Entrepreneurs: Taking Care of Your Finest Asset – You!

If you work for yourself and there’s only you, as is the case with the majority of self-employed people, then you are both the finest asset( and worst liability) of your own business.   The only asset.   So it follows that without you, there is no business and its also highly likely that your income would cease.

Before we get into the many and varied ways in which we can sort out the issue of the income not actually needing to cease without you, which is another story for another day, we have to get you fit, healthy and strong for business in every way.   Mind, body and soul.

So what I invite clients to do is to create a good routine around what we call Extreme Self-Care.  

OK, so let’s break this down.   First off we need to make sure you have some sort of self-care routine at all.   This is about what makes you feel well and happy, the food you eat, the water you drink, reducing the number of tolerations around your home and workplace, exercise, breathing, sleep, laughter, friends, music, singing, hobbies, relationships with families, children, significant others.  

Now, it isn’t necessary to get all of them in balance all of the time, but there will be some which are imperative for you to function well in your business.   Which are they for you?

Which ones do you know you would love to do but are currently not making time for, or enough time often enough?   You usually know because either you feel better when you do make time, or your soul is yearning to do more of at least one activity on your list.   You can often fondly remember a time in your life when things just seemed magically to go better because you were doing something to take care of your soul and/or your body.

Once we have identified a minimum level of self-care, that’s when we step it up to the next level and bring the Extreme back into the equation.   This just means that you prioritise the things you need to do, you put them first, you make sure you get them done come hell or high water, you always do them and your performance falls off if you don’t.   You get to a place where you don’t feel right unless you have done good by yourself.

Lots of my high achieving male clients have a Tony Robbins Hour of Power built into their schedule.   This involves early morning exercise, uplifting audio, sending texts of gratitude to all whom they love or who have made a difference, and some meditative stuff, some peace.

My own routines involve regular scheduled appointments for a massage and beauty therapy, both monthly.   I need warm, soft, comfy surroundings especially in my bedroom and bathroom.   I need my home, where I also work, to be my sanctuary, my haven of peace.

I like a bit of Woo Woo including my Gratitude Journal.   I love film and I love singing.   And I love laughter and sharing meals with my friends.  

What do you love and how can you do more of it?   One of my own gurus is Michael Neill who, when he coached me, got me to create a spreadsheet (that bit may have been my idea actually) of what he called Spiritual Self-Care and I listed on here more than twenty things, some of them tiny, which when I do them make me feel better.

Clients talk about being in The Zone and it very often revolves around physical exercise and fun.   Anything which gets you slightly out of breath, walking, running, swimming, cycling, playing with your children.   For me, some of these are things which feel good when they stop (!), that elevated heart rate makes you feel tops but, more importantly perhaps, your self-esteem has received a huge boost too.  And so the virtuous circle brings you to a place where you feel better more of the time which translates well into your output and results.

So, what’s on your list?   What would count as self-care, spritual or Extreme, for you?   Do you have a routine around that?   And how can you put it first?

My recommendation is always to diarise them and make them an unbreakable promise to yourself.   I appreciate that this is often easier said than done, or afforded.   But I can guarantee that if you follow this little piece of advice, you will not only thank me, but feel better in yourself and your business and life will run more smoothly.

There is only one of you. You only have one life and you may only get one crack at it.   You owe it to yourself to put yourself first, put your own oxygen mask on before you try to help others.   You will set a fine example to those around you and you will become one of my happier, healthier, wealthier Entrepreneurs.

In my Creation Experiment where our mission is to help others, we start by helping ourselves as we realise that without prioritising that, we may be nothing at all.   If you have long years of being selfless behind you, or lazy, Extreme Self-Care may just be what it takes to get you back on track.