One of the hardest things I have ever done in my life is starting a business. It requires several years of hard work, eighteen to twenty hour days, oftentimes with very little or no pay. There are no minimum wage protections for new business owners, no health plans, and no guarantee you will ever make a profit. There is also the added pressure of paying the bills, loan payments, and employees on time, which has certainly kept many entrepreneurs up at night.
The pressures new business owners or entrepreneurs face often has a negative effect on the two other important areas of life. Health/Fitness and Family/Recreation. I hear time after time that entrepreneurs focus so much time on their business, that their Health and Family begin to suffer. This not only slows down the success process, it oftentimes derails it all together.
When I built my first business, I still had a full time job, so I was spending nearly every spare hour working on my business. My family life suffered and my health began to deteriorate. My weight creeped up along with my blood pressure, and I can remember my wife refusing to wake me up if I overslept because she was concerned for my health. As a family, we didn't get to do much as far as recreation goes, and all of my money was invested in my business so vacations were few and far between.
After several years of this lousy routine, the business began to grow, although I felt it was at a snails pace, but growing it was. Family/Recreation became more of a priority, but the Health/Fitness part got little effort. I did go to the gym a few days a week, but there was little challenge in my workouts, and my weight continued to creep up slowly. So at this point I had two of the three going great, at least I though it was...
It wasn't until I had my "Smack in the Face Moment", which you read about in my previous post, that I decided to strive for success in the third area of my life. I COMMITTED to a strict and challenging exercise routine at my local CrossFit Box. After a few months of extremely hard and slightly painful work, I began to see tremendous improvements in my health and fitness. My blood pressure normalized and my energy levels increased. I felt I could accomplish anything and continued to take on new challenges which included starting Flight School. My business continued to grow, but at a faster pace, my Wife and Kids began exercising with me, and I eventually obtained a CrossFit Level 1 Trainer Certificate and a Private Pilot License!!
Today I continue to grow my business and have the amazing opportunity to coach others on their path to business and health success... So what is it you need to focus on to be successful in business as the headline states? Here you go.
1. You MUST focus on and strive for success in the ALL three of the following categories in your life for you to reach your maximum potential. They are as follows:
Health/Fitness
Family/Recreation
Business/Finances
If you were like me, your new business got 90% of your focus and the remaining 10% was spent on the other areas. Although you may feel that you are doing the right thing, you are actually delaying your business success by not being healthy, and are missing out on the most important part by not enjoying your Family. I thought was winning, but I really wasn't!
It wasn't until I committed to grow all three categories of my life that things got exciting.
Once I put the three pieces together, I took another look at the most successful people I know and confirmed that they all put great effort and focus on all three areas of their life as well. The answer has been right in front of me for years, yet it alluded me. Don't let it allude you.
Here are a few action steps for you to take right now.
1. Add more challenge to your exercise routine. If you don't exercise daily, start now. If you do work out, add High Intensity and weight training to your routine several days per week.
2. Disconnect from your business at least one hour per day and be completely present in your home life. No distractions, no cell phone, no email. BE PRESENT.
3. Tackle your most important business task first thing in the morning. You will feel accomplished and ultimately begin to produce more.
Action steps 1 & 2 will require 2 hours of your day. If you sleep 8 you will still have 14 hours to accomplish whatever you need to in business, but I am confident you won't need nearly that many if you focus on all three categories starting today!
Stay tuned for much more to come. #takeflight
