All posts filed under: Health & Wellness

I’m back from PTO and I slowed down!

Published by Colin Nanka

“Pay attention in the present moment. Drink your tea slowly and revelry, as if it’s the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly without rushing towards the future. Live the actual moment, only this moment is life.” – Thich Nhat Hanh   It took me three days on a week-long vacation to SLOW down, rest and restore.  I had naps in the afternoon instead of writing. I meditated longer in the morning instead of rushing to get a workout in. I played in the ocean longer with my daughter Tess, instead of heading to the beach and chunking through the book I was reading. I was less achievement oriented and I feel like I am coming back more rested! I lived more in the moment. I did less, and went deeper.   In the end, what’s it all for? This is one of my daily questions I answer. I spent some time documenting good moments during the days. Something I can refer back to. Hopefully I can bring at least 2%+ more …

My Stressful thoughts overtake my ability to focus

Published by Colin Nanka

I was listening to a podcast last weekend as the guest was answering a passage stuck out. When I am overloaded, “my stressful thoughts overtake my ability to focus” and I thought yes, that is how I feel some days! The good news is those days are infrequent and I find it’s helpful to watch for the queues and have a plan Queues: When I feel like I have so much to do and don’t know where to start When the same single keeps playing in my head about things I can’t control Negative thoughts in general Antidote: Go for a walk outside and get fresh air Take a breathing or meditative pause and break Write down all the things I have to do, get them out of my head. Circle the Top 3 and work on the first one first.   Defeating Average through stress.   Colin

Are you languishing AND flailing?

Published by Colin Nanka

I was listening to a great podcast from Dr Michael Gervais on Finding Mastery and he had a great guest Dr. Katie Milkman, who’s a behavioral scientist, and wrote a book recently with her focus “that optimism comes when you have a fresh start”.  Maybe it’s from a life event, or for something you’re striving for. Maybe it comes from pain, or you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. It can come at any time, it can be from different chapters in your life.  It can be after a rough quarter, a challenging month, a surprising week, and or sometimes daily focus.  I like to think I have fresh starts of some sort on a daily basis.  Optimism, even if you’re not always optimistic, we all have that ability to find it.  It can be that pivot point or that first timely start. I encourage you to think about that, think about the science, and be on the lookout for the opportunity.  Sometimes when you’re looking for it you find it or when …

Does your boat size fit the task at hand?

Published by Colin Nanka

I was sitting up on the patio of our building in New York City looking at the boats going by. We are down in Battery Park which is just next to Tribeca. You can see the Statue of Liberty off in the distance and it’s amazing how many different types of boats go through the Hudson.  In our new program at Salesforce, building out a Sales leader coaching practice, one of the things we have been talking about is you to best utilize your resources when working with a customer. I see similarities between the size of the boat you move in and how you bring value to a customer. Sometimes you are paddling in a two-person kayak. Other times you may need a little bit more horsepower and have 4-6 people in a speedboat. Sometimes and a little more rarely you see these pretty big yachts that are coming in from the islands and they are parked down by this little harbor and we walk down and check them out. Kayak is like your …

My Nutrition was out of wack

Published by Colin Nanka

I have been trying to get back into shape. I am getting in a good amount of outside time, riding the peloton a couple of times and a week, and slowly easing back into running. It really hit me after a run 6 weeks ago and I felt completely out of shape when I was done.  Is this it, I was thinking? Maybe the good running days are done. I called a friend who has been accelerating in his 50+ year age for some advice. He said: Stretching and a lot of it Nutrition – Are you being honest with yourself? East back into it   I have been on a stretching binge, my wife can attest to it. Lying on the floor all over the apartment. What has really helped is focusing on it with my trainer. Instead of stretching for time, stretching for deep breaths (that are a similar amount of time). I can report making big strides in my standing stretch and things are progressing. Nutrition. I started following a program with …

Non-Striving in Sales 

Published by Colin Nanka

If there was a year for non-striving it was 2020. You might have worked twice as hard to hit the same quota AND it was an opportunity to put your mental health first. Listening to world-leading meditation teacher Jon Kabat Zinn recently he said: “Non-striving is related to trust.  There is no place to go Nothing to do Nothing to attain   When you adopt that mindset, everything is attainable. There is a vortex of insights and clarity awaiting you.”

Sleep – What gets measured gets done

Published by Colin Nanka

It was last May, now that I think about it.  I was perpetually tired. I was wondering if 45 years old just meant this is the way it was going to be. My friend recommended using a device to measure sleep. I decided to invest in the Whoop Strap.  He said you probably think you are getting enough sleep but aren’t. I made it my number one priority for two weeks.  Get good sleep, use good sleep hygiene, and see what was really happening. The Whoop app and other ones people like, measure your heart rate, your variable heart rate (the beats in between the big beats of your heart), how much you strain your body each day, and how long you sleep for. It doesn’t tell time, it just does that…and does it well. It gives you a score of 1-100 and a zone or red (not good), yellow (average), and green (ready to peak perform). I was in the red for the first 5 days! It showed I was way behind on sleep and quality …

Feeling each piece of grass on your toes

Published by Colin Nanka

It’s a really busy and anxious world we live in right now and if you don’t get a hold of your angst, it will strangle you.  “Try to walk so slowly that you feel each piece of grass on the bottom of your foot.”  That is what my friend Michael Apollo told me.  He was teaching me a walking meditation. I was 29 and feeling overwhelmed with work and life and had come to know Michael through a local health and wellness clinic. He taught some group mindfulness classes which I enjoyed so I decided to see if I could learn more 1:1.  As someone who was always active, this was a new way to bring some calm into my life. We were hanging out in a park near a busy street in Toronto. There was construction nearby, and I wasn’t sure how this was going to work.  In my mind, I felt anxious. “How can I concentrate with the construction noise? Is this going to work? Why can’t those people walking by be quiet? We should …

Getting the toxins out

Published by Colin Nanka

There are many types of toxins in our life. Expectations are a new one for me. Drugs, alcohol, too much social media are popular ones. I’ve definitely been working on reducing my social media and replacing it with reading a good ole fashion book. I’ve journaled the results and it’s clear – I sleep better when I cut social in half and read before sleep. Expectations  I have a list of work, family, personal project and health items I want to get done every day. I measure my “feeling of accomplishment” by how much I get done. When I measure against all 10-20 items daily against purely getting done, I would get an F. When I prioritize out of that list what is important, is usually boils down to 3-5. I’m not going to speak to prioritization in this post, but instead of reflecting. We spend 8-12+ hours per day working, doing. How much time do we spend reflecting pre and post doing on if we have used our time well? A few questions I …

Life is Like a NYC Marathon

Published by Colin Nanka

In the spirit of all those runners who braved the course to run the NYC Marathon yesterday, this one is for you.   A Marathon is 26 miles.   Here is what I learned from the one I ran:   Don’t ride too high or too low. The less you mentally travel, the more energy you actually have for your legs. When you hit a wall, small or big…and you will…get curious. Ask, what is possible right now? What is the learning opportunity? What can I focus on in the next 5 minutes? Visualize the race ahead of time, and like a good narrative, beginning, middle, and end. I only remember four things from the NYC Marathon I ran in 2003: Beginning: Running across the Verrazano Bridge with 30K+ other runners and how it felt like it was moving Middle: Being ahead of target time half way through End: Hitting the wall with a mile to go and really grinding it out Celebration: Enjoying dinner with other runners toasting the moment If you think about …