Proactive Recovery—The Key to Your Health, Performance and Productivity

By John Allen Mollenhauer, RegenUs Center
 
In today’s day and age of hypergrowth, there is a hidden challenge that is distracting and holding us back as entrepreneurs, small business owners, service professionals, and executives—most of whom are also working parents—from performing at our best. It’s excessive stress that results in constant tiredness, which turns into daily, end-of-day exhaustion and ultimately into fatigue, which for some of us can becomes chronic.

Most of us have so much going on that at times it feels like we are barely hanging on. Excessive levels of stress are taking their toll on our energy, health, and performance—even for those of us who “eat healthily and exercise.”
 
Did you know that 43% of Americans admit they’re too tired to function at work? In 2017, The National Safety Council conducted a survey where 97% of the respondents reported having at least one risk factor for fatigue. These factors included working at night or early in the morning, working long stints without regular work breaks, and working for more than 50 hours each week. Other statistics show that 76% of workers say they feel tired at work, 53% feel less productive, and 44% have trouble focusing—and, this trend has no end in sight.
 
According to Tal Ben Shahar, the insight that has been discovered from these findings is that they are all caused, “… not by working too hard, but by not recovering enough,” resulting in depleted human energy. It’s not the lack of calories (we have plenty of those, albeit not always the best quality); but rather, it’s the lack of proactive recovery, and that vital energy is electrical in nature.
 
Our bodies have the same properties of a battery, and this electrical energy drives every function in the body and brain including the digestion of food... This energy is the basis of our health and performance. Performance is then considered a “lifestyle,” which at its most basic level, manages that energy for sustained productivity and quality of life.
 
So, when we business people do “performance reviews,” we should really be calling them “productivity reviews” because they are not really about human performance. A performance review would start with helping employees cultivate and harness more energy and develop lifestyles that support the level of productivity the company’s team members require to succeed.   
 
So, what does it mean to cultivate and harness more energy and how do you develop a lifestyle that supports your performance and gives you the power for productivity?  
 
Traditionally, this is called “recovery.” This type of recovery is not the same as recovery from drugs, alcohol or surgery, as many people associate the term; although, many people are pretty prone to drugs like food, alcohol or pills to medicate themselves when they don’t get enough of the energy recovery that we’re talking about here.

It’s even deeper than the recovery that most athletes get from the excessive stress of training. Kobe Bryant knew a thing or two about this, which is why he performed like a champ.
 
Like athletes, businesspeople also need an even deeper form of recovery; however, their stress comes less from the strain of training, and more from the excessive amounts of work they perform on a daily basis. They need to be just as proactive about their recovery as sports athlete are about theirs. It does not matter if you are into sports or even a fitness enthusiast, you still need recovery.
 
Yet, there is an even bigger term that’s inclusive of proactive recovery, which really answers the energy cultivation and harnessing question and it’s called “regeneration.”
 
You see, every day, we “generate” (stimulate) energy to be productive but spend very little time regenerating by directly exposing the body to the true sources of energy, which include free electrons (through grounding), light, pure oxygen and water, the cold and heat, which enable us to further recharge and repair the body during sleep, rest, proactive recovery, relaxation and meditation. Therefore, few of us ever really feel rejuvenated.
 
Instead, we feel a malaise that requires constant coffee and activity to keep us going, but these “band aids” tire, burn and wear us out.  
 
While businesspeople love to talk about filling their energy “tanks,” they don’t realize they are referring to “fueling” the body—not recharging. The body is a battery before it’s a fuel tank and most of us miss this vital insight. Therefore, we struggle because we don’t have the “amps” to power our body/brain in the am and through the day.  
 
Of course, this is THE performance and productivity killer. It doesn’t matter how well you organize your inbox or manage your time – if you don’t regenerate and manage your energy, “like a pro,” especially in the performance culture we live in, where we have access to more information and opportunity than at any other time in history, you will be tired all the time. The busier you get, the less time you will have to take care of yourself, your body and your life. This insight reveals the key to your team’s performance and productivity--proactive recovery.
 
If you help your team proactively recover from the stress and strain of work, the team will be better able to function, perform and be productive at levels your company has likely not seen in a long time.
 
This doesn’t happen by just telling your team to “get more sleep,” or to “build healthier habits” because sleep alone is not enough, and healthy habits often fall short. When taken out of the human performance context, they fade away with increasing tiredness.

People typically live better when it means the difference between success and sustainability or hitting the wall and coming up short of their goals—their abilities to survive or thrive.   
 
 John Allen Mollenhauer is the Founder of RegenUs Center, by Performance Lifestyle, Inc. where you can optimize every aspect of the way you live to any level you choose, so that your energy, health, and performance surge.  Join us for our Grand Opening March 13 & 14 with a ribbon cutting ceremony on March 13 at 2 pm