Physical Health as an Entrepreneur

Often entrepreneurs neglect their physical health. Our businesses and families require so much from us to succeed and be the entrepreneurs, fathers, and mothers we aspire to be. Time always feels short and the same drive that makes us successful can also leave little time to focus on our physical health. I make the argument that if there are three legs on the stool of the entrepreneurial life, one of them must be physical health with the other two being entrepreneurship and close connection with the people you love. Without our physical health we end up being less able to succeed as the leaders, spouses, and parents we seek to be.

When time and energy are limited, how do we develop a plan for our physical health as an entrepreneur? There are three keys:

1. Develop goals that motivate you
2. Create a physical fitness strategy that suits your individual needs
3. Build a nutrition strategy that works for you

I know many of you are reading this saying, OK that sounds great, but I already knew that and it still isn’t working for me. The difference is that in each of the keys above I said that they need to be things that work for YOU. Most of the fitness and nutrition mainstream is about selling you on a system or a plan that is pre-built. Join Soul Cycle and you are set. Get that Peloton in your living room and you will use it every day. Eat Paleo and watch your abs pop. Go Vegan and watch your blood pressure drop to normal. The thing is, each of these will work for someone and in many cases, lots of someones. However, they will fail when used alone for the vast majority of people because they aren’t built for that person’s specific goals and needs. So the process of finding goals, training, and nutrition strategies that work for YOU is about understanding how to fit the available solutions to your needs. Let’s dive into the questions you need to ask yourself to make those decisions:

Choose Goals that Motivate You

1. What did you like doing in athletics in the past? 
2. Were those things individual or team based? Did they emphasize power as in basketball, sprinting as in soccer, or endurance as in cross country?
3. What do you feel like you are best at now or what do you think you would be best at? What type of exercise is (or has been) the most fun for you?

The purpose of these questions is to ask what we think we are best suited for in athletics. Athletics in the context of moving your body, not in a high school team sports context. Notice that I did not ask about things like how you look at the beach or what you want to weigh. Aesthetics always follow function and focusing on an athletic goal allows you to prioritize function first. Think about what training you have liked best in the past. Did you love your solo early morning runs or did you love the spin class with friends after work? One may lend itself to setting a running race from 5k to marathon as a first goal and one may lend itself to completing a cycling or gym-based event. The specifics do not matter, getting to what you enjoy and want to do does. 

The great part about making goals part of your training process is that once you check one off the list you get to set another and another and another. The journey is the point, not any specific goal.

To help you pick your first one here are a few ideas:

1. Run a 5k, 10k, half marathon, marathon, or trail race
2. Hike a specific trail, do a pack-in camping trip or a multi-day hiking trip
3. Complete a cycling event on a road or mountain bike
4. Join a CrossFit gym and do a small local competition
5. Do a hybrid-fitness race like Spartan DEKA or Hyrox
6. Do an obstacle course race like Spartan Race, Tough Mudder, or Savage Race
7. Be able to hold a specific yoga pose or complete a specific level of practice class
8. Join an adult league for a sport like basketball, soccer, or softball
9. Sign up for a bouldering or sport climbing competition
10. Pick several ski runs you want to be able to ski

Create a Training Plan

There are several options for creating a training plan to reach your goals and an internet search can help you. You can do the following:

1. Find an online training plan to follow on your own
2. Work with a virtual coach or program on your own
3. Join a gym that specializes in your style of training
4. Hire a personal trainer to build a plan and help you execute it

Every strategy works but not every strategy will work for you. Be honest about your needs and where you have struggled in staying consistent in the past. As we talked about in the beginning of this post, time is at a premium so I always lean toward option four. A good trainer helps build a plan that works for your level of fitness and toward achieving your goals on the timeline you set. You don’t waste time and energy wondering if you are doing the right things, you just get to show up and do the work. It takes nine months at minimum to create lifestyle change and make health a natural part of who you are. Consider working with a trainer for at least that period of time to get you on track.

Create a Nutrition Plan

Physical training is only half of the battle for health, the other is nutrition. Also, as with physical training it has to be tailored to your goals. If your goals require that you build muscle, your nutrition needs to support that. If your goals require that your blood pressure be lower, your nutrition needs to support that. Getting clear about what you want to happen helps you select your nutrition option from the following:

1. Use a specific nutrition style like Paleo, Vegan, or Slow-Carb
2. Use a behavioral nutrition coach to help you plan and adjust how you eat
3. Work with a registered dietician to help you plan and adjust how you eat
4. Hire a personal chef to prepare meals based on the guidance from one of the above

For the training plan, I tend to recommend the highest price option (personal training). However, when getting started with nutrition I would lean toward number 2 or 3. We are drowning in information and testimonials about each of the nutrition styles and products that support it, making selection difficult. We are also each different in our bodies, goals, and the demands those place on our nutrition. A coach or dietician can help you cut through the noise and build a nutrition plan that you enjoy, that supports your goals, and that you can sustain as a lifestyle change over the long term. 

Going all the way back to where we started on time pressure, we now have an idea of how to move forward and have the health we each want. Choose your goals based on what you are good at and enjoy. Create a training plan to support those goals or better yet, work with a personal trainer to help you do that. Find a nutrition strategy that supports your goals or better yet, work with a coach or dietician to help you. The time required comes down to some self-reflection on what you want. Maybe a few hours to research and interview a trainer and nutrition coach and then 5-6 hours per week, less than an hour per day, to execute your training plan. Your nutrition time should really be a substitution of the time you already spend shopping, cooking, or dining out but with a modified set of foods.

Our businesses, our families, and ourselves depend on us being healthy and at our best.

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DISCLOSURE: Jarrod Musick is an officer of Destiny Capital and Entrepreneur Aligned, a DBA of Destiny Capital. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for your investment, business, or personal financial decisions. We recommend consulting with your wealth advisor, CPA/tax advisor and/or attorney, as applicable to your situation, prior to implementing any new tax, legal, or investment strategy. Advisory services provided by Destiny Capital Corporation, a Registered Investment Adviser.

ABOUT JARROD

Jarrod was born into financial planning and solving financial problems. With his financial advisor father Steve telling stories about finance around the dinner table from an early age, the idea that everyone has a different financial situation was always there. After an early professional career spent in nonprofit and government, Jarrod came back to his roots helping people plan and invest in 2011. Since then, he has worked with individual clients, led internal teams and ultimately became partner and the CEO of  Destiny Capital in 2017. With a passion for helping entrepreneurs change the world, Jarrod ultimately oversaw the creation of Entrepreneur Aligned in 2020. With both Destiny Capital and Entrepreneur Aligned, Jarrod leads teams that help people live lives of abundance where money is simply a tool to let everyone be a positive force for the world around them. When he isn’t working with the talented teams for EA and DC you can find him chasing his twins, wily trout or a podium spot at an OCR race.