Mastering Health and Wellness for Professional Success
Successful entrepreneurs work until they can’t work anymore, put their personal lives behind their businesses, and themselves behind that. If you’ve heard or seen this dynamic play out, you aren’t alone.
Overworking oneself for the sake of success is all too common. But thankfully, that narrative is changing.
More and more entrepreneurs are seeing just how impactful prioritizing health and well-being is in their success. They’re physically well and can bring more energy to work. Their minds are clearer and more positive, bettering their decision-making. And they’re more productive as owners because they feel good.
If you want professional success, adopt these practices to maintain a healthy lifestyle and improve your overall wellness.
Keep a Schedule
It’s so easy to fall into working long hours, especially when you’re wearing every hat in your business, from marketing to product design to customer service. A lot will be required of you at times, and overnighters and long days will happen. But they can’t happen all of the time.
You’ll become incredibly stressed and burned out if all you do is work. Do your best to create a schedule for yourself and maintain it as you would for employees if you had them.
If a 9-5 schedule works, implement it. If you have to come in at a certain time on specific days, do that. Even if you can’t keep a regular schedule, you should try to leave work at a reasonable time each night.
Prioritize Preventative Care
Preventative care is one of the keys to living a healthy life. These services can help prevent diseases, chronic illnesses, disabilities, and other debilitating conditions that can negatively impact the quality of one’s life.
So, why is it that so many people still fail to use preventative care services? Lack of access to quality care, no insurance, and cost can play a part in the decision to put off preventative care services. But you mustn’t if you want long-term health and an active lifestyle.
Make sure you visit your primary care physician, dentist, and eye doctor regularly. Annual or semi-annual checkups with each are a must. Make sure you’re up to date on any vaccinations and medications you should be taking. Visit any specialists recommended by your doctor as well.
In addition to relying on your professional healthcare team, implement a few preventative care practices at home, like eating balanced meals throughout the day, exercising a few times a week, and getting good sleep each night.
Work on Your Mind
A healthy mind matters so much to your success as an entrepreneur. For example, if you’re living with a mental health condition that you’ve yet to address and seek treatment for, it could make it difficult to focus on work and lead a team.
Or, let’s say you don’t think very highly of yourself and your confidence lacks because of it. You won’t believe in yourself and your business like you need to for it to thrive long-term.
You must work on your mind if you want to be successful. Doing so will help improve your self-image. And, in turn, your confidence will grow, you’ll become a better leader, and more prepared to face challenges.
Also, when you actively work on your mind, your mental health will remain intact. You’ll be able to manage stress and better navigate any mental health conditions.
Consider working with a therapist or counselor on a regular basis. You’ll get help tailored to your needs and will have ongoing support for your mental health. If therapy isn’t an option right now, dive fully into self-care.
Make sure you’re doing things that nurture your mind, body, and soul. Taking a few minutes to meditate every morning, going on a nature walk for lunch, adopting healthy eating habits, taking a shower every night before bed, journaling, all of these can be a part of your self-care routine.
Make Time for Family and Friends
As mentioned above, it can’t all be about work. You can’t lock yourself in your office every day and only come out for bathroom breaks and meals, especially since isolation is linked to anxiety. To keep yourself from getting overly stressed and anxious, you need to see your family and friends. And they need to see you.
There’s something so uplifting about being around the people that you love. You need that sense of happiness and comfort, especially during the challenging times in entrepreneurship. It’s good for your mind and body as much as it is for your heart and soul.
So, make time for family and friends often. Try to make a daily commitment, like making it home for dinner every night with your spouse and kids or having breakfast with them every morning. See your friends on the weekends or a couple of times a month. Go do fun things together and explore your other passions.
Don’t feel like your business has to come before the people you love for it to be successful. You can find a nice balance to ensure you have enough time and energy for both good time management and a willingness to make it happen.
Conclusion
Every entrepreneur starts their journey with the hopes of being successful. Of course, hard work and dedication are necessary to get there. But that doesn’t mean working yourself to the point of exhaustion and putting everything else in your life off to the side.
Work hard and commit yourself to the entrepreneurial journey. But take care of your health and wellness at the same time. You’ll be a much better leader, innovator, and owner because of it.
By Indiana Lee, BOSS contributor
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