My friend Lisa O'Neill champions the idea of extreme self-care within the Thought Leaders community. I think it's a key part of sustaining a black belt practice.
The phrase ‘extreme self-care’ is really interesting. Not just regular self-care. Or even pretty good self-care. But extreme self-care.
Thomas Leonard, one of the fore-fathers of the personal coaching movement and the founder of Coach U and CoachVille, coined the phrase back in 1994. You can assess yourself on his 100 point extreme self-care checklist.
One of his students Cheryl Richardson refined his list to 12 key principles in her book, The Art of Extreme Self-Care.
It’s something I'm working on. My default is definitely to look after everyone else first, so the idea of extreme self-care is a bit of a challenge to my identity. But one that I’m up for.
How would you take your self-care from normal to extreme?
