An Easy Test To See If Dis-Stress Is Negatively Impacting Your Leadership

One of the EASIEST ways to determine if Dis-Stress is Negatively Impacting Your Leadership is to test your Breathing.

You can determine this in less than 1 minute.

The Test

This is called a BOLT Test which comes from the work of Patrick McKeown who I trained under -

This is what you will do (Read ALL Steps First, Especially the Last Step):

Breathe normally for about 30 seconds (or whatever feels good).

Let ALL of your breath out, completely

Hold your nose (to prevent yourself from breathing in)

See how many seconds you can comfortably do this (ideally with a timer)

When you finish, you should be able to breathe normally (you shouldn't be "gasping" for air).

There is no "good" or "bad" when determining this score, it is a baseline to see where you are.

We'll see what your time indicates in a minute.

What You Are Determining

What we are seeing in this is what our baseline nervous response is doing to our breathing.

In an ideal world, our breathing would be maintained at a calming level for most of our days, and increasing only in necessary moments.

However, we don't live in an ideal world, not even close.

In today's world, the VAST majority of people live in a constant "Flight-or-Fight" mode, so their nervous system is in chaos.

When we are constantly in this mode, our breathing actually habitually changes.

Our bodies become less able to turn Oxygen into CO2, and this means we are constantly struggling with creating energy (Mg-ATP).

Our energy production literally decreases to at MOST 25% capacity (but can become CONSIDERABLY worse).

It further makes it more difficult for our bodies to handle having any CO2 within it, so our breathing rate naturally increases to attempt to push CO2 out more quickly.

This then ends up creating MORE stress in our bodies as it struggles to keep up with energy demands, and as our breathing rate continues to increase.

By finding your BOLT Score (how many seconds you can COMFORTABLY handle), you are determining how consistently you are in fight-or-flight mode.

The Leadership Consequences

This ends up having many Leadership consequences.

If we are constantly in Fight-or-Flight mode, we have many challenges arise.

• Inability To Handle New Stress
• Inability To Make Effective Choices
• Less Creativity For Problem-Solving
• Create More Stress On Your Team (via Neurocardiology)
• Decreased Productivity
• Inability To Get Into Flow States

That is just a short list of the consequences to your Leadership.

All of this can occur because of the levels of Dis-Stress we are facing.

Our breathing becomes a quick and easy test to see how badly Dis-Stress is impacting our lives.

Your Results

So how did you do?

The majority of people get a score of less than 20 seconds - this included me when I first started.

Here's what some different scores indicate.

➼ 0 - 10 Seconds

This means that you are facing Dis-Stress Constantly.

You are likely having trouble sleeping (a Dis-Stress).

You will often feel like you are in a fog (a sign of Dis-Stress).

Your ability to turn Oxygen into CO2 is extremely low (Meaning energy production is extremely low).

Your interactions with your team will be extremely difficult (due to factors of Neurocardiology).

You will struggle with productivity in general and Flow States will likely be nearly impossible (Due to excessive Dis-Stress).

➼ 11 - 20 Seconds

Dis-Stress is extremely common in your life.

Depending on your age, you may be on track for an even lower score if you don't work on your Dis-Stress.

You may still have challenges with sleep here (a Dis-Stress).

Foggy mind will come and go and you may have trouble getting out of it.

Your ability to turn Oxygen into CO2 is less than optimal (meaning high energy loss).

Your interactions with your team may often be difficult, but not always.

You may have bursts of great productivity, but likely will have more bursts of difficulty being productive at all.

It may feel like a roller-coaster where you find a Flow State and feel great, followed by a complete inability to get anything done.

➼ 20 - 30 Seconds

This is actually a good score, especially in today's world of hyper Dis-Stress.

Your breathing will probably be fairly normal here.

Sleep may not be perfect, but you are likely doing significantly better than most.

Turning Oxygen into CO2 may not be perfect, but your ability is good, likely at only a 50% energy loss.

You may have foggy mind at times, but they likely aren't there regularly.

Your team will likely find you as someone who can reliably look at problems and challenges and help create solutions.

You likely find Flow States often, though aren't always as consistent as you would like.

Your productivity most likely is better than most others around you, but you also realize you could do better.

➼ 31 -40 Seconds

This is a great score if you are here!

Challenges likely don't phase you very much here.

Sleep is likely an area you don't struggle with either.

Your energy loss is likely fairly low, and only certain specific situations feel draining to you.

Your team will likely see you as an extremely calming presence, unable to say "why" they like to be around you, but they like to be around you anyways.

There is a high likelihood that you find a considerable amount of Flow States here.

It may not be perfect, but you can get into Flow most of the time when you want to.

➼ 40+ Seconds

This is the "Ideal" Score.

What To Do From Here

Now, if you are like 80%+ of the population, you got less than 20 seconds on your BOLT score.

You may be thinking that your first action should be to fix your breathing!

This "technically" is something you can do by finding someone trained in teaching those methods (such as myself).

It's a good idea, but there is a better plan first!

See, "fixing" your breath is a learning process, which means that it is naturally a stressor - all learning is a form of stress.

However, if you are already at high levels of Dis-Stress, adding NEW stress will likely make things more difficult overall!

Instead of fixing your breathing, there is a higher likelihood that you will make it worse!

Instead of starting with fixing your breathing, I would look at finding ways to "Reduce" your current stress first.

There are many ways to do this WITHOUT adding anything new to your life!

I actually have a list of 40 ways to reduce stress without adding anything new to your life! (You can reach out to me if you'd like the list)

THEN, after you reduce your current stresses, you will have a new capacity to LEARN something to improve your stress tolerance (like fixing your breathing!)