and we start wondering whether spending R18 000 on the new iPhone 12 was actually worth the number of working hours, days or months it took to earn the money! It also results in us going through the uncomfortable thought process of considering what else we could have spent the money on and what we have sacrificed for this purchase, known as the “opportunity cost” – will there still be enough in our bank account to cover the rest of our debit orders, our kids’ school fees, our groceries?

Because of this emotional rollercoaster it is so much easier to whip out the credit card or the payment app on our phone, like a cowboy at the O.K. Corral, to buy what we want whenever we want. The reason this is so easy is because firstly and at least initially our bank balance stays the same and it is not our money that we are spending. Credit cards have enabled us to have immediate gratification with the pain of paying coming much later.

This is not a problem if you are able to pay off your credit card every month but all too often our credit card balances keep growing until the interest alone costs us thousands every month. Credit cards do have their purposes for emergencies such as paying for emergency medicines or the tow truck when we breakdown in the middle of nowhere, but they should really be limited to that – emergency expenses only!

If you want to get your spending in control then do what you can to avoid spending on credit, put your credit card (wrapped in plastic) in a block of ice in the freezer, lock it away in the safe or give it to your trustworthy and ferocious mother-in-law for safe keeping and get into the habit of only spending with the money you have saved up in your wallet or in your bank account via your debit card (please cancel or avoid the overdraft facility!). The truth is that, like exercise, once you get into the habit and have passed the initial period of discomfort it is extremely fulfilling as you start to see results, your bank balance growing instead of shrinking, and as you come to realise that you are indeed in control of your own behaviour. You will also become an expert in weighing up whether it is worthwhile to spend money on something as you realise that every decision to buy something is a decision to sacrifice something else.

 

Save more money

2.    Relativity – Sales, special offers and get-one-free deals

Whilst sales and special offers sound enticing, we usually fall into the marketing trap of buying things we don’t actually want or buying far more than we need. We end up spending way more money than we intended just to save a percentage on the additional item.

For example, you go to the grocery store in search of guacamole for your once-a-month home nacho and movie night and when you arrive at the aisle 5 shelf, proudly displaying the guacamole, you see that there is a special: buy two get one free! This is too compelling to resist, as in effect you are getting one third off, and you end up spending twice the amount of money that you intended to because let’s face it, you actually only needed one tub for nacho night! Aside from reducing your bank balance you also end up either overeating or with some mouldy guacamole after a few days!

Having said this, specials and buy bulk and save items have their place if they are offered on essential items such as toilet paper and toothpaste and you are getting a discount on the usual price by buying more. To decide whether to go for these specials we need to become experts in what is known as the “time value of money”. For example, if buy buying 10 family packs of toilet paper gives you a 5% saving, knowing you will only use it over a year, is it worth it when you could have taken the money for the other 9 packs and paid off some of your long overdue credit card debt saving interest of 16% over a year? As a rule of thumb, if you are going to use the item in the next year and the discount is less than 10% it may be best to only buy it when you next need it!

Now, imagine if these sales and special offers inadvertently cause you to buy more than you need a few times a week, you can very easily end up spending hundreds or thousands of Rands more that would be better put towards reducing debt or saving for your future goals and dreams!

 

For other tips on how to reduce your spending please refer to Nicholas Bezuidenhout’s  blog post, “Living Lean” https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/2019/07/22/live-lean-make-your-assets-work-for-you-rather-than-the-other-way-round/

 

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More about Nicholas Bezuidenhout

Nicholas is an Actuary and Certified Financial Planner® professional specialising in retirement planning and investments whilst helping people protect their and their family’s financial well-being. Please follow Nicholas at https://nicholasbezuidenhout.com/ and https://twitter.com/nick_bez

 

Running

BREATHING WHILE YOU RUN: THE EXPERT GUIDE TO BREATHING RIGHT AND RUNNING BETTER
March 8, 2021 Move Well Comments Off on BREATHING WHILE YOU RUN: THE EXPERT GUIDE TO BREATHING RIGHT AND RUNNING BETTER

Proper breathing can make the world of difference when running. Whether you are just starting out or you’ve been running for years, chances are, you’ve often struggled with your breathing. 

Now, we get that our hamstrings, quads and calves are the driving force that propel us forward, but the power of your breath is more important than you realise. In fact, getting your breathing right will not only make your running more enjoyable but it will make you a stronger, better runner. Meaning you can run harder for longer. 

The science behind breathing

Many runners start out not knowing the importance of breathing correctly. The right breathing technique is vital as a runner. It differentiates rookies from experts. But far too few runners are actually aware of how their breathing impacts their running, not to mention how the body works when we breathe. 

