Develop a personal renewal program
Along with your debriefings, you are going to need to develop a personal renewal program. This isn’t an option, writes Robert Wicks, in his book Bounce: Living the Resilient Life, it’s an absolute necessity for your health. He writes:
We must have a self-care protocol in place that we can employ as a daily guide, while being alert to rationalizations and excuses for not doing it. Not to have such a personal renewal program may court disaster for both our personal and professional lives. It is also, at its core, an act of profound disrespect for the gift of life we have been give.
What, exactly, qualifies as a personal renewal program? Wicks gives some suggestions:
Quiet walks by yourself. Time and space for meditation. Spiritual and recreational reading—including the diaries and biographies of others whom you admire. Some light exercise. Opportunities to laugh offered by movies, cheerful friends, a regular card game. A hobby such as gardening or knitting. Listening to music you enjoy. For me that activity is swimming in the early morning with a group of friends who don’t take themselves seriously and like to laugh as much as I do. Morning swimming was especially important when I commuted two hours every day to a job I absolutely hated. I got through it knowing that at least my morning would start out right.