“Random Acts of Wellness” are wasting your time, money, and energy. Do this instead.
Businesses and individuals fall into the “Random Acts of Wellness” trap. And it’s costing them.
Businesses:
So you’re hearing you need to “do wellness” in your organization. And you’re not sure what that means exactly but some article somewhere suggests trying lunchtime yoga, or adding healthy food in the cafeteria, or reminding colleagues to use their EAP program. Or maybe a peer at another organization (maybe a competing organization) is bringing in wellness dogs, or hosting virtual employee talent shows.
So you think, OK, we should do that. And you do. And it falls flat. And you think wellness doesn’t work, and so you quit trying. Or you throw more ideas at it. Maybe a Biggest Loser challenge, or a step challenge, or pizza once a month, or a wellness newsletter, or offer a discount to a meditation app premium membership.
And still, it falls flat.
Here’s why. You have no strategy. You’re practicing “Random Acts of Wellness”. You’re trying to Duct tape together all these different offerings and call it a program. Duct tape is strong but not that strong. It will eventually fall apart. And when it does, you will spend more time, money, and energy repairing and rebuilding that you would if you had simply done the strategy work first.
For wellness to work in your organization, you need to ask:
1) What do the employees actually want.
2) What of that are we already doing?
3) What’s working? How can we do more of that?
4) What’s not working? If we stop those, what resources will that free up to put elsewhere?
5) What are the overall goals of the organization and what are our values?
6) How can we align or our wellness program to the business goals?
7) What wellness behaviors can we incentivize that reflect our values?
8) Of everything the employees want and need, and considering the resources we have, where can we realistically start that will make the biggest impact?
These are among the most critical questions I ask when I’m speaking with organizations who come to me to build it correctly from the beginning or are looking to rebuild a wellness effort that never really took off.
If you’re curious about what an effective program might look like for your organization, book a free discovery session here.
Individuals:
Similarly, you practice “Random Acts of Wellness” when you jump on whatever trend social media or the magazines (or whatever) are pushing, or your friend or colleague is trying out. How else do you think the Cabbage Diet took off?
You try this diet, and that workout, and only this type of water, and eating only beige foods or during certain times. You try for a week and then try something else. You try a standing desk, and then in-place under-the-desk cycling pedals…
You’re throwing everything you come across at this weight-loss, or wellness, or self-care thing that you “should” be doing and nothing seems to really be working.
And you want to just give up.
Don’t. The reason it’s not working is because you have no strategy. You too are Duct taping together all these different pieces of different strategies without understanding what you really need, what you can really stick to, and whether these are even appropriate for your body, your mind, your lifestyle, and your goals.
If you want wellness to work for you, you too need to ask yourself:
1) What do I really want?
2) What am I already doing that’s working?
3) What am I doing that’s not working?
4) What changes can I realistically start with?
5) What are my core values, and what changes will I make that move me closer to living those values?
These are some of the questions I help my coaching clients explore. Think of it as Practical Wellness for Busy Professionals, or Precision Wellness. Much like Precision Medicine, I’m calling Practical Wellness as the 1:1 experience you get with a personalized action plan tailored to your unique self.
If you’re curious what a precise/personalized, practical action plan would look like for you, book a free discover call here.