On the Vitality Journey, how we’re feeling and what we’re focusing our attention on are like the roads that we need to find an intersection for.

If you feel completely balanced and “free”, living the lifestyle of your dreams then you have 100% vitality. Perhaps turning up to work in the traditional sense is optional. You have a team who are following systems and everything works “like clockwork” whether you are there or not. You are available to build relationships and work on strategy, and the profits flow – however you define them as it’s not only about money – so you are free to spend time on whatever you love to do. If you had broken the top off your arm, you would have complete movement restored and may even be ready to push yourself further than before.

At the other end of the spectrum, activity of any sort is extremely limited and you are in immense pain. If your arm was broken you would need a plate and pins as well as extreme medication for pain relief. You would also need a support team of professionals such as a surgeon, nurses and physiotherapist to guide you. Your vitality is actually a negative number (-25%) and you are really unable to progress with much in your life until you focus on improving your health.

Sometimes people feel this way without actually having any broken bones. Mental illness is just as important to fix as physical disease and also usually requires a support team of professionals. It is possible to recover in time by yourself but it would require extreme commitment and knowledge to know how, as well as taking a lot longer.

One in five people in Australia live with mental illness. Amongst leaders this percentage may be higher as they endure the stresses of overwhelm and responsibilities in their organisation. And they may do this with limited “true” holidays or even days off, sometimes for years. They are also worrying about internal and external stakeholders, team members or trying to find the right team members, customers, cashflow and how to increase profit. They feel like work is whirling around in their head 24 hours a day.

Once people actually recognise that they are exhausted, changing the mindset – either by themselves or with the support of some sort of professional or coach – is the starting point to improve things (0% vitality). In the broken arm analogy they’ve had the x-rays to confirm what’s really going on inside and they have a plan to fix the damage.

Being committed to the recovery journey is really important. If there was a broken arm, having surgery and taking medication to heal inside and/or pain relief would help, but is just the start. Then there’s physiotherapy but not just what happens in the practitioner’s rooms. Doing the exercises at home between visits is fundamental and is an essential part of the healing process.

In the Vitality Journey the equivalent is to systemise your role as much as possible: get information out of your head which will make it much easier to share tasks. To feel supported and minimise decision fatigue do the same – believe it or not – with you personal life.

As you have more confidence to delegate, stop doing everything yourself and more tasks are performed by team members you will feel immensely relieved and your vitality and happiness will improve to 50%. In the broken arm analogy it’s like when the physio measures your improvement and submits a report to the surgeon ahead of your follow-up visit.

In time as you become more fulfilled as a leader you will empower your team and take time away knowing that everything is managed. In time, organisational systems will actually improve with your absence as by being away you’ll establish what’s not working and fix it. At this point you’re at 75% vitality.