5 Ways to incorporate The 5 Principles of Business Wellbeing into daily life

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The Challenge of The 5 Principles of Business Wellbeing

I am lucky enough to be a founding member of the Business Wellbeing Club and I love networking with people who have the same values as me. There are 5 key principles of business wellbeing:

1. Build relationships
2. Personal health and wellbeing
3. Learn and Grow
4. Abundance
5. Have Fun.

Here, I share with you 5 simple things you can do that will satisfy these principles – but first a bit of background.

A couple of months ago The Business Wellbeing Club founder, Ros Jones, challenged the members (clubbers) to do something every day that achieves these principles and write down how well we perform. She suggested that each morning we should set a target for ourselves to improve all these areas and then see how we performed at the end of the day.

I have to say I was rather sceptical about setting targets in the morning as I know from experience that I get quite despondent if I don’t achieve these things, but I reluctantly took up her challenge. Instead of setting targets I decided to review how I perform on each of these 5 things at the end of every day. It was pretty easy to tick off something for health and wellbeing every day as I take daily exercise (walking, running, wild swimming etc). As these are all things I enjoy I can tick off the fun too!

However, my building relationships, learning and growing,  and abundance were a bit hit and miss. When I looked at how I could improve I realised that it didn’t just have to relate to my business. Relationships with family and friends are just as important as business relationships for example. Here are 5 simple ways I have put each of the 5 principles of business wellbeing into my daily routine.

Build Relationships

1. Set up 1 to 1 meetings with business associates
2. Make contact with former clients
3. Pick up the ‘phone to a relative
4. Actually invite people round for drinks/meal instead of saying “we must meet up sometime”
5. Join a new group (business or otherwise)

Learn & Grow

1. Develop my personal blog about walking and nature to improve my skills at writing and share my passion for these things
2. Read non-fiction books – I’ve been reading a lot about plants lately to improve my knowledge, but it could be anything you are passionate about
3. Sign up to a course
4. Take part in networking events that have a personal development section
5. Practice a skill – for me it is currently exploring uses for foraged food (meadowsweet sorbet today).

Abundance

1. Give a business you use a review on social media
2. Comment on and share social media posts of businesses that are your clients or associates
3. Send thank you cards
4. Introduce people to one another
5. Praise those closest to you

Health

Over the years my husband and I have worked really hard to keep ourselves healthy and in addition to our outdoor exercise, which we love, we have introduced additional health improvements over the years. This is why that key principle was easy for me to tick off every day. Slight improvements can make a big difference, so here are 5 things we have introduced to our life to improve our health:

1. No alcohol on a weeknight
2. Caffeine free drinks after our teatime cuppa
3. Cut out snacks, particularly late-night ones, or replace them with fruit
4. Cook most meals from scratch
5. Regular Pilates

Fun

If you view the 5 key principles of business wellbeing as being the way to live your life, not just your business, you don’t need 5 simple ways to introduce fun into your life. My fun is in those relationships with family and friends, meeting them at the pub or for meal; it is reading books and learning; it is sharing my passion for the outdoors and it is in the everyday things I do, like watch the birds from my window, forage and bake.

My take from this challenge is that if you get the first 4 principles in place, the fun is sure to follow.

Writing this blog ticks that big box for the day of abundance for me. If you would like to be abundant (or maybe learn and grow) perhaps you could have a look at Sam and Peter Love the Outdoors blog and either share it or give me some feedback. It’s as simple as that.