Three items for your ‘Save Your Sanity’ starter kit

Life can throw up countless challenges, but what can we do to help ourselves and others navigate these difficult times?

Here’s three items for your Save your Sanity starter kit:

1. Limit your exposure to news. 

Treat your consumption of daily news as a light snack, not a state banquet. You might even try a three day fast from it. If anything major happens, like the UK deciding to keep a Prime Minister for longer than three months, your friends will let you know.

2. Plan happy. 

Draw up a list of activities that put a smile on your face – preferably ones that are legal. Then write a list of names of people who always make you feel better about life when you’ve connected with them. 

Now look at both lists and ask yourself: How often do I do these activities and connect with these people? If you think you don’t have time remember this phrase from Ed, one of my SUMO team:

 ‘Self care isn’t an indulgence, it’s an investment.’ 

We need to have things to look forward to, no matter how small. So don’t hope for happy times, plan them.

3. Focus on what’s achievable. 

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with issues that are out of our control – so be very intentional about focusing on what’s in your control.

For me, that means aiming to walk a minimum of 10,000 steps a day. I’m also very deliberate about what I read and listen to. If you’re a fan of podcasts can I recommend these two in particular: The Infinite Monkey Cage with Brian Cox and Robin Ince, and The High Performance Podcast with Jake Humphrey and my friend Damian Hughes.

So what’s in your control that you can do every day to help yourself?

There are countless other tools and ideas that form our ‘Save your Sanity’ self help kit, but there are three for starters.

Which one is most important for you to focus on right now?

SUMO on Social Media

Don’t forget, you can get a healthy dose of inspiration from me on TikTok, Twitter, or Instagram @theSUMOguy. Or check out my longer videos on YouTube.

Until next time.

Paul

The SUMO Guy

How to help a friend… in only three words

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (both @theSUMOguy) you may have come across my recent post:

The key to thriving is co-operation, collaboration, and looking out for each other. 

Maybe it’s more ‘Survival of the friendliest’ than ‘Survival of the fittest.’

It got me thinking.

What’s one simple way you can be a friend and look out for someone?

Well, one way is to simply do this:

Listen without interrupting.

That’s right. No need to provide a solution or hijack the conversation and make it about you.

Just…

Listen

without

interrupting.

Is it hard to do?

Absolutely.

Would it be weird if you did it all the time?

Probably.

But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s not worth being more intentional about allowing others to talk, rather than simply looking for your opportunity to speak.

Now of course we need to interact. Asking questions and sharing your perspective is all part of everyday conversation, and that does mean you’ll interrupt sometimes. 

But there are times when people just need a good listening to.

And when you do so – without interrupting – your silence could be music to their ears.

This week, why don’t you try to do a little less interrupting and a little more listening? Can you think of anyone you could try to do this more with?

Let me know how you get on.

Macmillan Cancer Support

You may remember that we decided as a business to donate £1 to Macmillan Cancer Support for every copy of my books sold during December 2021.

We had hoped to raise in the region of £700.

Well, it seems you bought quite a few of my books. The total raised was actually £1,934.

Thank you so much to all of you who bought one of my books – doing so made a real difference.

Until next time.

Remember and practice those three words. Listen without interrupting.

Paul

The SUMO Guy

Are you using these free training videos to help you and your team?

You know that phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’? Well I’d like to challenge that statement.

Over the last few years I’ve been developing my YouTube channel. Click here to check it out. It’s full of videos on all sorts of topics, including:

• Why fear can be your friend as well as your foe.
• 3 things you can do when you’re having a tough time.
• How to stop stressing over stupid stuff.
• How to transform any relationship.
• 3 ways to avoid getting stressed about presentations.

And you can access them all for FREE – although unfortunately lunch is not included.

You can share them with colleagues, friends and family – and the only thing it will cost is a short investment of time. 

You also have my permission to use them as part of your own internal training to support your team.

Of course, if you’re after some longer sessions, delivered in-person or virtually and tailored specifically to your needs, then drop an email to Contact@theSUMOguy.com.

Our most in-demand session is ‘Ramp Up Your Resilience and Boost Your Wellbeing,’ but I’m also delivering sessions on ‘Leading Through Uncertainty‘ and ‘How to Survive and Thrive in Challenging Times.’

Until next time.

Hope SUMO makes a difference.

Paul

The SUMO Guy

P.S. If you want to keep in touch via social media, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter @thesumoguy.