Personal Well-Being

Kayley Reed November 2011 RCLP 1010 Taylor Gray

Personal well-being, in essence, is taking care of oneself and finding a balance between different aspects of life. An individuals physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states should all be considered when caring for their personal well-being. Work, academics, relationships, exercise/sleep, hobbies/passion, and personal time are all aspects of life that should ideally be in balance. In a speech given at Brigham Young University, it emphasized, with balance comes happiness and inner peace (Hansen, W. E. 1998). Pursuing and maintaining personal well-being is important to fulfilling a happy and healthy life. I recently developed time management skills in a Personal Well-Being Project. My objective was to find a healthier balance after being submersed into a new lifestyle (university). Over the course of four weeks, I kept a daily log on how many hours I spent sleeping, doing homework, socializing with friends, and on social networking sites. My goal was to increase the hours of sleep I got each night, and decrease the amount of time I spent on social networking sites most prominently, Facebook. Once recording hours in my log, I realized I was spending over 16 hours a week on Facebook, or more than two hours a day. According to The World Without Facebook (2011) the average time spent on Facebook, per login is 23 minutes. Taking into consideration the fact that I logged into Facebook multiple times throughout the day, I made a conscious effort switch my attention to something more productive. I joined the Glee Club and began practicing and performing music with another friend/musician, and by the fourth week my time spent on Facebook had been reduced to 6 hours a week. Since, I have maintained this balance which has lead me to be more focused on academics, more creative in my personal time, and less stressed in general. In relations to leadership, personal well-being is important because it affects a persons physical and psychological ability to lead. For example, a person who is not getting enough sleep every night and has poor eating habits might have high anxiety and stress levels, as well as feeling sleepy and physically drained, negatively affecting their leadership ability. I believe that in order to reach ones own full potential as a leader, they must first take care of themselves as an individual.