Most people don't talk about social or emotional isolation and yet, its impacting everyone at some level.
Most people don’t talk about social or emotional isolation and yet, it’s impacting everyone at some level at work and in their life.
In the work that I do with leaders and business owners, there are 8 major life events that will impact a leader and can be the cause for them to delve into isolation without even realising it. By the way, when I say isolation, I dont mean being a hermit on an island. People can be isolated with people all around them, living with their spouse or partner and going to work and ‘going through the motions'. They are either emotionally isolated or mentally isolated or both.
We all isolate ourselves occasionally in life and that’s normal and usually temporary for a week or two. What we have to look out for as leaders is the ripple effect of life’s challenges that build over time which increases the pressure and stress and isolation creeps in and has us unaware that we are losing contact and connection with the support people in our lives and business.
The 8 major life challenges that destabilise the best of us are:
- Death of a loved one or colleage
- Divorce
- Marriage
- Becoming a Parent
- Debilitating Illness
- Relocation
- Redundancy
- Caring for someone full time
One or some of these situations will happen to you during your life. Guaranteed ! They will impact your ability to be effective in your work, be able to communicate well, and will limit your capacity to keep connections and friendships healthy and supportive.
Do you have a plan on how to manage this? Most people don't think these things will affect them much and then when they are in the situation, its a lot harder to recognise whats going on and then deal with it.
The Greatness Principle is a tool that teaches people how to recognise their support team in any area of their life. How to nurture that team and also how to manage themselves and their team when life throws it's inevitable curve balls.
Who can you support today or this week while they deal with challenges in their life?
If you or anyone you know is doing it tough, they are not connected to many people and really want to change that and build their life, then please, give them a gift that will teach them how to take charge of their life and give them teh Greatness Principle book or cards to have a conversation with them. Visit our store and change a life/family and/or business today.
Here are some further reading and resources for those of you interested.
http://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/general/loneliness_2010.pdf
http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316
