Read too much Instagram-based entrepreneurial advice, and you’ll start believing that the only way to succeed in business is to come across as a robot. From having perfect control to your every move to making sure each minute of your day is scheduled, any new business owner or starting professional can find themselves second-guessing their approach before they’ve even begun.
Sometimes, bringing it down to basics is the best possible option. For instance, it’s not uncommon for advice blogs to tell you that you need to be on your A-Game all of the time. Of course, being effective as a leader and working on yourself is important. But how are you supposed to be on your a-game if you’re not giving yourself the nourishment you need to feel that way, and to keep that consistent?
There’s a reason that many new entrepreneurs can burn out if neglecting their health, and ultimately, that approach does little to help them remain actually effective and competent in their field. For this reason, we hope to consider exactly how you can manage your health as a professional, what this means, and in the long run, how to overcome your challenges correctly.
Let’s get started.
Perfecting Your Sleep
It’s a wonderful idea to perfect your sleep if you can manage it. This might sound like a big ask, but remember, incremental changes can really help your body adapt to a healthy sleep schedule. It may seem as though you have to fight with your body to force yourself asleep, but that’s often not the case pending a combative medical issue.
For instance, perfecting your sleep is often aided by simply going to bed at the same time and waking up around seven to nine hours later each and every day. This way, your body can use its natural circadian rhythm to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. If you do this, as well as manage your sleep hygiene as appropriate, you can expect to get deeper, better, more nourishing sleep each and every night. This improves your ability to think on your feet, to emotionally regulate, and to feel motivated each day. This, along with excellent supplements, can give you a wonderful immune boost, too.
Energizing Your Body
It’s important to eat and drink healthily every day when working. If you don’t fuel your body and brain, then it’s hard to properly utilize either in the way that you want to. Energizing your body is as simple as making sure you have healthy meals on hand three times a day.
Measuring your caloric intake and eating at maintenance and eating healthy foods, like whole grains, leafy green vegetables, healthy fats and clean proteins can be tremendously helpful. Drinking enough water each day (sometimes fortified with vitamins), can also help you feel more healthy in your body. This can help support you properly during those long periods of work. However, even the most fuelled shifts will only be worthwhile if you:
Take Necessary Breaks
It’s essential to take a break from work every few hours, even for five minutes. Our working minds can only retain, sustain and apply a certain amount of information and direct creative effort each day, and so it’s important to make sure you can collect yourself now and again if necessary.
Taking necessary breaks means knowing when to step back, and take a breather. Note that this doesn’t mean going for a cigarette break, as this can harm your focus and health at work, particularly in the long term. However, taking five, repeating a mantra in your mind, meditating a little, performing a few stretches in privacy, and enjoying a tea in a quiet area can help you, even if that means turning your chair around in your office and looking at the world going by outside your window.
Yes, breaks will help protect your mental health, but this is also well addressed if you focus on:
Dealing With Your Stress
No matter if you work in the mailroom or run a Fortune 500 company, feeling stressed at work is absolutely something that people of all levels and employment categories experience.
If you don’t deal with it, it can override you. Slow and gentle exercise, stretches, breathing exercises, taking breaks, relaxing in the evenings, speaking to someone if life is becoming a little much, and more importantly, giving yourself the chance to sit back and vent this stress can be essential. This way, you can stop bringing the worries of work home with you, as you’ll be sustaining yourself for longer.
With this advice, we hope you can manage your health as a professional in the best possible sense.
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