by Erin Owen | Mar 4, 2014 | Ezine
What can you do to sustain your energy and get more out of life and work?
What drives effective work performance?
Introduction
It’s a challenge for you to get it all done, regardless of your line of work or the number of formal and informal roles you play in life.
And most everyone knows that being an entrepreneur is hard. When you think of the entrepreneur’s difficulties, however, you most likely focus on just the work-related challenges of launching and sustaining the business: defining a product or service, finding and reaching your market, raising and earning money, managing growth.
Far less attention has been given to the personal challenges of being an entrepreneur: managing the insane workload, doing ten jobs at the same time, dealing with stress, and sustaining the energy and focus needed to do all of the above. This is strange given that, as an entrepreneur, you are your business. (And if you lead a company or a large team within a company, your reality is the same: how you show up at work affects the performance of your team and company.)
What I know from personal experience and my professional experience working with hundreds of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and private individuals is:
If you are focused and energetic, your company will be more productive. If you’re scattered and exhausted, that will be reflected in the work you produce and impact your interactions with colleagues and clients.
I wanted to know more about how entrepreneurs and business owners manage these challenges, so I asked them. In 2013 I administered a survey to 78 people, of whom 60 identified themselves as entrepreneurs. I asked them a little bit about their background and overall views of what has allowed them to make their vision a reality. But mostly I wanted to know about the personal challenges they faced and how they dealt with those challenges. This report summarizes what I’ve learned.
The top-line results are not especially surprising:
- Having a clear vision, strong partners, and good communication skills are critical to executing vision.
- Keeping up with the workload is a major challenge, one that is often solved with caffeine.
- Common ways to de-stress include socializing, eating and drinking, exercising, reading and watching TV.
Beneath these general observations, however, emerged more intriguing insights about how people deal with stress and sustain energy, and about the challenges of “success.”
- Which key behaviors correlate with having more sustained energy?
- Are people who do yoga and go to therapy more stressed out than the rest of us?
- Which of the following do experienced business owners find more important for executing their vision: having a business plan? taking care of oneself physically and mentally? or having strong partners/team?
- What do entrepreneurs find to be the biggest major challenge in executing their vision: Staying organized? Managing stress? Sustaining energy and focus? Or finding time for everything that needs to get done?
I invite you to read on to learn the answers to these questions, including how entrepreneurs who had been in business longer and had higher reported incomes face different challenges and how they respond to them in different ways than those who were less experienced. You’ll also learn what people do to take care of themselves in the face of different kinds of challenges.[1]
To read the full report, please enter your information on this form so we can email a PDF of the full report directly to you.
[1] There are a few important caveats to keep in mind here. This was a small survey with what we call a “convenience sample,” meaning that who responded is not necessarily representative of the broader population of entrepreneurs out there. It’s also important to remember that correlation isn’t causation. There are interesting patterns and relationships here, but we can’t say from these data what leads to what. More than anything, what the survey provided me was some very helpful food for thought. I hope you’ll find the same.
by Erin Owen | Jan 31, 2014 | Ezine
I’ve been feeling it. My clients have been feeling it. Have YOU been feeling it?
Whether or not you give any credence to the invisible energy that runs through you and connects us all in this universe, the fact is you are being affected in a powerful way by this energy.
I don’t claim to be an expert in Chinese astrology, but my years living in China led me to have a strong curiosity about the meaning and impact of the animal that influences my birth year & life, as well as the Five Element system.
2014 is the Year of the Horse. And more specifically is the year of the Yang Wood Horse.
This powerful new calendar year begins roughly today (January 31) on the Chinese calendar, and according to one expert:
To take advantage of what is emerging in your life and channel this energy to positively transform your career and life, I invite you to schedule a complimentary 15 minute call with me to talk about your dreams, your challenges, and your next steps.
For the first 6 people who schedule a 15-minute with me, I’m offering two special gifts worth nearly $200.00:
To read more about the Year of the Yang Wood Horse, as described by Karen Abler Carrasco of the Western School of Feng Shui (quoted above), visit her wonderful blog post on the WSFS website here.
Here’s the 2014 being YOUR Breakthrough Year!
by Erin Owen | Jan 29, 2014 | Ezine
If you haven’t read Part I about the cleanse I’ve been doing or the format of the anti-inflammatory and detoxing program, head on over to that post here to get the background.
I can tell you that this way of eating is amazingly energizing!
