What’s your Wellbeing Quotient?
We’ve all heard of IQ and EQ, but what about your WQ? WQ stands for ‘Wellbeing Quotient’ and it’s possibly the most important of the three in terms of your personal and professional performance. The WQ indicates the state of your body and mind: how alert, focused and energetic you are.
ING offers its employees an extensive wellbeing programme called the ‘Wellbeing Quotient’ or ‘WQ’ programme. It is already up and running in the Netherlands and will be launched in Belgium in the near future. The programme includes training courses, coaching, e-learning and tips, at both team level and individual level – because research has shown that people with good physical and mental health perform better. The Wellbeing Quotient Programme covers not only sport and nutrition, but also relaxation, coping with stress, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and setting and achieving goals for yourself.
The Big Four of a healthy lifestyle
The WQ programme is focused on the ‘Big Four’ factors in a healthy lifestyle: Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep and Relaxation. These four factors have a huge positive influence on not only how you think and act, but also your mood and your interactions with other people. You’re more creative, more upbeat and more effective – and that helps you to flourish, both personally and professionally. As a result, you are mentally and physically fit, ready for the future and optimally flexible… all of which come in very useful at a time when your work and homelife situation can change so suddenly.
Folef Bredt and Victoria Capard-Chorny are both closely involved in the WQ programme: Folef as initiator and architect of the programme and Victoria as wellbeing manager.
Why Eat?
Your energy, your focus, and your overall ability to perform, are highly dependent on the food choices you make. A healthy diet can help you prevent – and in many cases reverse – diseases and dysfunction in any part of your body, including obesity, diabetes, heart diseases, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cataracts and infertility. With that, eating healthier offers a major opportunity to live a better live.
Why Move?
Your body is designed to move. As soon as you get on your feet, your energy starts to flow. Apart from increasing your energy, getting active regularly will first and foremost increase your physical fitness. Secondly, it will improve your brain function; protect your memory and thinking skills and make you more creative and less susceptible to stress. Last but not least, it will improve your mood and nearly every aspect of health, allowing you to be more productive and live longer and happier in the process. The good news is that even short bursts of physical activity do the job.
Why Sleep?
Sleep recharges your batteries like nothing else. It repairs damage to your body, stores your memories, helps you put things in perspective, and cleans up your brain. Not getting the sleep you need makes you tired, affects your ability to perform both physically and mentally, and over time, increases your chances of developing a wide range of diseases.
Why Relax?
While you’re working, especially when you’re actively engaged and fully focused, you burn tons of energy and build up stress. This doesn’t have to be a problem at all. As a matter of fact, you generally need some kind of pressure to get moving and you will often deliver your best performances when the pressure is high.
At the same time, too much or prolonged stress will wear you out. When you stay at it too long, you will need to push harder to get the same results. You will need more energy to maintain your focus and increase your risk of becoming irritated, frustrated and less productive in general. The reason for this is that your capacity to endure is limited – regardless of the strength of your willpower and motivation. That’s why, to stay on top of your game, you need to take breaks regularly to recover; to consciously lower stress and to recharge your batteries. Relaxing helps you to do both! Doing so will not only make you feel better; it will also improve your performance.