Adeola Adeyemo
This realization just hit me recently: I take better care of my business than I do my own body.
The moment a problem arises in my business, I address it immediately. This helps me see better results all the time. They say your business is like your baby and seeing it fail is the one thing every entrepreneur tries to avoid. With my business, I’m constantly looking for ways to improve, make more money, be more efficient, and grow.
But when it comes to my body, I’m not quite so proactive. I push to the sidelines issues concerning my health like keeping fit, eating healthy, counting my calories, going for my regular check-ups and more. You’ve probably heard it before: that little voice in the back of your mind saying, “yes, I know the right thing but there just isn’t enough time.”
If your business operations are structured incorrectly or inefficiently, there could be dire consequences. Your profits will be reduced because you’re paying for inefficiencies and you run the risk of your business failing. The same thing goes for your body. It requires hard work and dedication; there are no shortcuts or overnight results. Relying on willpower alone is the wrong way of achieving the desired results. Instead of relying on willpower, seek to change the structure of your environment to support your choices.
So, if your health and fitness goals are teetering on the brink of collapse, I want you to consider a new strategy: Treat your body like your business.
There are two strategies that work well. First, you can harness the competitive nature that has helped you in the professional world. Second, you find a way to hold yourself accountable.
Personally, I love the competitive nature of the business world. And with my own fitness, I think I’ve always been competitive with either someone else or myself. Setting fitness goals, getting a workout partner and rewarding yourself for achieving your set goals help a lot. Entrepreneurs and business owners rarely succeed on their own, having business partners and connections are just as important as having gym partners. This person needs to be able to be firm and feel confident pushing you outside of your comfort zone.
If you really want to make significant improvements in your business you have to get serious about going after it. You can’t make it a part-time business plan, it has to be consistent. The same goes for your health. If you’re successful in your business you can easily be successful with your health and fitness goals. You just need to apply the same level of commitment and consistency in doing the things you know you need to do when you need to do them, even when you don’t want to.
As an entrepreneur, you can always work more and always achieve more. There’s no ceiling to how much you can achieve, and it feels great to constantly achieve more. It’s not surprising that many entrepreneurs work as much as they can and still feel they should work more. Unfortunately, this addiction to achievement comes with negative side effects. You start neglecting your health, family, friends, and self-care. At one point, a simple desire to work more turns into workaholism, an addiction to work for the sake of working.
The solution to this problem is similar to the solution regarding the love of work. Find something that will challenge you and make you feel productive. It doesn’t have to generate tangible results directly; as long as it gives you a similar feeling of achievement you get thanks to your business, it will do. You get bonus points for doing this activity with others. Focusing on your health and fitness and putting in the ‘work’ it requires is a sure way to achieve this goal.
Recently, I asked a friend of mine if she thought her business increased since she started to exercise more. So far, this year, her business is up 70% from last year. This can be your story too.
Making the commitment to yourself to be healthier is no small thing. It demands time from our busy lives and requires a complete change in your lifestyle to be successful. But it’s worth it. It’s common that we entrepreneurs get so distracted by perfecting our business and our brains that we forget about our bodies. And our bodies are pretty damn important: after all, without them, we couldn’t run our business!
This article was first published in Maktoub Magazine
