NEURO-SEMANTICS AND PHYSICAL FITNESS

During the past couple months the subject of physical fitness seems to repeatedly keep coming up in conversations. It naturally and obviously came up in the Unleashing Your Health Potentials in Montreal in May. After that came up in a couple of radio interviews as I’ve been asked about my energy level and how I maintain it in trainings and in traveling. It has arisen as I’ve been talking with several trainers who training or are planning to train “Games Fit and Slim People Play.”

Then this last week it came up in a corporate setting on several occasions. It arose both when I was talking to the senior managers and then when I presented to the whole company about becoming a self-actualizing company. How did it come up in that context? It came up on one of the first characteristics of a self-actualizing company. First of all leaders and managers have to “take care” of their people, that is, meet their basic needs (e.g., survival and safety needs). Companies generally do this with salaries, perks, and the compensation packages. And if you want to know why that is important, it is if because survival and safety needs are not met, employees will be operating from a level of stress (worry, apprehension, tension, preoccupation) preventing them from being fully present and engaged in their work.

That’s why leaders in self-actualizing companies focus on creating an environment that is conducive to the health and well-being of their people. If the company is large enough and has its own cafeteria then it aims at not merely feeding people, but creating a context of nourishing food in a pleasant and relaxing context. Google has eleven gourmet cafes on their campus, along with tennis courts, a fitness center, walking trails, and so on.

In speaking about these things, I asked the people of one of the firms I was working with recently to imagine a Vitality Meter at the front door when they came to work. If they stepped onto the Vitality Meter each morning when they arrived and each afternoon when they left, what would it register? If you step on to the Vitality Meter, would it indicate that you are full of energy, health, vitality, inspiration, and passion? How much well-being and vitality would it register from 0 to 100?

If in arriving at work your vitality is low, is that your personal problem, is that a system issue due to the structure of the work and work place, or is that a relational problem with a manager, supervisor, or colleague? If upon leaving your work at the end of your day, your Vitality Meter indicates that your vitality and well-being has been extinguished or devastated, what does that say about you, your work, the work context, the relationships there?

A self-actualizing work will not feel like “work” in the sense of effort, drudgery, or being hard,

or life draining. It is full of effort but it is more the effortfulness that a child puts into play. You are fully there, you are fully engaged, you are giving it your all and the tiredness that comes is a good tiredness. And you have the sense of accomplishing, “A job well done!” So a self- actualizing company gets the right people on the bus, then into the right seats for them, and then supports and takes care of those people so that they are energized by their work.

Physical fitness is important in all of this because our states are mind-body states. It is never just a matter of thinking right, thinking positively, having a good attitude, understanding things, operating from good principles—it is just as equally a matter of feeling good, taking care of your health, eating good food moderately, exercising regularly, and sleeping well. To actualize your highest and best requires that you have the energy to do so and that means strength in your muscles, cardio-vascular system, and flexibility in your movements. All of this comes together to define your level of “fitness.” And fitness endows you with the energy reservoir that you need to be a fully functioning person.

A disciple and student of Maslow, Robert Carkhuff wrote Toward Actualizing Human Potential (1981) and included physical fitness in his descriptions in a way that Maslow did not.

“All actualizers maintain rigorous fitness programs. However they do not make a fetish out of it. ... the real question for the actualizers is: Fitness for what? They draw upon their physical resources to serve other more important purposes in their lives. They value their fitness highly because they recognize it as a necessary but not sufficient condition of their life purpose.” (p. 55) “The effective helper must develop a high energy level that enables him or her to be strongest at the crises of life; a high level of motivation to accomplish a mission that directs and sustains him or her throughout life.” (p. 67) Regarding the physical factors in self-actualization, Carkhuff set out levels of functioning. He even put numbers to the levels in the scale: 1) Sickness, 2) Survival, 3) Adaptability, 4) Intensity, and 5) Stamina. This was the vertical scale. Then along a horizontal scale he had four dimensions of physical functioning: 1) Cardio-respiratory functioning, 2) Endurance, 3) Strength, and 4) Flexibility. With this matrix, you can then identify your level of functioning in each of these dimensions.

“The fitness level based on exercise will ultimately infleunce the fitness level of application. Whatever a person’s reservoir of energy initially, over an extended period of time, the level of fitness will relate to level of energy. ... High functioning people are able to mobilize energy when needed.” (p. 74-75)

How is your fitness level? Do you wake up each more ready to go? Do you look forward to the activities of the day? And throughout the day, do you have enough vitality and strength to handle the challenges before you? At the end of the day, do you have a good tiredness of mind, body, and emotions and have a sense that the energies you devoted to your tasks resulted in “a job well- done?” To be fully engaged in life, to fully play at the things that are important to you, and have a good time doing so requires energy. It requires that you have the strength, stamina, well-being, and flexibility to handle it. How can you actualize your highest and best without physical fitness? How much potential are you ignoring, sacrificing, or wasting by not having the physical fitness that you need? May your Vitality Meter be at the top in the red zone more and more often!