Three Major Mistakes Most Women in Risk Continue to Make

We all make mistakes! It is okay; we are human. The key is to learn from them and not continue to repeat them. However, it seems many continue to make these three mistakes and it is having significant consequences. If you have not already started to see the negative impact, trust me you will.

The first mistake is pushing through without time to recharge. 

Yes, you can do this on a short-term basis, but this cannot be your standard operating process. It will eventually catch up with you. 

Trust me, I have been there, and sadly more than once. In my corporate days, I would push and push to try to get my never-ending to-do list completed. This meant staying later and later at the office often as the lights would turn off due to a lack of movement in the office. 

Eventually, I’d crash. 

Yes, I mean physical, and once it was even in my car because I fell asleep in traffic. My body would just hit the shutdown button and I’d be too tired to get out of bed! I would sleep for 12 hours. This is not the solution! This is not recharging.  

And guess what, this never happens when it is convenient. It would always be a day that was crammed full of meetings. 

Saturday is my ‘disconnect’ day. It is my day to end the prior week and prep for the upcoming. I do food prep, laundry, plan my week, avoid my laptop, etc. 

However, in May I had three Saturdays with all-day commitments to our Religious Education program at Church. This meant I lost that disconnect and prep time.  After almost a month without this and added to it stress over several major items in my life, it finally hit me. My immune system was run down, and I got sick. Knock me on my ass, sick.

I slept for 16 hours, missed the parade my boyfriend was marching in, and woke up to several messages/texts asking if I was alive.

You have to have downtime, or your body will just take it. It is just like your device, it needs to be charged and if you are not giving it enough, it will shut down. Worse, you do not get the 10% battery life warning!

Mistake number two is not using your awesome risk powers!  

You spend more waking hours worrying about potential risks and how to mitigate them than most people! 

Yet, you often check this superpower at the door when it comes to yourself. 

A good risk professional is always looking for trends, weaknesses, and potential hazards. Operational Risk is about mitigating people, process, and system risks.  

What processes and systems are you using in your life to mitigate your own risk, I am pretty sure you fall into the category of people! 

When you are tired, run-down and overwhelmed. You are at risk! 

You are at risk of poor-quality work, risk of mistakes, risk of being short or impatient with others. Declines the quality of work and interpersonal relationships, can create a financial risk in terms of lower bonus payout, missed opportunities for advancement, or worse.  It can also create reputational risk for you in your organization or industry. 

The third mistake is not prioritizing yourself! 

I do not mean making sure you have a massage on the calendar once a month or pedicure every two weeks.  I am talking about making sure you are taking care of your overall well-being. 

Having time to be quiet, time to disconnect, time to feed your soul, clear your mind, rest and recharge your body. Do not misunderstand me, if a massage or pedicure does that, great! 

But if you spend your entire pedicure checking work emails and scheduling family activities, that is not self-care!  That is clearing tasks on your to-do list!

This time of year, it could be a walk-in nature, a hike, sitting in a park with a good book or playing in the dirt! Whatever fuels your soul and energizes you needs to be on your schedule regularly. And no, I do not mean quarterly! That’s fine for board meetings, not well-being. 

Start taking notice of the trends in your metrics. 

A simple way to start is to track your sleep. Most of us have some form of fitness tracking device or app. Look for the trends in how you feel when you don’t get enough sleep, a workout, or time away from your phone. Look for what increases your stress level. Once you find the risks, start putting in the controls to mitigate them.  

If you know the sources, but need help with your mitigation plans, I can help you!  

There is no one size fits all solution. We have to find what works best for you, your circumstances and your lifestyle.