ProfessionalMalnourishment

We need nourishment for our professional lives just as our bodies need nourishment.  And, just as our physical wellness depends on a variety of healthy nutrients, so does our professional wellbeing depend on our consumption of an array of wholesome inputs. 

What might some of those professional nutrients be?

• Watching and learning from masters of our craft.
• Finding and engaging with quality mentors within our field of endeavor.
• Regularly consuming new learning (books, articles, videos, audios) related to our work.
• Networking with a wide variety of practitioners, both within and outside our profession.
• Dabbling with creative and innovative practices, both for the novelty of it and for the potential breakthrough experiences.
• Learning beyond our particular profession from those who are performing in exemplary fashion in some other field, seeking transferable practices.

Returning to the body-profession analogy, just as our bodies need the macronutrients of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates so do we need, in our professional lives, the macronutrients of

Experiences, 

Exposures, 

Engagement.  

And, in both body wellness and professional wellness, we make choices everyday about what we consume.  The inputs dictate the outputs.

To choose not to nourish ourselves professionally is to choose (by omission or commission) to be professionally malnourished.  You probably know how that story ends.