The Importance of Being Healthy as an Entrepreneur
Since you are so focused on the deadline for your project, you leave other things on the sidelines. You forget important things like eating, drinking water, sleeping, and charging your phone. You have 72 hours to bring everything together; you need to make sure it’s understandable, presentable, and works glitch-free. You focus on deliverables and you make everything else secondary. You pull all nighters, but justify it by the amazing amount of work you’re getting done in such a short amount of time.
The deadline comes, time to submit. You did good. Not great. But really really good.
You question whether or not you could’ve done better. Could you have gone from really really good to really really really good? Could you have reached great?
Mulling over celebratory drinks, you reflect on the recent successful project. Yes, you could’ve done a few things better, but you worked with what you had and did your best. And you ended up doing really really good.
Sometimes we have business goals, large projects, or startups and there are a number of things that you must do that directly affect the intended outcome. For example, if you try to build a smart phone app, you need to make sure that it is developed. If you invest money and time into development, your project moves forward.
What if there was something you failed to do that could have improved your project, process, or problem? Would you be interested in changing your behavior?
Would you be interested in learning if that something had no effect on the outcome?
Would you be interested in learning if that something had marginal effect on the outcome?
Would you be interested in learning if that something had a negative effect on the outcome?
I’m guessing you answered “no” to the first two questions and “yes” to the third.
There are certain things that we either do, or don't do enough of, that have a direct correlation with our projects. When you think up a plan for a project, you might not necessarily think about that last something. You busy yourself with the project, and forget about the essentials, such as drinking water, eating food and getting exercise.
If you don’t drink enough water, a negative ripple effect influences other areas of your health. If you drink the right amount of water, you probably won’t see a negative impact on your project. If you drink too much water, it probably won’t have a negative impact either.
Most entrepreneurs get caught up in material items and processes that help continue their projects, but they forget the importance of keeping a healthy body and mental state.
I believe that of all the things entrepreneurs do not do enough of, drinking enough water is top of the list. Because not everyone sees the bright line of correlation between not drinking enough water and performance, not everyone gives the importance that they should to drinking water!
Here are three simple solutions on how to get yourself to drink more water:
Get a clear water bottle. People should have a water bottle to make drinking water more accessible and convenient anyways, but try to get a clear water bottle. If you have a water bottle that indicates the level of the water, it helps remind you to drink, especially if the water level remains high.
Go one for one with soda. A simple but fun concept, one-for-one with soda helps maintain your bodily levels of sugar. For every soda, or any other sugary beverage, you drink, make a commitment and drink the exact same amount of water. Do it beforehand and reward yourself with a soda. You can do it afterwards and feel good about your decision. I prefer to do it at the same time. If I get a soda, I will also get a water, and I finish them both throughout the night.
Go one for one with coffee. The concept remains the same, but simply replace the soda with coffee. Since coffee acts a diuretic, water becomes especially important. Commit to drinking at least the same amount of water everyday as coffee. And don’t use the excuse that coffee is water. There is no substitute for water.
So drink more water, exercise more, and tackle those projects with your best self.
#H2OforCEOs