Keep your wellbeing battery fully charged at all times!

Oprah Winfrey. Charles Darwin. Helen Mirren. Jeff Bezos. Jennifer Aniston. Novak Djokovic. Jessica Ennis-Hill. Ed Sheeran. It goes without saying that all these people have enjoyed stellar careers in their chosen professions. Undoubtedly, a combination of raw talent and hard work have played a significant role in their journeys to the top, but they also share something else in common. Each of them has put into place at least one or more strategies to help them protect their mental wellbeing, deal with stress and boost their resilience.

So, which wellbeing strategies have each of these people championed.

Oprah has been a great fan of gratitude journalling. Mirren spends a lot of time in her garden. Jeff Bezos has got some strong views on how to avoid procrastination. Aniston enjoys a very disciplined morning routine which helps her get fully primed for the day ahead. Djokovic practises mindfulness at points in the match where he needs to be totally focused. Ennis-Hill, somewhat ironically, has continued to be a strong advocate of running even though it’s been several years since she has hung up her Olympic gold medal winning track shoes. And Ed Sheeran realised that the only way of remaining on the mental straight and narrow was to take a complete break from social media. For a whole year, in fact.

But when writing my latest book, How the Successful Deal with the Stressful, I discovered an interesting insight when I carried out my research into each of these famous and successful people: The wellbeing techniques they deployed didn’t only help them reduce stress levels but they also served to positively enhance their performance. Here are a couple of examples.

Oprah Winfrey and gratitude journalling. These were five things Oprah once wrote down in her gratitude journal:

•    A run around Florida’s Fisher Island with a slight breeze that kept me cool

•    Eating cold melon on a bench in the sun

•    A long and hilarious chat with Gayle about her blind date with Mr Potato Head

•    Sorbet in a cone, so sweet that I literally licked my finger

•    Maya Angelou calling to read me a new poem

What is so interesting about this list is that Oprah believes there to be a strong correlation between expressing gratitude for the small, everyday things and the expansion of her own personal universe. In her words:

“I started out giving thanks for the small things, and the more thankful I became, the more my bounty increased; that’s because what you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in life, you create more of it.”

In short, Oprah’s life has become richer in all senses of the word because she has decided to focus on her own wellbeing – in her case, gratitude journalling was the technique of choice.

Novak Djokovic and mindfulness. Djokovic is adamant that it was his conversion to the practice of mindfulness that played a highly significant role in his meteoric rise to the top of the tennis pyramid. By the beginning of 2024, he had won 24 Grand Slam tournaments, becoming the most successful tennis player of all time. But there was a point in his career, before mindfulness came on the scene, when future success was anything but guaranteed.

“I used to freeze up whenever I made a mistake. Now, when I blow a serve or shank a backhand, I still get those flashes of doubt but I know how to handle them.”

Thanks to his ability to stay totally present in the moment, take deep breaths in between critical points, and accept yet ignore negative thoughts entering his head, Djokovic has been able to progress from good to great by using the powers of mindfulness.

Yes, practising wellbeing techniques is undoubtedly good for our all-round health, reducing stress levels, boosting mood, building resilience. But keeping our wellbeing battery fully charged serves an even bigger goal. It helps us perform at our very best and make the very most of the life we have been given.

Mark Simmonds is the author of How the Successful Deal with the Stressful 

Published on 17 April 2025