When we breathe in, our diaphragm will contract and the lungs will expand – basic science. Breathing in allows oxygen into the body, an important gas that our muscles need to generate energy. We thus inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide accumulates in the body, it can lead to breathlessness and anxiety, making any run feel incredibly strenuous and hard. 

How to breathe right to run better

The first thing you need to pay attention to so that you can properly examine the efficacy of your breathing technique (apart from gasping for air like a fish out of water), is assessing whether or not you are using your diaphragm effectively. Some signs include: 

  • Pain or tightness in your upper body while running 
  • Flared ribs or an arched back 
  • Paradoxical breathing – your stomach rises when exhaling and compresses when inhaling

All of the above signs indicate an issue with your breathing efficacy. When you bring awareness to your breathing technique, this will enable you to create a calmer mind, steadier pace and help you to endure high-pressure race scenarios. Focusing on a good breathing technique will give you the power you need to fight any fatigue you might experience and maintain a proper form. 

Did you know that the common reason why we gasp for air when we run is because we have not regulated our body’s response to running and our heightened state of breathing? Instead of reacting in a ‘fight or flight’ manner, we need to adapt our way of thinking to be ‘rest and remain calm’. 

When we react in a stressful manner to running (i.e. heavy breathing, gasping for air, feeling light-headed), this will impact your lungs and heart, which in turn, means you cannot run without reaching your ventilatory threshold, this is the point at which you cannot breathe in oxygen quickly or deeply enough to meet your body’s demand. When nearing this point, our body’s stress response will kick in and result in struggle and panic. It’s a vicious cycle. 

 

Breathing with your belly and not your chest

Deep belly breathing is the correct breathing technique to use when running, also known as diaphragmatic breathing. This will result in a maximum oxygen intake compared to shallow chest breathing.  Your maximum oxygen intake is known as your VO2 max – this is the maximum rate of oxygen your body can use when exercising. The higher this value is, the more oxygen your body is able to consume and the more effectively the body can use oxygen to generate energy. 

The air we breathe in will remain in our lungs for a short period of time, which will prevent the complete exchange of air, thus reducing the oxygen intake. When our breathing technique is poor, it can not only result in unnecessary fatigue but also the common side stitch so many runners experience. Deep belly breathing allows for increased oxygen intake and prevents side stitches. 

Here’s how to do it…

For a few minutes before your run (you can also practise this at random during the day), lie down on a comfortable surface, placing your hand on your belly. Take a few slow, deep breaths, ensuring your belly naturally lifts your hand when inhaling and your hand sinks when exhaling. Once you are comfortable with this technique, you can practise it when moving around and running at a comfortable pace. 

Pay attention to your form 

Make sure you also pay attention to your posture when running. Your upper body should be straight, shoulders relaxed (not hunched forward) and your head should be in line with your body, not pushed forward. 

Applying deep belly breathing to your running: Rhythmic breathing

Experienced runners know about rhythmic breathing. This is breathing in a pattern which allows you to increase your oxygen intake and result in your body being in a more relaxed state. Remember, every time your foot hits the ground, your body experiences stress associated with this impact. It’s your job to control how your body reacts to this stress. 

An expert trick is to alternate exhales between your left and right foot. This form of rhythmic breathing will allow for less pressure to be placed on your diaphragm and balance the impact between both sides of the body. 

Following a 3:2 pattern allows you to focus on your breathing and lessen the stress your body experiences. This means you will inhale for three strides and exhale for two. If you increase your pace, you can change the pattern to be 2:1 – Allowing your body to take in more oxygen and quickly expel the carbon dioxide. 

The final stride

Following these expert tips will improve your running, lessen the stressful impact of running on your body and help make your running more enjoyable. 

A word from RunMalibu

This blog was written by WellBe&Co in collaboration with RunMalibu. WellBe&Co is a personal and corporate wellness company specializing in easy-to-implement, lifestyle-focused nutrition, training and health solutions.

MANAGING STRESS AND MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU
March 2, 2021 Eat Well Comments Off on MANAGING STRESS AND MAKING IT WORK FOR YOU

Our outlook on finding the right balance and mindset to let stress help you rise to the occasion.

Stress has become such a natural thing in our lives, don’t you think? Just be honest with your inner mean girl for a second here, okay? When we hear a friend or colleague complaining about the stress they’re feeling,  it’s usually met with an internal “well, yes, aren’t we all?”. Maybe it’s because everybody is complaining about being stressed, having a little chin wobble over it and then carrying on with business as usual. 

