Work Stronger

Habits for More Energy, Less Stress, and Higher Performance at Work

Pete Leibman

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781510731660
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

As author and high performance coach Pete Leibman demonstrates in this eye-opening book, stronger hours (not longer hours) are the key to feeling and performing your best over the long term. Work Stronger provides a step-by-step, science-based approach for increasing your energy, decreasing your stress, and taking your performance to a higher level. This book also features practical tips and powerful insights from private interviews that Leibman conducted with more than twenty-five prominent leaders. The group includes Chip Bergh, the president and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co., Dick Costolo, the former CEO of Twitter, and Janine Allis, an investor on Shark Tank. You'll learn how to form stronger habits in four key areas (nutrition, exercise, focus, and renewal) that are highly correlated with greater health, well-being, and performance. You can also get a free assessment of your current habits, and you can download a free copy of The Work Stronger Workbook at WorkStronger.com.

Part I

THE P.O.W.E.R. PYRAMID

CHAPTER 1

PURPOSE

Champions are made from something they have deep inside them—a desire, a dream, a vision.

—Muhammad Ali, one of the most significant sports figures of the twentieth century

On April 6, 2007, businesswoman Arianna Huffington collapsed from exhaustion and lack of sleep. When she fell, she hit her head on the corner of her desk, spilling blood on the floor of her home ­office. She also broke her cheekbone and cut her eye. At the time, she was working over one hundred hours a week: this painful incident served as a major wake-up call for her.¹

In Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder, Huffington writes, “In terms of the traditional measures of success, which focus on money and power, I was very successful. But I was not living a successful life by any sane definition of success. I knew something had to radically change. I could not go on that way.”² This event ­propelled her to overhaul her life and to start using her influence to dismantle the widespread delusion that burnout is a price that you must pay to be successful. In addition to authoring Thrive, she wrote The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time. She also launched Thrive Global in late 2016 with the ­mission “to end the stress and burnout epidemic.”³

When people want to make changes, they usually begin by thinking about what to start doing or stop doing. Obviously, you need to change your behavior if you want to change your life. ­However, you have to change your beliefs first because your beliefs drive your behavior. Your mindset will ultimately serve as the key driver or as the key obstacle for whatever you want to achieve. In the example above, Arianna Huffington needed to change her definition of success before she could start living a healthier life.

Forming stronger habits can be simple and straightforward, as you will see in the chapters to follow. However, that does not mean the process will be easy. When change is tough—and it will be tough—you will consciously or subconsciously ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?”…“Why am I not eating a piece of cake when ­everyone else around me is?”… “Why am I exercising today instead of taking it easy at home?”…“Why am I focusing on this difficult project when I could procrastinate and work on an easier task?”…“Why am I going to bed early instead of ­watching TV?”

Where there is a will why, there is a way. The first level of The P.O.W.E.R. Pyramid is purpose. In this chapter, you will learn four beliefs that can drive your purpose and inspire you to make positive changes in your life.

Work Stronger Wisdom

“I firmly believe that the healthier you are, the more engaged you will be at work, and the more energy you will bring to every aspect of your life, not just to your career, but also to your family, your friends, and your community.”

—Chip Bergh, president and chief executive officer at Levi Strauss & Co., one of the world’s largest brand-name apparel companies

BELIEF #1: STRONGER HABITS HELP YOU REDUCE AND PREVENT PAIN

Michael Blaue is a father who lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. One day, one of his kids told him that he wanted to be like him when he grew up. He did not mention an occupation, however. Instead, his son said, “When I grow up, I’m going to be big and fat like you.”⁴

This life-changing comment inspired Blaue to make some significant changes. The results were incredible—and definitely not typical. Over a ninety-day period, he lost over 18 percent of his body fat and shed over sixty pounds (going from 241 lbs. to 179 lbs.). He was also recognized as National Champion of the Golds’ Gym Challenge, a twelve-week body transformation contest.⁵

If you didn’t know the real story behind his makeover, you might think he just relied on willpower. However, his motivation was so much stronger. He believed that losing weight would make him a better dad. You can be certain this view helped him stay motivated on days when he was busy, tired, or not in the mood to work out or eat healthy. Now, his sons flex and do push-ups when they imitate him.⁶

A painful comment and experience is also what initially motivated me to change my body as a teenager. After my sophomore year in high school, I attended a summer basketball camp with my teammates. At the time, I was 5'10" and 119 pounds. During a break one afternoon at camp, my teammates and I were hanging out in the sun, and we were shirtless because of the heat. One of my teammates looked at me and started to laugh. “Look at Leibman,” he said. “He’s so puny you can see his heart beating.” The entire team started cracking up. I looked down at my chest and noticed they were actually right! I tried to laugh it off though. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about,” I said.

