I’m better at everything when I train regularly……..period.

As a gym owner it’s commonly joked about that the fastest way to lose your fitness is to open a gym.  Seems weird but I regularly have days where I lock up and ask myself:

“How have I been in the gym for 15 hours and not found a way to work out??”

Sometimes I’ll justify that behavior to myself and tell myself that the business and the members come first.

Then a mentor told me how that is a nice thought in theory, but only results in a useless leader who is run down and can’t provide for others.

Simon Sinek wrote a great book titled “Leaders Eat Last” and I agree with probalby 99% of what he says.

But, I think there can be some misinterpretation of some things he says.

“The true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own. Great leaders truly care about those they are privileged to lead and understand that the true cost of the leadership privilege comes at the expense of self-interest.” 

At first glance most would read this as “Everyone’s needs come before mine”.  I read it differently.  To me this means I need to have the mindset of providing as much as possible to those I choose to support.

But there is a caveat to that.  We fundamentally cannot give what we don’t have.  To care for others requires time, emotion and energy.  If we have none of those then how effective could we really be???

I agree much more with this statement:

“Children are better off having a parent who works into the night in a job they love than a parent who works shorter hours but comes home unhappy.” 

We have to take care of ourselves in order to care for others.  It seems selfish and counterintuitive, but it isn’t as long as we don’t go overboard with our selfishness.

It simply means we have to provide the minimum effective dose of selfishness in order to thrive.  No more, no less.

From there we have produced the best version of ourselves……….and we can give back to those we care about most.

Block your schedule to work out, spend a little bit more money on good food, put 30 mins on your calendar that nobody has access to, ask someone to watch the kids, budget for your vacation, do nothing occasionally, but don’t leave yourself out.

We all have an emotional bank account.  Fill it with emotional, physical and mental equity.

A bank with no money to loan isn’t much good to anyone………..

Fern