Be Brilliant

Facet 5 Stamina

In the case of an emergency, an oxygen mask will drop from a compartment above your head. Fit the mask to yourself first, and then assist others.

We're all pretty familiar with this instruction. We hear it every time we get onto a plane. Yet how many of us would actually adhere to this warning? I'm almost prepared to bet my life (and my own oxygen mask) that the answer is ‘none'.

It's instinctual that we look after someone else's needs before our own. Biologically, we're programmed to protect our children and the young. But we're no longer being hunted by woolly mammoths. And, for the majority of us, our professional and personal lives are not a matter of life and death.

Through time, through society, through cultural norms, hell even through advertising, we've been taught to continue putting others' needs before our own. That doing anything else is selfish! That we must push on — no complaints, no time to take a break! Stopping is for losers. You don't get to the top by sitting down the bottom, right? Not when Penny manages to run the division, bring in the big bucks, make packed lunches for the kids, take them swimming and bake cookies for her team on a Thursday night.

The result? We bury our own needs; we keep pushing. We forget about putting our oxygen mask on first. In fact, we may as well throw it out the window.

The thing is that putting your own needs first is not being selfish; it is being smart.

Think about it for a minute. If you don't have your own ...