This doesn’t make you an awful person (although a little self-reflection never hurt anybody). What it does mean, is that stress has become so normalized that complaining about it doesn’t really evoke any response. This is, as the global decline in overall mental health and the increase in burnout, anxiety and depression show, becoming glaringly dangerous. 

Stress from the start 

We aren’t scientists or anthropologists but we do know that understanding the original function of stress can shift your perception of how you choose to let stress into your life. 

Stress is one of our most primal instincts. It is a modifying response to threatening situations. When we say modifying we mean that when stress enters the body, our behaviour adapts to react appropriately to the situation. Our behaviour is altered by a flood of chemicals and hormones to get us out of danger as quickly as possible. 

Except, we’re not in danger all the time anymore. 

Compared to the bloodbath that is human history, the majority of us live relatively safe lives. We rarely have to fend off animals far bigger than us and we don’t get sent into the trenches to fight for our Queen. What we’re experiencing in the modern-day, is prolonged exposure to stress in environments that don’t pose any mortal danger: our offices, homes and cities. 

(If this made you feel a little existential, we have a blog about snapping out of it and embracing the world we live in)

It goes without saying that there are populations who experience tremendous physical danger and threats in their daily lives, that’s a given. However, the tigers our ancestors were used to encountering now take the form of bosses, high-strung colleagues and late credit card bills. 

You see, our environment and society have changed faster than our biology has, meaning that our bodies still react the same way to stress whether the circumstance is a real threat or not. 

Stress today 

What are some of the external factors that cause stress in the daily life of a modern person? With technology, the economy and increasingly pressurised social lives, it seems that stress is blasting from all angles: 

  1. Health concerns
  2. Deadlines (erg) 
  3. Family drama
  4. The pressure to succeed and achieve (socially and financially)
  5. Devices that always demand your attention 
  6. Financial obligations (can we put this on the list ten times?)
  7. FOMO 
  8. Option fatigue

Am I too stressed? 

Statistically, probably. 

Today, burnout seems to be the end result of being too stressed and although burnout isn’t a medical diagnosis, it can lead to serious bouts of depression and physical health issues. Some signs of burnout may include:

  1. Constantly worrying about work, especially when you’re not even at work. 
  2. You sleep too little or too much 
  3. Isolation from coworkers and friends
  4. Forgetfulness and a lack of concentration 
  5. Negative thoughts about others and more importantly, yourself.

You should not rely on this blog as a replacement for professional mental health services, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns about your physical or mental health, you should always consult with a health-care professional.

 

Finding the balance to beat the burnout

Here’s where we explore how you can find balance in your life by paying attention to how stress exists in your body, mind and finances. Taking control of your stress means facing it head-on and not treating it as the enemy. Stress is always going to be in our bodies – it is a natural response that doesn’t come about because we asked it to. What is going to make the difference, is how we re-wire our thoughts about stress and how we manage it.

Body balance

We know, we know. Even thinking of finding the time to move your body makes you stress out but we’re here to tell you, that’s a mistake. You need to find time to get your blood pumping, even if it seems like you’re giving up precious time that could be used for finishing up loose ends at work or responding to emails. No! Even a small workout will help shed excess adrenaline and cortisol from the body, leaving you in a relaxed but energised state. 

Movement is medicine and we couldn’t be more sure of that. 

Money balance 

Face your finances. You are more likely to be stressed out about the ideas you have about the state of your finances than the actual facts and figures. This is the problem with modern-day stress – we assume the worst without doing the research. 

Have a budget, have a savings account and have a backup plan. Most of us know the basics of money from a young age and understanding money is how we make it less scary. Work with compound interest, spend way less than you make and make the effort to use your money for something good and kind.

Mind balance

This is where the magic happens, we believe. Changing how you feel about stress is going to change how stress impacts your life and even your health. 

When we feel under stress, we immediately retreat inwards and think of it as a negative situation. Imagine if every time you were stressed, you appreciate what your body was trying to do for you: help you rise to the occasion. Stress was never created to debilitate us and when we see stress as a tool instead of a hindrance, we may find the emotion takes less of a toll on our mental and physical health.

We found a fantastic TedTalk by Kelly McGonigal on How to Make Stress your Friend. Seriously, it’s worth a watch! 

A word from WellBe&Co 

Through the sharing of knowledge and experience, we want to help build communities and individuals become the most optimal version of themselves both physically and mentally.  

Your health is your wealth so make lasting changes, one habit at a time.

The WellBe Team