Who are you, really?

Who are you when no one’s watching?

Recently, I was asked by a client who is a healthcare professional to provide some Dietitian coaching for him. You see, he had recently undergone significant surgery due to being diagnosed with cancer, had gone through all the treatments and now is back at work.  Needless to say, this would have been a pretty trying and telling time for this client. It got me thinking about my own mortality!

Do you take your own advice?

This client works with men and women to motivate them to be active and practice healthy eating behaviours that are conducive to promoting good health. You would think these practices would be evident in his life.  He is great with motivating his clients but when it comes to taking his own advice not a chance!

This brings me to this month’s topic: Who are you when no one’s watching?  Do you have a mask for when you are out in public and one for when you are in the privacy of your home? For the most part it is fair to say we all do wear a mask of some sort. There are certain behaviours that are best for the work environment and others for social or home setting.  I am not talking about these kinds of masks. I am asking about how consistent you are with what you preach/teach/coach others when you are out of the spotlight of the public?

Evaluate yourself

Who we are when no one’s watching is most telling of our true nature.  If we do an evaluation on our actions and compare them to our intentions we will have a pretty good picture of who we truly are.   The following exercise will help you find out who you really are when no one is watching:

1. Choose a weekend starting Friday night
2. Use a notepad, Smartphone or computer and create the following log:

Day                 Activity           Mood (happy, sad, neutral)

Fri

Sat

Sun

1. At the end of each day write down the activities you participated in, also record your mood.
2. Finally, compare this log with a similar log kept for the following week your days being from Monday- Thursday.
3. You will be surprised at the difference in types of activities you participate in depending on whether it is the weekday or weekend. You will also be surprised at the state of your mood.