To achieve long-term personal or business success, our health is an absolute must-have. Genetics-aside there are numerous factors, factors in our control, which help us to optimize and contribute to maintaining the health that supports our long-term success, boosting our happiness and enjoyment of our lives while reducing our stress-level.
Caring for your HEALTH is therefore the 1st Pillar of building a strong support system for success.
Being healthy (physically, mentally, spiritually…) is fundamental in order to achieve sustainable happiness, progress and development.
Why sustainable? The goal is to succeed and grow continuously, on an ongoing manner, rather than in the next 1 or 3 months. Look at it like this: If you are too busy to stop and take gas for your car, soon you will ran out of gas and stop moving completely.
So what are the key elements of health? What 4 factors are in your control to boost your health?
#1 EAT: Paying attention to your diet and your eating habits is crucial. What can you do?
- Give your body nutritious and quality food: Ditch the dead food and replace it with live food & brain food.
- Remove high-sugar items including sodas, giving you a sugar rush followed by an energy dip.
- Eliminate processed or fried meals.
- Eat regularly, slowly and not in front of your computer or TV screen, eating mindfully and with full focus on the food.
- Have healthy snacks on you or in your office available if needed.
- Use on of the local/online farmers to deliver fresh food to you every week.
#2 SLEEP: Get enough and quality sleep is another key factor. What can you do?
- Define how many hours of sleep you personally need (if enough means 5 or 9 hours doesn’t matter).
- Don’t check your phone or emails directly before going to bed nor watch TV.
- Read a novel or a fiction book for 30 mins before going to bed instead.
- Do a quick 5-10 mins meditation or breathing exercise in bed before falling asleep or getting up alone, with YouTube or with one of the Apps as Headspace.
- Assure the right level of darkness, silence, temperature, mattress softness etc…that is right for you.
#3 MOVE: Schedule in physical exercise and assure more contact with the nature. What can you do?
- Select the preferred exercise which can be an intensive one such as gym, jogging, tennis, boxing or rather calming as yoga, qi-gong, pilates or tai-chi.
- Walk or cycle to work instead of taking the car or public transport.
- Research the parks close to your home and work and plan a lunch or after-work walk / run.
- Spend your weekends moving, doing trips into the nature, rather than working.
- Plan exercise you will do each week, building a routine you stick to.
- Regenerate your body and muscles after workouts with a massage, reflexology or the black-roll.
- Do frequent breathing exercises or set up a mindfulness bell on your phone to remind yourself of the need to stretch, take a breath and drink some water.
#4 LOVE: Do things you love, with people you love. What can you do?
- Identify what do you truly enjoy: reading, drawing, knitting, photo taking, car polishing, gardening, cooking, culture, cinema, travel, learning something new…the list is endless.
- Maintain and nurture your relationships with your family, friends and colleagues that are important for you, as being with your loved ones is another important energy source.
- Schedule in your agenda 3 people to connect with each week – if over dinner, jogging or going for a walk or picnic.
YOUR TURN!
Do you take care of your health, eating, sleeping, moving and doing things you love, enough?
What tweaks can you do today, this month and this year in order to boost your health? Which ones are the right ones for you?
Get the foundation of achieving sustainable success right and start creating a winning support system.