I’ve been busy putting an offer on a new house, decluttering my entire house (top to bottom), staging my house for sale… and all while maintaining my business and being a mom of two growing boys.
My energy has been strong and consistent day-in and day-out, I’ve had little to zero physical soreness (despite hauling boxes and furniture up into the attic and hauling donations to thrift stores and “weird recycle” items to the city lot), and my immune system has been strong enough to resist the myriad bugs that travel into our house from the preschool and grade school my boys attend.
If you want to Access Your Higher Gear to get more done, eating and drinking “cleanly” is the way to go!
In this Part 2 post, I’m sharing more recipes to inspire you at home…
Recipe #4: Simple, Satisfying Pasta Dinner w/ Side Salad (Vegan & Gluten Free!)
Ingredients:
- Brown rice spaghetti
- Jars of Roasted Red Peppers and Deli-Sliced Mild Pepper Rings (green ones) – we used the Mezzetta brand
- Fresh cloves of garlic
- Salad greens
- Avocado
- Balsamic Vinegar
- Cold-pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Seasoning for dressing to taste (for years we have used the Country French Vinaigrette blend by Penzeys Spice every time)
Directions:
Follow package directions to make the brown rice spaghetti. While the water is boiling, finely chop by hand (or using a food processor and a wise eye to know when to stop so it does not become a paste), combine approximately 1 cup each of the roasted red peppers, mild pepper rings, and 4 cloves garlic. (Note: You can add less or more garlic, depending on personal preference.)
Add approximately 2 tablespoons olive oil to a sauté pan, warm up over medium heat, and then add the finely chopped pepper and garlic mixture. Sautee until warmed through and fragrant. Add more olive oil to make more “saucy”, if you like, but be sure to warm it up before adding to the cooked pasta.
While mixture is sautéing and pasta is cooking, wash and chop salad greens and add to a salad bowl. Halve the avocado, remove the seed, and peel once half. Remove the skin and chop avocado into bite size pieces. Set aside for a few moments while you ix up the salad dressing.
Mix 2 parts olive oil with 1 part balsamic vinegar (or another ratio to your preferred taste), then add a few dashes of seasoning. Use a small wisk or small fork to quickly blend until visibly creamy and blended.
Then – and here’s the secret to a super yummy salad – add the chopped avocado directly into the salad dressing to “soak” for a few minutes before scooping it one spoon at a time over the chopped salad greens. Feel free to add other ingredients to the salad to make it heartier: raw chopped veggies, nuts, even cheese if you’re not doing the vegan version.
Spoon the pepper-garlic sauce over a portion of spaghetti on your plate, then add a large helping of salad.
Note: My husband, who is not doing the cleanse, also add a few slices of baguette with butter on the side. I found the meal fully satisfying without the bread. You choose what works for you, but bread puts me to sleep and clogs up my digestion.
Enjoy!
Recipe #5: Savory, Delicious “White Chili” (Vegan & Gluten Free!)
The biggest challenge of this way of eating for me has been to cut out tomatoes. Yup, tomatoes. More difficult to cut out those round red things than sugar, alcohol, wheat, or soy. Why? In the winter especially, we made red sauces for pasta, use tomatoes in soups and stews and chili. Life with no tomatoes? I thought it would be impossible.
Until I found an awesome recipe for White Chili that was so completely satisfying it has now become one of our regular rotating recipes that fits into weekly and monthly meal planning. Try it and you too will discover how delicious it is!
I can’t take credit for the recipe, though, so I’m sending you over to another blog.
Before you go, though, please note the minor changes I made to stay the course with the eating plan I’m following this month:
- I left out the corn (but offered it on the side for my boys to add-in if they wanted)
- I seeded and deveined the jalapeno, and put it in “whole” into the pot, then removed it half way – but it was still a bit too spicy for my young ones. If you’re sensitive to this type of heat, or are trying to reduce internal inflammation, you can skip the jalapeno and it will still be plenty flavorful. In fact, anyone at your table who likes spicy food can put dashes of other hot sauces on their individual bowls.
Here’s the link to Girl Makes Food’s Vegan White Chili Recipe.
Otherwise, follow her recipe closely as the texture was AMAZING!
Enjoy!
NOTE: To get the first 3 recipes, check out the first post here.
Recently, I’ve been really inspired to teach more about how you can Access Your Higher Gear. If you too would like to know more about this topic, contact me to talk further.
