Nourish Yourself

The Winners Code
GEORGE CHINGARANDE | Monday November 24, 2008 00:00

However, this common wisdom seems to have been lost by most humans to their detriment. The simple truth is that even the most efficacious human beings can not function productively without regular self-renewal.
It is not uncommon to hear people complain that they are tired, depressed, stressed out, fed up or bored.

These are all the tell-tale signs of a life in need of self-renewal. Without self-renewal, work becomes drudgery. Without self-renewal people become grumpy, moody, intemperate, sluggish, irritable, complacent and sloppy.
They begin to miss deadline after deadline, as they find it increasingly difficult to wake up in the morning and to stay focused.

Without self-renewal, there is no staying power.
Just as machines need to be serviced regularly, people need to be primed in order to be productive. Our bodies, souls and minds ought to be in shape if we are to constantly produce superlative results. The responsibility to keep ourselves primed is one that we cannot delegate to other people.

We are fully and absolutely responsible. We need to nourish our souls, spirits and bodies.The human being performs best when he is in a state of joy or happiness. Our joy is the source of our strength. The greatest enemy to our effectiveness is that thing that robs us of our joy.

If we do not nourish ourselves, joy will elude us. If joy constantly eludes us, then sooner rather than later our lives will descend into the doldrums.
Self-nourishment or self-renewal takes place when we engage in activities that build up our energy reserves or rekindle in us a sense of purpose and the fighting spirit needed to pursue that purpose. What are these activities?

Listening to inspirational music has the magic power of transporting one from a dreary world, to a world of new possibilities.There is music that lifts up, and there is music that drags down. Different types of music inspire different people, but the common thing with music is that it has the undeniable power to strike chords in the human spirit. Inspirational music has the power to perform operations on the human soul that no surgeon can perform.

Whenever, you find your productivity level plummeting and the strands of boredom strangling you, it is important to ask yourself the question-what songs lift me up? Music can heal heart breaks, and it can also purge the soul of its blights.
Every waking moment we each have a running commentary in our heads. The most important conversation is the conversation that you hold with yourself in your heart. The most important voice is the voice of your heart speaking to you. You have absolute control over your conversation with yourself.

Our thoughts speak to us. Sometimes they speak so loudly that we shake our heads or smile all by ourselves. There are thoughts that send energy surging through our bodies and there are also thoughts that suck energy from us like parasites.
We nourish ourselves when we promote and encourage those thoughts that lift us up, and purge from our minds those thoughts that vex us. When it comes to thoughts our greatest enemy is the self-critic.

The self-critic is that voice that berates us for our mistakes, and condescendingly disparages our efforts and mocks our potential. The opposite is the self motivator, which is the voice that constantly urges us on even when the temptation to quit is great.
 By silencing the self-critic and giving a mega phone voice the sel-motivator we nourish ourselves.

It is therefore important to ask yourself from time to time the question-which thoughts speak encouraging words to me. We all gravitate towards our dominant thoughts.
Memories and dreams also have a great influence on our energy levels. As a matter of principle when your memories of the past are bigger than your dreams of the future, then the past will be better than the future. We nourish ourselves by ruminating and regaling ourselves with the best of the memories from the past.

We also nourish ourselves by projecting our minds into the future and captivating ourselves with images of the things that shall soon come to pass. The memories that make you smile and the dreams that inspire you have great nourishing power.
Certain experiences rejuvenate the soul. Among these are vacations and exercises of the body and the mind. Both the body and the mind need adequate rest.
Daily you need to schedule resting and reloading time, the way you schedule meetings on your diary.

Without adequate rest your ability to perform is curtailed, and your innovative urge is blunted. The mind also needs to be sharpened. Prolonged disuse causes iron to rust and the brain to be important. It is important to constantly endeavor to learn new skills.
This is even more important when you get to the top because the skills that take you to the top seldom keep you there.

Knowledge nourishes the soul.
To nourish ourselves we need to choose our friends and associates carefully. There are toxic people and there are people that encourage. The difference between the two is in the words that they speak and the emotions that they evoke.

Banish out of your life those people whose presence always leave you low and dejected. Purge from your tongue those words that stir anger, hatred, bitterness and discouragement. It is impossible to remain lowly once you have reconstructed your vocabulary by purging the negative words.
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