When you have been diagnosed with a condition that is contagious, doctors may recommend that you isolate and incubate yourself for optimum recovery. During the isolation/ incubation period, it is expected that you will go through a few events such as taking the treatment itself, rest, cell renewal, decongestion and so on.

 I liken this process to what individuals need to do regularly with a view to enrich our resolve towards personal growth. I chose the word INCUBATE to help me explain this “therapy” and recommend it as part of work life balance.

 I have come to realise that while making plans around one’s life is a healthy and useful activity, it is important that it incorporates a sense of purpose, a value set, sense of urgency, self monitoring and resilience towards goal achievement and excellence.

 Here are some tips to consider based on I.N.C.U.B.A.T.E as my self made acronym:

 I – Introspect about your journey either at work, off work or indeed both. Consider any feedback you may have received, milestones attained and celebrated, challenges faced and how you overcame or succumbed to them etc. Bring them to the surface for you to face head on! It is you and yourself in this!

 N – Nurture your passion, identifying areas of growth and what is required for you to flourish. Feed your soul with the kind of spirit needed for success!

 C – Create the kind of “you” that is representative of what you would like to ultimately become in your mind as your visual to hang on to!

 U – Unpack yourself, revealing your strengths, weaknesses, self love and selflessness. Delve into what it is that gives you peace, contentment and worth… if you were a product, how best would you market yourself for the best possible return?

 B – Bolster your thoughts so that there is seamless synergy between your inspiration, aspirations and reality. Bring it all together!

 A – Aspire to reach your personal goals and fuel that aspiration which energy to achieve. If you aspire to be something, ask yourself what effort you are making to get there. So for example if you aspire to be a motivational speaker, have you tried to reach out to people who can help you?

 T – Time the activities and interventions that you have control over for achievement in the shortest possible period and pledge to yourself to be loyal and disciplined towards the timeline which you have set for yourself.

 E – Enjoy the dream! Remind yourself that your day dreams are carefully crafted to be turned into the reality that will define you as a self actualized person!

 Hoping that this marks the beginning of finding ourselves…let’s share!