High Performance Requires Balance

At our very core, human beings are complex energy systems seeking equilibrium between energy expenditure — stress — and energy renewal — recovery. Everything we do at work and at home evokes stress and demands recovery. This continuous cycle is directly linked to an individual’s health and happiness, and when imbalance occurs, the resultant symptoms — fatigue, boredom, low motivation, irritability and burnout — can create a particularly challenging work environment.

The Human Performance Institute Inc. (HPI), part of Johnson & Johnson’s wellness and prevention business, defines the natural cycle of stress and recovery as oscillation. Optimal health is evidenced in the balanced, rhythmic interactions between cycles of energy expenditure and renewal, and dysfunction occurs with the failure to oscillate — either too much stress without sufficient recovery or too much recovery without stress.

Given today’s precarious corporate and economic climates, most professionals are working in some state of imbalance. In a poll of 70,000 individuals who completed the Human Performance Institute’s online engagement profile since March 2003, the average respondent indicated that he or she only achieves about 50 percent of the optimal recovery score on sleep, rest and mental recovery.

Rooted in more than 30 years of research and training with elite performers and professional athletes, the teachings at HPI are grounded in sports science. As with athletic overtraining, overexertion in the workplace can have physical, emotional and mental consequences. In studying athletic recovery, we can apply lessons learned to the high-stress world of business and increase workplace value by employing techniques to keep employees physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond their immediate self-interest.

A critical component to managing stress is managing energy. Think of managing energy like managing a bank account. One avoids trouble by ensuring withdrawals — stress — do not exceed deposits — recovery. Being a big spender in life requires making equally big deposits. Similar to the financial world, spending money — energy out — comes pretty naturally, but making deposits — energy in — is far more challenging.