If you know me, you’ll also know that I hold issues around mental health awareness and the importance of self-care close to my heart. We have collectively experienced a traumatic event over the past few months – global pandemic, loss of employment (or worse, the complete shuttering of your business!), financial stress, sheltering-in-place, social distancing – the list goes on, really. And yes, there will be fall-out, of various levels, when it comes to mental health.
In fact, CBC News recently did a study where they compared web searches from March 1 to April 15th, this year and last. Not surprisingly, the “The results reveal widespread anxiety over financial security, staying safe and finding things to do while shut indoors.”
Statistics Canada also did a survey, and found many Canadians are worried. Of those “very” or “extremely” worried:
- 84% feared overloading the health care system.
- 54% were stressed about the health of a loved one.
- Interestingly, only 36% were worried about their own health (Yes, Canadians ARE nice!).
- And 32% feared extra stress due to family containment.
I suspect these research results foreshadow what could well become a mental health crisis in our country, as we wait for a vaccine and adapt to our respective “new normal.”
Meet Dr. Thomas Minde!
That’s why I’m so excited to introduce you to my most recent guest on “I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?" And I’m going to switch up the blog format ever so slightly this week, because I want you to hear his words straight from the horse’s mouth, as they say.
That’s how important I think his message is at the moment.
Meet Dr. Thomas Minde. He received his MD degree from Queen's University, in 1990. And he’s been working in various aspects of Family Medicine in Montreal, Wakefield in the Arctic, and Ottawa ever since.
He's also discovered that being a doctor and running a business can (and often do) go hand in hand. Hence why I think he’s the perfect person for executives and business leaders to hear from.
He provides a very interesting perspective on how to handle all the trials and tribulations this Covid-19 upheaval has dropped us in. How we can emotionally and mentally get through to the other side, and how the more comfortable you get with your own self - your inner self, your mind, AND your stress situations – the easier it becomes to shake off stress.
Get Comfortable with Your Own Self – Good and Bad
“Caveat here, you can't just ‘think your way’ out of stress - it's phenomenally stressful [now] And it's really stressful out there. There's some very real issues and some huge suffering for a whole bunch of people. So, I want to be clear, I'm not kind of wanting to namby-pamby or downplay that. And yet, there can be this idea of looking at all the problematic aspects and thinking maybe there's silver linings here. I think, in business, the other way you can come to that, is about ‘understanding’ what does it actually mean to be a leader? I think of being my own business owner, like that means I'm a leader in my own sort of professional life. You know, I'm also hopefully a leader in my personal life - that sense of being a leader as the one who's, who decides what you want, and then go for it. Why is being a leader hard? Well, it's because for example, good leaders - I've heard this definition - they're the ones who can make good decisions with incomplete data.”
“There's so much unknown, there's so much uncertainty, and we have to guess the opportunities here to step forward anyway! And being a good leader [means] owning that, being okay with not feeling okay, necessarily, being okay not knowing all the answers. If it doesn't work out, well, then you readjust. And the occasional thing might not work out and then you simply have to go to another plan. And that doesn't have to mean being devastated. So many of us feel so involved because we're passionate about our business or life. And when it doesn't work out, it's crushing. You know, that's usually not helpful. It's often kind of a lie.”
Having a Bad Day?
“It can happen to any entrepreneur or businessperson. And it's a funny kind of problem. Successful businesspeople are often successful people - they're used to having a good go of it. They're smart, they figure things out quickly. When they have a bad moment, they're not always very good at dealing with it! How [do we] deal with such moments, that may be difficult or may actually be painful. In fact, we may have shame or other kind of funny feelings about it. Like we're not supposed to have that failing. And you just stop, let it be okay, make it normal because actually, we all have such moments. I've got a huge toolbox, how to deal with stress with my meditation, with all kinds of (hopefully) pretty good mind habits and lifestyle habits. And I tell you, I'm having some bad days, too, these days. It's a challenging time. And then I think, ‘Well, if I'm having a hard time, and I have all these tools, and I'm pretty good at managing, {imagine what it is like for} people who don't have these tools! So yeah, letting it be okay to fail or to not always have good days. We also have this funny idea that life is always supposed to be peaches, beautiful and roses and no suffering. That's a funny thing in our modern time. And actually, there are studies about happiness and about people who feel fulfilled in their life, they will comment that sometimes the hard times were the best times because then they came out like stronger. Where they’ve learnt something about themselves or about the world and it took them into a new direction, which ended up being so fulfilling. And, again - not to make light of real hard problems, and yet they can be very important in life.”
I really hope you take a small amount of time, allow yourself to de-stress, and have a listen to this episode . Thomas is a fierce believer in taking “healing” beyond only prescribing drugs, plus (bonus!) he has a fascinating life story you don’t want to miss!
I would also LOVE to share YOUR story. If you’re interested, drop me a line.
“I’m a Millionaire. So Now What?” is brought to you by Double to Sell - Canada's Premier Invitation-ONLY workshop for business owners wanting a cash-rich exit in 10 years or less. For more information, or to register, please visit the “Double to Sell” website.