What prompted this Aussie business to write a wellness book

Melbourne-based business, tax and wealth advisers SEIVA took home the Australian Accounting Award for Best Wellness Initiative last Friday.

Wellness Daily presented the award to the group, which is led by managing director Brent Szalay. While many Australian companies offer wellness programs, SEIVA caught the judges’ eye with its unique strategy.

The SEIVA TryPositive campaign was launched by the company on 29 November 2018 during a lunch with 100 clients at The Topiary in South Melbourne. It was there that the group launched its book, TryPositive, which invites busy business people to reset their mindset in 28 days.

In his preface to the workbook, SEIVA’s Brent Szalay reveals that sadly, about five years ago, he lost a great friend and client to suicide.

“It was really around that time that I started to listen more intently to the people around me, probing a little deeper into their surface comments,” he said.

“I began connecting common dots: pressure, disconnect, lack of purpose, lack of balance, the rat race. What I was hearing then, and still continue to see, is an apparent lack of happiness.

“What I’ve come to witness is: financial success doesn’t necessarily equate to happiness. Being happier entails a positive mindset, allowing you to enjoy the day-to-day journey.

“It’s not a sum of possessions. Nor a destination. I know my past self was blind to the rat race, fixated on my never-ending to-do-list and ignoring often small yet positive things that were regularly happening around me. I failed to recognise these ‘little wins’. Maybe you can relate to this, too?”

The book comprises 28 wellbeing tasks and bonus exercises to help you re-energise and refine your goals. The wellbeing tasks are based on six principles:

1. Find purpose and meaning in your work. Create ways to do more of what you love to do rather than what you have to do.

2. Know your individual strengths and utilise them (at both work and home) with tasks, as well as in your relationships.

3. Practice empathy, through acts of kindness to those around you at work, at home and in your community. Studies show doing something nice for someone else, in turn, makes us feel good about ourselves.

4. Be mindful, through meditation, physical activity and actions that transport you to a state of flow.

5. Practice gratitude and positive thinking by acknowledging and appreciating the great things and people around us.

6. Be clear on your goals and mindfully pause to recognise any little success story. Try to find a little win in each day. Or week. We shouldn’t be waiting 12 months before reflecting on our progress.