For many years everyone from busy moms to corporate executives have been talking about work-life balance. For most people, this can be a precarious balancing act whereby family, health, work, and leisure activities all compete for dominance. The point where people cross their fingers and hope that they will find some sense of equilibrium. These expectations, however, may be unrealistic and necessitate a different perspective.
Annastiia Hintsa, CEO of Hintsa Performance, argues that to maximize performance, well-being needs to be the foundation of all other things rather than an afterthought.
“If you’re worried about your work-life balance, you’re missing the point. There is just life,” says Hintsa in an interview with McKinsey Quarterly, “and your work is part of your life. That’s it.”
Though wellness and well-being are more relevant buzzwords than ever, they are still viewed as rewards for people that are working record hours and suffering from crippling stress. Unfortunately, there is still a stigma for stepping back from work, and those that practice self-care are viewed as weak or self-indulgent. These views have kept senior leadership in many organizations from making meaningful changes in corporate policy.
Hintsa cautions leaders that the pandemic and other global events are going to have negative effects on well-being for many years and that these negative effects will not be felt equally among different populations.
Annastiia Hintsa herself had suffered burnout early in her career even though she loved her job. “I was super engaged,” she said. “I was one of the people giving 200 percent, and it was a cumulative effect of little things – sleep debt and ignoring all the warning signals that others noticed.” At one point, she literally fell down a flight of stairs and hit her head. Being the high achiever, her first instinct was not to check for injuries but to see if her laptop had been damaged. “That was a turning point for me. After that, I had the realization that I can’t keep going on this way. If I want to do this job and perform well, I need to change something.”
She goes on to say that well-being and high performance are not mutually exclusive and that they can coexist. One of her biggest revelations was that self-care was not something she could earn only after working really hard. Just the opposite. That if she was to perform at her best, well-being needed to be the foundation and be prioritized.
The mission of Hintsa Performance, a company founded by her father, Dr. Aki Hintsa, in Finland, is simple: to help people live a better life and perform better. The company works with everyone from high-level athletes and Fortune 500 CEOs to organizations and focuses on maximizing performance with a foundation of well-being. “Everything starts with the core – a person’s inner motivation to change. From there, we focus on the science and the links between the different elements of well-being: physical activity, nutrition, sleep and recovery, biomechanics, mental energy, and general health.”
One such example she gives was a CEO who was sleeping 6 hours per night. He thought he was getting a sufficient amount of sleep. He was performing well and thought everything was fine. Dr. Hinsta challenged him to get 8 hours of sleep and see if there was a difference. The executive later commented that for the first time, he was “seeing colors.” What he meant by this was that everything was sharper. He was more aware of his surroundings, more in-tune with his emotions, and better able to read emotions in others. “He had gotten used to performing sub-optimally,” she said.
Numerous research studies have shown that the impact of things such as sleep deprivation, exercise, and nutrition have on mental acuity and job performance can be quantified. Also, that improved health impacts our ability to be creative and make good decisions. It seems that the key to performing at our best is to nurture our strengths by prioritizing self-care such as regular exercise, adequate sleep, and a healthy diet. In addition, we need to remove old stereotypes and stigmas such as viewing mental health and time off of work as rewards rather than necessities.
For more information on wellness, personal training, or health coaching, please contact me through my website bellomofitness.com or find me on Facebook.