Here’s to Boosting Your Performance with Delicious, Healthy Eating and learning how to Access Your Higher Gear!
Erin
by Erin Owen | Jan 21, 2014 | Ezine
As I mentioned in my January 7 blog about “sehnsucht” (a longing or yearning), part of what I’m doing to manifest what I want in my life is decluttering my home and cleansing my body.
I’m sharing here some of the delicious and energizing recipes I’ve been using as part of the anti-inflammatory and detoxing regimen, that is facilitated by a Ardmore, Pennsylvania-based naturopath named Jill Hoffman and hosted by my favorite green spa Eviama Life Spa.
I invite you to follow along if you want to boost your own energy in a delicious, nourishing way! (Make sure you seek the guidance of your trusted health care professional along the way.)
The first week of the mid-winter cleanse was challenging for most, but pretty simple for me. Goal of the first week: completely cut out caffeine, sugar, and alcohol.
I’ve been “off” coffee since 2003 and only once in a while drink chai or have a dark chocolate. Saying no to a beer or glass of wine was fairly easy, although I missed my Friday afternoon happy hour treat. Instead I had sparkling water with fresh slices of lemon.
Hidden sugars were the challenge for me. The approach calls for removing all forms of natural and artificial sugar including dried fruits and fruit juices.
I was surprised to learn how much “sugar” is in my organic Cascadian Farms granola and my “original” flavored almond milk. So I transitioned to a simple steel cut oats breakfast and upgraded to a better quality unsweetened almond milk with no carrageenan (an extract of seaweed which I recently learned is potentially carcinogenic and promotes inflammation in the GI tract).
RECIPE #1 Simple Steel Cut Oats Breakfast
3 min prep, 3 min cooking, 1 min assembly
Ingredients:
Trader Joe’s brand Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats
Filtered Water
1 T. lemon juice
Whole fruit of choice, sliced or chopped
Raw nuts of choice, whole or broken into smaller pieces
Directions:
The night before, soak ¼ cup steel cup oats in filtered water (filling the water 2 inches above the oats) and adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice.
This step not only speeds up the cooking time the next morning but more importantly may remove phytic acid on the grain that can contribute to the blocking of nutrient absorption. Cover the container with a tight-fitting lit or plastic wrap.
In the morning, dump your much expanded steel cut oats into a fine-mesh strainer and wash thoroughly with filtered water. Plop the oats back in a small cast-iron pot (or other pot of choice) on the stove top, add ½ cup more filtered water (or rice milk or almond milk) and with the lid on, bring to a boil. Immediately drop the heat to simmer-level (low heat) and stir until desired consistency. Feel free to add more water or rice/almond milk to make creamier, which I like to do.
Stir-in slices or chopped pieces of a favorite fruit and chopped or whole raw nuts, serve, and enjoy!
Variations: Add more liquid after stirring in fruit and nuts. Skip the fruit and just focus on the nuts.
The second week is the official first week of the anti-inflammatory way of eating, and its goal is to: cut out all common allergens and inflammatory foods including wheat and other gluten-containing products (spelt, kamut, barley, rye), soy, corn, tomato, peanut, beef, pork, tuna, swordfish, shellfish, dairy, eggs, all “cured” meats (cold cuts, hot dogs, sausages, canned meats), fake butters (margarine, shortening, processed or hydrogenated oils, mayonnaise, peanut oil), sodas and “soft” drinks, and condiments (ketchup, relish, BBQ sauce, chutneys, etc). All while still not consuming caffeine, sugar, and alcohol.
You might wonder, “what is there left to eat?” But don’t worry. I’ve had tons of experience eating in a simple, more healthful way over the years in order to cure my own health issues and stop taking prescription medication, and more recently to avoid the foods that my youngest could not eat when he was still breast feeding (wheat, corn, soy, peanut, dairy). I can tell you that there is a lot left to eat AND it’s quite delicious and energizing to focus on these foods.
RECIPE #2 Pesto-stuffed Chicken Breasts, Savory Wild Rice, and Garlic Green Beans – a delicious dinner for 1 or more!
