Let's cut straight to the chase: You cannot achieve your business goals from a position of ill-health. Sure it might actually be possible, but that is hardly something to strive for right?
As a Business Leader, you already possess character traits like willpower, dedication, resilience and drive. You wouldn't be where you are if you didn't. However like most things in this crazy world of ours, one's biggest strengths are often their biggest weaknesses. Sometimes we simply can't see that.
Willpower. Blessing or curse?
As a Business Leader, you are probably burning the midnight oil.
I grew up attending the school of hard knocks. If you are in your forties like I am, you probably did too. Like most Leaders, you probably read regularly to keep abreast of what is happening around you. Every day you hear of another company that is disrupting the market, getting significant funding, and blowing away all expectations. It's their highlight reel as opposed to their day-to-day reality, but it triggers a common Leadership response...we need to work harder!
I am happy to admit it now - I once valued willpower as a wonderful trait for both myself and those I surrounded myself with. Slackers need not apply! But when you consider that almost every known health ailment can be attributed in some way to the nasty type of stress and anxiety, I have since changed my mind somewhat.
It creeps up on you and then....BANG!
It is not so much the hard work that becomes the problem, after all the human body is capable of dealing with the majority of what we throw at it. . It is the thousand cuts along the way that becomes the problem. The skipped meal, the fast-food snack, the missed sleep, the constant state of low-level anxiety, the constant sitting, the pressure! You can't see it taking its toll, but it is. When you are thirsty, you are already dehydrated!
Several years ago I was that person. I remember one-year waking up on the morning of the Sydney City-To-Surf fun-run in Sydney (hardly fun when two-thirds up heartbreak hill!) unable to move from a painful back. Had I been shot during the night? Nope, I had been doubling up on my efforts to succeed at my new business venture without a strategy to balance the whole ledger. In other words, I thought as long as I was doing physical exercise, everything would be fine. For many years after, the chiropractor seemed to be the only one happy to see me.
Would I feel like this forever?
Get your wellbeing strategy in order. Now.
The point I am making with this article is simple - everything is connected. It is far more than work-life balance, these are just two parts of the overall equation. I titled this article about Yoga simply because it is what I have found to be the most efficient solution for a forty-something male who once upon a time did very little for mental and emotional wellbeing apart from physical exercise. But that is me. For a long time, I ignored it as an option simply because blokes don't do Yoga! What will everyone else say?
Looking back, how crazy. My back is now fine, my physician recently told me I was in the top 5% of people for my age group in terms of health (by what standard I am not entirely sure, but it was nice to hear).
Click here to take control of your wellbeing today. Gather your leadership team and take The Juicy Effect 33 Day Challenge.
The point is not about encouraging a visit to eBay to buy a Yoga Mat, it's about encouraging you to find your own solution to the problem of wellbeing. Without it, what does success really mean?