“Health is wealth” is a popular maxim known by all but hardly do we pursue simple health guides. Known to be the secret of most great achievers from Heads of States to Corporate captains and self-made billionaires, it is a sure guide to making riches if followed with the zeal and passion to equally achieve business targets.
GUIDE 1: SLEEP
Your brain works hard all day. It needs a good night’s sleep too! It’s a known fact sleep is beneficial for good health. We always feel refreshed and powered to take on the world after a good sleep. Scientists have gone to great lengths to fully understand sleep’s benefits. In studies of humans and other animals, they have discovered that sleep plays a critical role in immune function, metabolism, memory, learning, and other vital functions. Improved memory as a benefit from sleep does a great deal of good for business leaders and decision-makers across all facets of industries.
“I’m a huge advocate for sleep, and I prioritize it the same way I would prioritize going to the gym and seeing my friends,” said Mana Ionescu, the president of Lightspan Digital, a Chicago-based digital marketing agency., who aims for eight hours a night but estimates she gets closer to seven. “It’s so hard because it’s the thing that seems the easiest to sacrifice.”
GUIDE 2: EXERCISE
It’s been proven that exercising cuts the risks of certain diseases associated with the working class. As an entrepreneur, you’ll need regular exercise at least every morning to keep you in the right frame of mind for the daily schedule, and the benefits are enormous. Carving out time to run or do some press-ups seems like a waste when there’s a project to complete or a product to launch doesn’t it?
Here are some insights into the benefits of exercising:
1. Exercise Hones Your Competitive Edge
Exercise is a big difference-maker in wealth-creation, according to one Finnish study. When compared, twins who exercised earned significantly more income than their sedentary siblings. Why?
The answer is hugely important for entrepreneurs. It turns out that exercise actually helps build the kind of character traits that win in the marketplace.
2. Exercise Empowers Work-Life Balance
Exercise also boosts our confidence that we can accomplish difficult tasks. That self-efficacy leads to better performance at work and confidence we can keep pace with our home life.
Entrepreneurs are famous for their inability to get this figured out. If that’s you too, exercise might just be your missing component.
3. Exercise Improves Our Problem-Solving Abilities
At its most basic, entrepreneurship is providing a solution to meet a meet. The better we are at solving problems especially complex and challenging ones the greater potential for success and greatness.
There is a direct connection between exercise and problem-solving capabilities, creativity, and other executive functions like planning.
A single workout can immediately boost higher-order thinking skills, making you more productive and efficient as you go through your workday. When you exercise your legs, you also exercise your brain; this means that a lunchtime workout can improve your cognitive performance, thanks to blood flow and brain food. It improves executive function, a type of higher-order thinking that allows people to formulate arguments, develop strategies, creatively solve problems and synthesize information.
Given these and other benefits, I can think of very few reasons why entrepreneurs would skip exercise to work on their business. The research says that exercising is working on their business.
GUIDE 3: CHALLENGE
Challenge yourself with puzzles and games to keep you active and alert. Success comes faster to those who are open, active learners. The higher up the success ladder you climb, the more complex the systems and opportunities that are presented to you. Absorb all the information you can and if you sense a gap you can’t fill, connect with people who have the knowledge you need. For the entrepreneur, the importance of daily challenge is as important as making the next big move.
GUIDE 4: LOW CHOLESTEROL
Keep an eye on your cholesterol and blood pressure. A healthy heart means a healthy brain. Entrepreneurs need to be mindful of their diet particularly taking into consideration the need to always be on the move. There would be this temptation to resort to quick-meals to buy time but its impacts, in the long run, are dire. Consider adding the following to your diets, Avocado, Red wine, Margarine, Spinach, Olive oil, Beans, Tea, Nuts, Salmon and fatty fish, and Oats they are low in cholesterol.
ALSO READ: The Greatest Health Risk to the Ghanaian Working Class
GUIDE 5: DON’T SMOKE
Smoking can cause decreased blood flow to your brain, causing brain damage. The really bad part is that cigarettes cause harm to every system, be it cardiovascular, nervous, or even reproductive, in one’s body. An entrepreneur needs a sound body and mind to turn out the next big idea to rival Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, UT Bank, DreamOval, and DSTV.
“One of the significant causes of premature ageing of the face is smoking,” says Michael Fiore, MD, MPH, founder and director of the University Of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
GUIDE 6: TAKE A BREAK
Working without a break can break you. Vacations are proven to lead to significantly higher performance upon return to the job. The energizing ingredients are time away from stressors (you need two weeks to get the recuperative benefits from burnout) and mastery and social experiences while on vacation that build competence and social connection.
Ghana is blessed with so many tourist sites and attractions, many tourists on vacation visit these attractions but hardly do you see corporate Ghana or the entrepreneur taking vacations to these sites. From the north to south we can explore these attractions as we recuperate to face the game head-on.
By: Paa Swanzy-Essuman || www.Ghanatalksbusiness.com
