What's Your UQ?

The fact is, most of us routinely behave in ways that are to some degree self-sabotaging. We might cut our sleep short by staying up watching another box set episode, choose a high carb lunch that gives us a mini food-coma mid afternoon, or have that extra drink in the evening or that extra coffee late afternoon which impacts our recovery.

Out of the 6 lifestyle variables that we look at, when you get people to stop and think about it, they report knowingly living a routine that is ‘significantly far from optimal’ in an average of between 3-4 areas.

Most people kind of know they are acting against their best interests but they choose to ignore it because their behaviour is driven by the immediate physiological pleasure or sensation they will experience (i.e., they are addicted to the biochemical response). The binge watching provides reward via a dopamine hit, refined carbs provide a sugar rush, caffeine gives us a buzz and alcohol sedates us to make us feel relaxed.

The physiological reward is so big and so instant that it often wins over the rational mind which is telling us ‘this isn’t a good idea’, and over time we habitually avoid this cognitive dissonance, by becoming ‘wilfully blind’ to the negative impact of our actions. We might tell ourselves things like, ‘I deserve time to relax’, ‘I work hard so need to reward myself’ or ‘the negative effects don’t really affect me’ to make it easier to accept.

The good thing is that UQ is more like EQ (emotional intelligence) than IQ. It is a specific life skill that can be developed over time.

We can all improve our self-awareness and increase our control so that over time we routinely make choices more in line with our best long term interests.

#UQ #ownership #performance