Lifestyle Of A Young Leader
Being a young leader isn’t just contained to the screen of your laptop, or the page of your CV. Being a young leader is a lifestyle and a mindset, amongst everything else. Networking, job applying, studying in school, and applying for opportunities only accounts for 1% of the hard work that it takes to become a successful young leader. But don’t be discouraged! The good news is that having a young leader lifestyle makes all the other parts so much easier!
The average time it takes to successfully secure and implement a habit in your life is sixty six days. Whilst this may seem like a lot, you have to remember that this means that you can completely change your life in just over two months! Now, this is not a one shoe fits all schedule. Every person will require a different layout to their day to ensure the best results. However, there are some top tips that I can recommend from personal experience that have changed my working day around, and will secure you in a young leader mindset and lifestyle.
A morning routine is arguably the most important factor to a young leader’s lifestyle. Our days can be unpredictable. Today you might get offered that job you’ve been desperate to land, tomorrow you might be rejected from your dream university. Life throws all kinds of obstacles our way, that is part of being human. However, a morning routine is a form of stability that is completely in your control. Whilst it is impossible to have an iron grip on all aspects of our day, waking up and implementing some healthy habits will give you a sense of security as well as ensure you are starting your day in the best way possible.
The first thing I would recommend for a morning routine might make you inwardly sigh, so I apologise in advance. Water. Yes, yes, I know. Everyone bangs on about hydration all the time – and it may be more tempting to have a hot coffee to sparkfire your energy in the morning. But drinking just one glass of water as soon as you wake up can have immeasurable benefits to your life. Water is the magic potion that is constantly underestimated. It ensures optimal physical performance, helps with cognitive function like brain health – making your memory, concentration, mood, and attention span all excel, it boosts energy, lubricates your digestive tract, aids skin health, kidney function, temperature regulation, joint health… Are you sold yet?! You can do your body a favour by dedicating just two minutes of your morning to kickstart your
metabolism.
There is one final aspect to this which will tie it all together. After you’ve drank your water, had a cold shower, and practiced some gratitude, you need to do some scheduling. There are three important aspects to factor in when scheduling your day – repetition, importance, play, and sleep. Let’s start with repetition. When you open your laptop for the day, your work and tasks can feel overwhelming. The way I like to tackle this is by having a few easily-completable jobs that I do every morning to get my brain into work-mode, and make the working day a little easier. If you are a student studying, this might be by doing a five minute online quiz about your subject. If you’re working or applying for jobs, this might be organizing your email inbox for the day. Completing an easy task like this will release dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and adrenaline – naturally setting up your body to power on with the rest of the tasks for the day. The repetition is important as you will do this everyday, meaning you will never struggle with facing the unknown when starting your work. You know your first task, and you know you can achieve it, no matter what the day holds
Importance is the next factor to focus on. It’s easy to get sucked into the trap of completing all your simple, quick-fix tasks first. This will come back to bite you, as you’ll hit a low energy point in the day faced with huge, overwhelming monsters of tasks to complete. Therefore, assign your tasks in terms of importance and time. What are the most lengthy tasks? What are the tasks that need to be completed as soon as possible? Taking these into account when structuring your day will ensure you use your valuable time as a young leader in the most productive and proactive way possible.
Play is next on the list. It’s not easy for a young leader to balance the stresses of responsibility with the importance of rest. But rest is productive. Make sure to assign chunks of your day to doing some low-maintenance, restful activities. Scrolling on your phone can have its value in giving your brain some downtime, but it is also important to priortise screenless rest as well. Confining your “play” part of your day to a screen can put your eyes under strain, which will make it harder to focus on your online work later due to eye fatigue and headaches. It can also lead to poor posture, sleep disturbances due to the blue light emitted, fragmented productivity, depleted mental health (who wouldn’t feel inadequate when watching people’s fabricated online lives all day?), decreased physical activity, and reduced social interaction. I’m not telling you “it’s that darn phone!”. But what I am telling you is to replace just one of your social media sprees with something like a few chapters from that book, or sketching some more ideas. You’ll thank me.
Finally, sleep. Sleep is, like water, one of the most underestimated magic spells of our time. It is recommended to get eight hours of sleep, but women usually need an extra half an hour, sometimes more during menstruation*1. Having high quality, restful sleep hygiene will do wonders for your young leader’s mindset and lifestyle. Sleep will improve your cognitive function in areas like memory, concentration, problem solving and decision making. It will regulate your mood better, as well as your physical health – lowering your chances of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and immune dysfunction. It will increase your energy (obviously, you don’t need me to tell you that), and improve your stress management. All of these will come into play in ensuring you smash your goals.
Being a youth leader requires a lot of work, dedication, drive, and energy. But having a glass of water in the morning, dunking your head under a shower for twenty five seconds, writing a few things you’re grateful about, scheduling your day, and getting some good rest are not huge life changes to make. In just two months of habit implementing, you will find both your physical and mental health will have dramatically improved, and your career or academic progress will quickly follow suit. Having a youth leader lifestyle won’t stop you from having fun, or letting loose. But it will strengthen all positive areas of your life, and give you a stable foundation to create the life of your dreams.
Xantippe Steel
July 6 2024