Take care of yourself!

Take care of yourself!

Have you ever noticed that you struggle to tie your shoes? As if it’s hard to breath when you bend over.  I’ve been there several times in my life.  You know what I did.  Absolutely nothing.  I didn’t realize that my health was effecting my entire life.  Other might have caught it but I didn’t.  I didn’t notice anything other than I didn’t feel as good as I used to. 

Here the thing health is something that we have full control over.  We can choose water of a soda.  We can choose salad over a candy bar.  We can chose to eat better; the fact is that we don’t want to.  Many times, we use those sugar foods as a crutch.  It’s our way of making it through the day.  Our elixir of life if you will. 

Hey I get I’ve been there before, and guess what I’m there now.

One of the things that I have discovered is that the way I eat and the way I feel are associated with my performance.  In addition, before I ventured out on our own, just God and me in the business performance wasn’t as important.  Now that I have to depend on my health and drive to stay alive and pay the bills, I have noticed that if I do a small workout it really helps my energy level for the day. 

Another thing that I noticed is the amount of sleep that I get.  I grew up with the dad of dad’s.  I love you dad but you might have and might still be over exaggerating how much sleep you get.  He was and is a great person but he prided himself on telling people that he got up at 3:30 am and went to bed at 10:30, “just after the news.”  (I didn’t bother to tell him that he could find the same news at 6:30, 830 and 9:30.)  The truth was that yes, my dad did get up early; he didn’t lie about when he got out of bed in the morning.  Shoot he had to milk 2 cows before heading off to work.  Most of the time he started working at 5:30 or 6am and the shop was at least 30 min away.  What he did exaggerate was when he went to sleep.  He always failed to mention when talking to others that he usually slept in the chair from 7:30-10:00 then woke up just long enough to watch the news and went to bed.

Anyways, I grew up thinking that men didn’t need much sleep.  I know better know, my wife taught me that lesson.  Lol.  I have completely changed my schedule in the last year.  I have started making sure that I am in bed or getting ready for bed by 9pm then I get up around 4:30.  I use the first 1.5 hours of my day to get done the important things.  Like wishing happy birthdays to everyone on Facebook, reading scripture, and pounding out a project that would take me a lot longer when I have multiple distractions.  The point is that we all work differently.  I do know that if you are lacking on sleep then you will not be at your peak performance throughout the day.  Do you think that will any brownie points with a client when you sit in a meeting yawning because you went to bed too late, or got up super early just because?  NO, in fact I have witnessed firsthand how much that turns a client off.  I have actually had clients come to me and say, “What’s up with Joe?  Man this stuff must really bore them; I saw then nodding off in during the meeting!” 

So do yourself and your career a favor make sure you get some sleep and take care of yourself.  Don’t pour yourself into anything ever!

Exercise is another key ingredient to a successful day.  If you just walk from your house to your car, then to the office, and sit most of the day, then walk back to your car and back to your house, where you sit and watch TV for the evening you won’t feel very good about yourself.  I know that there are a couple different types of people here.  The ones who work out and are super buff, the ones who are overweight and you know can’t feel good, then there are the ones who are mostly healthy and happy with their bodies. 

I usually fall into between the unhealthy and the almost happy with my body ones.  I know that I could be better and that I could work out more, but I choose to be happy with the way God made me.  When I feel like I can’t breathe when I tie my shoes, I know that I need to step it up a notch. 

Here is my suggestion for exercise, find something that you like to do.  For me its running (I hated running as a kid but now I thoroughly enjoy it).  Start with one time a week find about 20 min to go exercise.  If you feel better move it up to 2 times a week.  Soon you will be doing some sort of exercise every day of the week.

For eating right, you can do a few things as well.  One is to keep a case of water in your vehicle.  I prefer to use reusable water bottles and make sure I have one in my truck every day.  If I have water then I don’t want or need anything else.  Make it a challenge with yourself, no one else needs to know, but see how long you can go without soda, or an energy drink.  The longest I have gone was 5 years, and that was the best I have ever felt about my body.  Also, order a salad at the restaurant instead of a burger.  That has been a huge success for me. 

My tip for sleeping is to be like the birds, when the sun goes down think about finding a great place to roost for the evening, then when the sun comes up you’ll be ready to go.  Don’t pride yourself on how late you can stay up.  Pride yourself on how great you sleep.  Set your alarm and don’t hit snooze.  The second the alarms goes off, slide your feet out of bed and hit the floor running. 

The last thing that I have to say on this to make sure that you set some time aside for you.  A little every day.  It can be tough to do that.  Especially with a family and work, and everything else that life throws at you.  However, if you don’t make it a priority to have a few moments of peace where you can unwind then you will end up in the Dr. office in no time.  Stress and worry is number one killer of people today.  Take a few moments and turn off your phone so that you can really take a break.  The world can wait 10 min for you, trust me.

You only get one body, so take care of it.  Don’t fill it with crap.  I once had a teach tell me you are what you eat.  I didn’t used to put much faith in that, but now I see that they were right.  If you eat a bunch of junk then you feel like junk, but if you keep a healthy diet full of fruits and veggies then you fell so much brighter and ready for the day.