We started a Wellness Mentor Program at Bilot together with LovelyLife. This project is supported by The Finnish Work Environment Fund. With this project we are gathering our own “Bilot’s core team”, who will be our wellness mentors network. In this blog series our Wellness Mentors share their thoughts and experiences during this journey.
Even if our company Bilot is really making an effort in our employee wellbeing by starting our Wellness Mentor Program, our personal wellbeing is sometimes something that is the most easily neglected thing in our daily lives. For example, you may have small kids and your kids may have multiple hobbies. It is your duty to take care of how they eat, sleep, exercise and grow up.
You may have a pet or pets to take care of: cats, dogs, bunnies, you name it. You may even have decided to study at the same time when you try to juggle your family or/and pets or/and career. It’s never easy.
I was juggling my children, pet, studies, house renovation and work life (Yeah, I got the whole nine yards.) when our Wellness Mentor Program in Bilot was announced. My first thought was “This is really something important and I want to participate”, but my next thought was “How an earth do I have time for this?” The first thought won because Bilot wellbeing mentoring and belonging to our wellness mentoring network was, in my perspective, very important.
Bilot Wellness Journey was something I wanted to make sure would be spread by mentoring to those not usually the first to participate in any wellness events and programs. As an example of a perpetual kids-studies-work-pets juggler I hoped to be able to reach out even to the last wellbeing sceptics and those who have already lost their hope in their wellness pursuits.
My first wellness mentoring tip to those in doubt with their personal wellness challenges rose from my own personal observations. Last week I discussed with our LovelyLife coach Terhi and I mentioned I had already personally experienced baby steps to be usually a better way to proceed than taking big leaps because baby steps are usually needed when pursuing permanent personal wellness changes. After years of failing to make any changes in my wellbeing I had already made some progress with my big issues by starting with very small steps. So small others would not even take notice of those changes, but for me those changes were huge and important.
So my blog reader, remember to take baby steps to reach your goals and forget the huge leaps because you will most likely stumble with the mental load (those aforementioned juggling balls you already have thrown up in the air) you are already carrying.
To spice up my baby steps tip I was looking out for some new point of view when I stumbled upon Arnold Schwarzenegger’s motivational speech in YouTube. I could (or would) never reach any of his life goals but one particular sentence stuck to my mind after watching the video clip:
Arnold Schwarzenegger
“All I would say is that I find joy in the gym because every rep and every set is getting me one step closer to my goal.”
After watching the video clip I decided not try to look like Conan The Barbarian but to look out for joy in my Wellness Mentoring Program and also to remember joy when juggling and struggling with my wellness choices. Usually decisions you have to make to support your own wellbeing can be very tough especially when you are tired or hungry or stressed, but if you can find joy in your very small victories then perhaps the joy and your steps will grow bigger each and every time even if you occasionally still stumble.
This blog is part of a series in which Bilot’s Wellness Mentors talk about their experiences with the program. See all the blog posts here »