45 minutes prep (30 minutes hands-off time, 15 minutes hands-on time), 5 minutes to plate and serve
Ingredients:
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1 for each person)
Pesto (preferably dairy-free)
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Wild rice (I bought organic Lundberg Farms brand)
Filtered water
Optional organic chicken broth
Salt & pepper to taste
Optional garlic olive oil to taste
Trimmed organic green beans (1 large handful per person)
Filtered water
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Crushed garlic cloves (2-3 small ones)
Directions:
50 minutes ahead of targeted eating time, use a rice cooker to prepare the desired amount of wild rice (or follow package directions to cook in a pot). Either way, use filtered water. When wild rice is done cooking, optionally pour in organic chicken broth and add salt & pepper to taste to make more savory.
20-minutes ahead of targeted eating time, slice a thin pocket into the chicken breasts and spread pesto in the pocket. Warm olive oil (enough to spread a thin later over the bottom of a wide, flat skillet) until just more than medium heat (and a drop of water will sizzle in the pan). Then place chicken breasts in the pan and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Once there is a nice brown sear on the bottom of the chicken (about 5 -7 minutes, depending on thickness of the breasts), flip over to the other side and again add salt & pepper.
While chicken breasts are cooking on the first side, boil 1 inch of water in a wide soup pot. Add a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, and crushed garlic cloves, followed by one large handful of green beans per person. Cover and turn heat down to medium for 5 minutes, then check for crisp/tenderness with a fork. Continue to simmer on low heat until just tender (or softer, if you prefer).
Scoop wild rice onto each plate, then add a double-seared chicken breast with pesto stuffing and a heaping spoonful of green beans with some crushed garlic coming along for the ride.
And enjoy!
The third week adds on week 2’s focus by fully eliminating all forms of animal protein. So keep to the list of Week 2 focus but subtract all the fish, chicken, turkey, lamb, wild game. To make sure we’re getting enough protein, the naturopath has us following Thorne Research’s MediClear® program and using a pea-protein and rice-protein based protein drink mix. Ask your naturopath or holistic health provider for guidelines if you want to go this far and follow along!
RECIPE #3: Cream of Broccoli Soup
15 minutes
Ingredients:
- Head of Organic Broccoli
- 3 cups organic Vegetable Broth
- Salt & Pepper
- ¼ cup Rice Milk (optional: Erin did not add this.)
- a dash or two of curry powder to taste (optional: Erin added this and the whole family loved it.)
Directions:
- Steam the broccoli in 2-3 cups vegetable broth until bright green and just tender
- Strain the broth into a bowl (keep the liquid!)
- Allow the broth to cool
- Put the broccoli and one-quarter of the cool broth in a blender and blend
- Return the blended broccoli to the pot, add the remaining three-quarters of the cooled broth, and bring the mixture back up to simmer.
- Add ¼ cup rice milk and salt & pepper to taste.
Variations:
Use asparagus or mushrooms instead of broccoli.
Source: Slightly adapted from the original Cream of Broccoli Soup recipe published in the Thorne Research MediClear® program patient guide.
Return to the Week 2 focus of foods and notice how your body feels with each food you re-introduce.
This final week (and the time that follows) is critical! Keep a detailed log of how your body responds as you add back in each common allergenic food and each inflammatory food.
The typical recommendation for any elimination diet is to add back in one food every 3 days. But don’t just eat a few bites. Add it in several times a day for those 3 days and note how the food affects your energy, bowels, skin, clarity of thought, digestion, libido, menstrual cycle, etc.
If you notice any problems or irritation at all, then stop eating that food. You’ve found a food that does not work well for your body. By keeping it out of the mix, you’ll benefit your body, your digestion, your immune system and your overall energy level. An important discovery!!!
As mentioned above, call on your trusted health care professional for support, to answer questions, and more. Ultimately, trust your body to tell you what is best for you!
I hope you enjoyed following along with my own cleansing adventure, and that you found the recipes to be tasty and stimulating for your palate.
When your body operates at its optimum level of performance, it can support YOU in being your best and performing at your own optimum level—feeling great, focusing on what you love to do, connecting more readily with those you work with and those you love, and bringing about the positive changes you are seeking in your life.
If you have questions or want to talk with me about how to move forward with your goals and dreams for 2014 and beyond, I invite you to schedule a free 15-minute call with me at your earliest convenience. Life moves fast, so why wait? I’d love to connect with you now!
If you’ve followed me for awhile, you know that I preach a consistent message: working harder is not the answer.
To learn How to Avoid Maxing Out, I invite you to read a brief transcript of part of our interview that aired on the Work and Life show on SiriusXM 111 business radio.
