Winning the Other Race: the Importance of Entrepreneur Health

Entrepreneurs have a number of battles ahead of them, but the biggest battle is undoubtedly the one they have with themselves. As entrepreneurs, we can all burn the candle at both ends one too many times. Looking after our health is something that, frankly, many people overlook, but there is the alarming statistic that 72% of entrepreneurs have some form of mental health issue. If you ignore your health, it will not just be to the detriment of you, but to your business. Entrepreneurs should prioritize their health. Here are some of the reasons why.

You Are the Key Driver of Your Business

You are the most important piece of the puzzle. Without you, the business will crumble. Understanding that you are the most important part of your business will help you to reassess what you can do to run your business better. There are so many tools you can use to run your business better, for example, you can outsource so many areas that will ensure that you are not overloading yourself.

Getting a bookkeeping service to do the accounts rather than you labouring over it at 11 o'clock at night on a Friday is one little thing that will benefit your mental health. When you realize that you are as important as the customer, that sense of clarity could spur you on to look after your health better. Like in an aeroplane when the masks come down, if you put yours on first, you can look after everyone else better; if you are a parent, ensuring that you can fix your health means you can look after your children; the same thing applies to your business.

Getting Physically Stronger Can Make You Mentally Stronger

Once upon a time, healthcare was all about the importance of fixing a problem when you see it. This firefighting approach to health does not benefit anybody in the long run. When you can recognize the signs of burnout long before they appear, you can put the stops in place to prevent it from happening, and the same thing applies to physical health.

There are a number of lessons in incorporating strength training into your life:

• Firstly, strength is one of the key drivers of overall health. You don't need to have a six-pack or bulging biceps, but if you are stronger by literally picking stuff up and putting it down, you are encouraging blood flow to the vital organs, which will flood your body with more nutrients.
• Secondly, getting under a barbell is a mental task. Strength is primarily a neurological adaptation, which is commonly overlooked. In business having the mental reserves to deal with certain problems allows you the luxury of perspective. Because if you are underneath a 150 kg barbell at 6:30 in the morning and you follow this up with a cold shower, everything else seems pretty insignificant in comparison.

Your physical health will influence everything else. It is, however, important to not fall into the habit of overtraining. If you can get the balance right, where you are doing enough exercise you will have more stamina, you will protect your body against illness, and you will be able to endure a lot more.

Winning the Fight Against Your Personal Demons

Entrepreneurs are more at risk of mental health problems. This can be due to a number of reasons including:

• Mental health problems are building up because they are not addressed. Entrepreneurs believe that they should just push through. The problem is when an entrepreneur has an unsustainable lifestyle.
• They are not eating right. When entrepreneurs live off convenience foods and don't exercise, this is a ticking time bomb, no matter how cliched this is. Many people can look to those fast food addicts like Donald Trump and Warren Buffett, but you've got to ask yourself if it works for you!
• Lack of sleep. A lack of sleep contributes to mental health problems like depression and as entrepreneurs believe that they should just work that little bit more so they can take a weekend off, the vast majority of us know within our heart of hearts that we will open the laptop on Saturday and Sunday anyway!

Ensuring you have the tools to look after your mental health is, much like exercise, about choosing the right things that work for you around your lifestyle and schedule. We should not wait until mental health problems occur to do something about them but rather do what the big entrepreneurs swear by meditating every single morning or doing the things that allow them more clarity in their lives.

Working Smarter

The biggest problem of the modern world is the workload. There is a lot more to do, with very little time to do it in. This is partly the reason entrepreneurs are more susceptible to mental health problems because of pressures coming in from every angle. Therefore, if we work smarter, we spend a lot less time firefighting and creating a more efficient and productive business, while benefiting our health in the process.

Outsourcing is one tool but you can find a number of ways to make things easier for you. For example, dictating your emails through voice recognition software instead of typing. When we commit to working smarter, we are also indirectly prioritizing self-care. When we recognize that we are worth it and understand that, without us, the business would collapse, it can provide a renewed sense of focus.

It becomes a long race to run and so many startup businesses begin with the hope that soon subsides into a cacophony of concerns. When we commit to ourselves by reviewing our health and putting the habits in place that will serve us for the rest of our lives, it doesn't just mean that we will be happier, but we will actually be doing more to help our business. When we minimize stress and we slay the demons that stop us from being more effective individuals in every part of our lives, everything should be easier.

We all experience challenges in our lives and being an entrepreneur means that you will encounter challenges on a daily basis, but if you end up feeling like each challenge is another fire to put out, you have to reconsider your overall health.

(Disclaimer: Devdiscourse's journalists were not involved in the production of this article. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)