It was an extremely embarrassing moment that unleashed my motivation to get stronger. I had no idea how to get started, but an older, much stronger friend named John took me under his wing. Over the next year, my body transformed. By the time I went to college, I was 6'1" and 180 pounds with less than 10 percent body fat—a significant improvement from my previously frail physique.

My reasons for forming stronger habits have certainly evolved throughout my life, but the pain of my teammate’s comment was the first thing that drove me. Like Arianna Huffington and Michael Blaue, I was galvanized by what I refer to as a Mighty Moment, a transformational turning point that compels you to make changes. These painful experiences are the ultimate motivators.

Mighty Moments inspire many people to form stronger habits. However, you don’t need to have an epiphany in order to change your behavior. If you want to reduce or prevent pain in your life, you can simply decide—at any time—to form stronger habits. To put it bluntly, you will experience more pain in your life without stronger habits.

One study led by Dr. Earl S. Ford of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta found that a healthier lifestyle can reduce your chances of developing chronic diseases and conditions by up to 80 percent.⁷ In other words, the large majority of the ailments that people experience are self-induced and preventable.

Studies have also measured the impact that specific habits can have in reducing or preventing pain associated with specific ailments. In one such study, researchers at Duke University found that exercise can be at least as effective as anti-depressant medication in treating depression.⁸ Neuroscientists at the University of Georgia have also demonstrated that exercise increases galanin, a neuropeptide that contributes to stress resilience.⁹

Many people interviewed for this book highlighted stress as a key reason why they exercise and make their health and well-being a priority. One example is Barbara Tulipane, chief executive officer at National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the leading non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of public parks, recreation, and conservation. “Being a CEO is a very stressful job,” Barbara told me.

“You have a choice on how you can manage that stress,” she says. “I see a lot of leaders who resort to alcohol. In my case, I choose to be active physically. I guess running is my ‘drug of choice.’ Being physically fit is a secondary benefit. To me, it’s all about alleviating stress and taking care of my mental health.”

BELIEF #2: STRONGER HABITS HELP YOU FEEL BETTER AND PERFORM BETTER

Countless studies have demonstrated that stronger habits in four areas (nutrition, exercise, focus, and renewal) lead to more energy and higher performance, both in the short term and the long term. Improving your behavior in these key areas will provide a multitude of benefits for your body and your brain.

Stronger eating habits (to be covered in chapter 6) improve your health, your mood, and your ability to focus. For example, a study led by Dr. Jeremy Spencer of Reading University found that something as simple as eating a large helping of blueberries (a food rich in antioxidants) could lead to increased concentration and memory up to five hours later.¹⁰

Stronger exercise habits (to be covered in chapter 7) make you more resilient, and MRI scans have shown that physical activity can even increase overall brain volume.¹¹ For example, a study performed at the University of British Columbia found that aerobic exercise can increase the size of your hippocampus, a part of the brain that is connected to learning and memory.¹²

Stronger work habits (to be covered in chapter 8) help you complete higher-quality work in less time. Research has also shown that greater focus can increase your creativity and your engagement at work. The Energy Project, a boutique consulting firm, partnered with Harvard Business Review in 2013 and 2014. They surveyed people globally across twenty-five industries. They found that engagement at work increased by 29 percent among those with the greatest level of focus.¹³

Stronger renewal habits (to be covered in chapter 9) make you calmer, improve your memory, and increase your attention span. For example, one study published in the Journal of Neuroscience looked at brain scans of regular meditators versus non-meditators. Researchers found that the meditators had greater stability in their ventral posteromedial cortex, a part of the brain associated with wandering thoughts.¹⁴

There is a great deal of overlap between your eating habits, exercise habits, work habits, and renewal habits. Weaker habits in any or all of these areas can send you into a downward spiral and make you feel like you are drowning. When you are not physically active, well-rested, and well-fueled, you will have less natural energy, and you will find it more difficult to focus. Many people try to compensate by fueling themselves artificially with sugary products, energy drinks, and lots of caffeine. These band-aids don’t fix the problem though. They just make you more irritable and more anxious. They also make it harder to get quality sleep, and they can lead to significant health problems when consumed in excess....

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I. The P.O.W.E.R. Pyramid
• Part II. The Stronger Cycle 85
• Conclusion
• Notes
• List of Author Interviews
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• You‘ve Read Work Stronger. Now What?
• Index