In the early months and years of building a business, it is all too common for entrepreneurs to forget to take care of themselves.
I’ve heard stories from many “goal diggers” about how they’ve let their weight go. Their exercise habits slip. Their nutrition goes down into the dumps.
And it’s totally understandable, right? It’s an unfortunate by-product of what begins with pure intentions—the hope of creating a better, more passionate, abundant life of freedom.
When you’re running a business, it takes so much work and effort just to get it running off the ground, and this becomes a priority so that our own health and well-being doesn’t make it to the top of our to-do list.
So, I get it. If you’ve let your health go since you’ve become an entrepreneur, you’re totally a hundred percent normal.
But, here’s why I don’t want you to stay there.
Exercise and Earning Potential
Here’s a compelling fact.
People who exercise average 9% higher incomes than people who don’t exercise.
I think it’s safe to assume this number is even higher when it comes to entrepreneurs, since entrepreneurs are the ones making the profit-determining decisions and are directly responsible for their own incomes.
Think about the big names in the online entrepreneur space. David Siteman Garland does CrossFit. Pat Flynn runs does marathons. Chalene Johnson has a line of workout videos. Richard Branson says his number #1 productivity tip is to work out.
You will find that the most successful people in business (whom you would think do not have any time to exercise) actually do.
Why exactly does exercise help you in your entrepreneurial endeavors? Why are high-performing entrepreneurs earning more? Why do so many of those who are really where they want to be in life build a routine before they have the time and money to do it?
Your Brain On Exercise
For starters, exercise increases the activity in your pre-frontal cortex.
This is the region of your brain that is responsible for strategy, impulse control, decision-making, and basically higher level ordering. It’s the opposite of making emotional, gut decisions. It’s what is necessary for doing things like creating your sales funnel, and showing up to work when you don’t feel like it, being able to think long-term, and making the decision to work on that lead magnet when you’d rather be watching TV.
In short, exercising makes you better at making decisions. You’ll think more clearly and more methodically and be able to identify a wider range of solutions when problem-solving.
Exercise and Productivity
Secondly, exercise helps you be more productive.
A study shows that employees who exercise 1-2 days a week are more productive than those who don’t exercise. And those who exercise 3-4 days a week are even more productive who work out 1-2 times a week. (Krone, 2002)
What’s more, what’s really interesting to me is that the studies show that people who workout are more productive exactly on the days that they workout.
So, whenever you have a big day ahead and feel you couldn’t possibly squeeze a workout in because it’s such an important day for your business and your ambitions, you’re actually going to get more done precisely on the days that you exercise.
Which leads me to my next point.
Exercise and Creativity
Exercise boosts your mental capacity not only in terms of decision-making; it also increases your creativity.
Exercise helps bind the left brain and the right brain together to be able to come up with creative solutions. It makes you more creative.
This is important whether you have a creative business that focuses on some type of art form or craft OR not.
Even if your business is very tactical, you still need to employ that creativity to problem solve, to come up with new sales ideas, brainstorm product ideas, etc.
Mood, Energy, and Focus
Exercise also boosts your ability to focus your mood, which just makes you a better business-owner (and more likeable person) in general! It also gives you more energy.
When we’re first starting our businesses, we need all the energy we can get! (Can I get an amen?)
And I’m living proof of the energy that a consistent exercise habit offers.
I’ve worked day jobs almost the whole time I’ve built my businesses (and still do).
Yet oftentimes I’ll hear people who only work a day job complain that by the time they get home from work they’re just exhausted, they can’t do anything else.
(Not to imply that the American 9-5 isn’t still, of course, a lot of work. It is!)
But that’s simply not the case for me.
When I come home from work, I go to work on my other business, and I’ve had the energy to keep up this pace for nearly 3 years. I credit this to exercise, sleep, and a primarily clean diet.
That’s not to say that working 12-14 hours a day isn’t tiring. But I certainly have more energy than people don’t exercise, and that’s really been critical for me in building my business during these early years when it takes a whole lot of effort.
Want to put this theory to the test? Download my free Cardio + Yoga Circuit workout video, and let me know how your workday goes after trying it!
