By Gillian Hood-Gabrielson
As an entrepreneur, you probably find yourself fighting the balancing act everyday with customers, marketing, employees, and business development, let alone family, friends, and personal pursuits. With all this responsibility, do you find it impossible to fit in time to exercise? Of course you are not alone, many business people want to exercise, but it ends up low on the priority list, after business, family, and all the daily fires that need to be put out.
The irony of this all-too-common scenario is that regular exercise can provide the entrepreneur with business benefits you may have never imagined. Working out will improve not only your waistline, but your bottom line as well!
Energy to Last All Day
Regular exercise can give you the mental and physical energy to meet the challenges of running your business. The fact is, expending energy through physical activity creates more energy. Most business people find themselves more productive and focused on the days they exercise. They also are moving around more during the day, burning more calories!
The long and erratic schedule of entrepreneurs require the energy to deal with customer demands, emergencies, and the unexpected, sometimes long into the evening, all with the enthusiasm and clarity you would give it first thing in the morning. Effective, consistent exercise can give you that needed energy.
Make Exercise Your “Business Development” Time
When you think you are taking time away from work to exercise, look at exercise as business development time, especially when those solutions aren’t coming while you are stuck at your desk.
By stepping away from business, having some alone time and increasing your metabolism and circulation, solutions to problems will come to you, and new creative ideas will develop. Go for a quick walk, walk up and down some stairs, and wait for the ideas to flow!
Increase Exercise, Increase Sales?
You know that exercise is good for your health, right? But did you know that exercise is also good for the health of your business? In fact, in a study on exercise and entrepreneurship, researchers found that running three times a week on a regular basis not only increased personal satisfaction and independence, but runners had higher sales than non-runners. According to the study’s author, Mike Goldsby from Ball State University, “…good physical condition should contribute to entrepreneur’s success in reaching their personal and financial goals…Maintaining a fitness regimen is helpful for attaining goals and sustaining entrepreneurship.”
Exercise and Multitasking
When you really need a reason to stop working to exercise, don’t forget your continuing education. How much reading do you have to catch up on? Knowing you can keep up with industry news, continuing education or self-improvement reading can be a great motivator. Just grab your materials, a reading rack, and a cardio machine and you are ready to go! Don’t forget books on tape and all those training tapes you haven’t had time to listen to – nothing makes a workout go faster.
Whatever reason you can find to make exercise a priority, just know it will ultimately lead to more time, energy and money!
Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, MS, ACSM, is the president of Healthier Outcomes, a nationwide coaching practice specializing in intuitive eating and fitness coaching. She works with entrepreneurs who want to “grow their business, not their waistline”. For more information and to receive our special report, “6 Simple Steps to Guilt-Free Eating” visit www.HealthierOutcomes.com. Gillian can be reached at gillian@HealthierOutcomes.com or 866-650-6464.
