Seven Years On, Reflections on Your Oxygen Mask First: Manage Your Mental Health

“It’s not the heavy load that breaks you down. It’s the way you car­ry it.”

-Lena Horne, Jazz icon & civ­il rights activist

More than ever, you’ve got to have a plan and a back-up plan for man­ag­ing your mind. (Chap­ter 7, Your Oxy­gen Mask First).

Men­tal health is seri­ous busi­ness because our brains can mess with us and trick us into mak­ing bad deci­sions when we’re men­tal­ly worn down.

Secret, No Secret

In the process of research­ing, writ­ing and speak­ing about Your Oxy­gen Mask First, I became a qua­si-expert on men­tal health. So, I know that almost every­one has spent time in the yel­low and orange zone.

And no won­der. Lead­ers con­stant­ly face the harsh real­i­ties of busi­ness and the curve­balls of life. It puts us at high­er risk for a men­tal health cri­sis and makes man­ag­ing men­tal well­ness a must-have skill.

And I can relate because, dur­ing the stress of COVID, I end­ed up in the red zone of the Men­tal Health Continuum.

The Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um mod­el, an easy, non-judg­men­tal colour-cod­ed tool to help peo­ple to assess their men­tal health and spot warn­ing signs quickly.

Watch the video: Man­age Your Men­tal Health

Dur­ing that time, work­ing the hard­est I’ve ever worked in my life to help many clients to piv­ot and adapt to, hope­ful­ly, a once-in-a-life­time sit­u­a­tion, I entered the red zone. I didn’t see it com­ing – even though I know this stuff well and teach it to oth­ers – but an inci­dent when my behav­ior was com­plete­ly unac­cept­able, brought a moment of harsh reflec­tion, and I knew I some­thing had to change.

And I know I’m not alone. After speak­ing to thou­sands of peo­ple and one-on-one to hun­dreds of exec­u­tives, I’ve heard sto­ries, pub­licly and pri­vate­ly, from a huge per­cent­age of high per­form­ers about their expe­ri­ence in the red zone.

Two of those gen­er­ous­ly allowed us to share their sto­ries with you:

• CEO Burnout, A Per­son­al Story
• A Very Close Call

I know you’ll all find some­thing to which you can relate.

The Chal­lenge

• If you’re not aware of the men­tal health con­tin­u­um, you should read it to under­stand more.
• What are your strate­gies to get your­self back to green zone when the stress­es of life and work push you into the orange or the red zone?

Your Oxy­gen Mask First Resources

• Page 98 – Six Steps to Men­tal Health Mastery

Free help, for you or some­one else, is avail­able, around the world, ²⁴⁄₇, 365 days a year. Trained cri­sis respon­ders will lis­ten to you and pro­vide sup­port with com­pas­sion, and a safe space to talk.

In Cana­da and the US: Call the 9−8−8 hot­line for men­tal health and sui­cide pre­ven­tion support. 

Oth­er Blogs

• Is Men­tal and Emo­tion­al Health a Pri­or­i­ty in Your Boardroom?
• Odds are, Your Team is Strug­gling and Not Telling You
• Get Mov­ing: The First Option to Treat Depres­sion & Anxiety

Old­er Podcasts

• Exec­u­tive Burnout: How Do You Know When You Need to Get Some Help?