What Every Day in the Gym Teaches me About Business (and Life)
I’ve been working on a fitness transformation for quite some time. What I love most about the experience, however, is how it relates to my business and my life overall. I find lessons everywhere.
Push Myself
Though some people rely on external forces to move themselves forward, I’ve come to learn that the more I can be in control of the urge to push myself harder, the more I will strive to do more and more to accomplish my goals. The harder I push myself, the more I want to find my upper limits. And stretch those, too.
Pick/Make the Plan and Stick With It
I’m a notorious root-puller. Hey, are those carrots grown yet? *Rip* Oh, they look like they were growing. Recently, through working on a 12 week transformational fitness challenge (one that is far more aesthetic than it is functional), I’ve seen the results of my work for the first time in the gym. Those results make me want to stick with it even more.
I had a very similar experience with sales lately. Make the plan, test the plan, stick to the plan. Easy peasy. Sales shot up like a rocket. The gym, my business, my life. All related. That little mantra: make/test/stick is easy. Do that.
Fuel Myself
One of the ways that most of us get fat has nothing to do with our level of exercise (though that’s abysmal). It has to do with eating at some point early in the day and then forgetting to eat until very late in the day. Your body would MUCH prefer lots of teeny tiny meals spread across the day. (You don’t have to take my word for this. You can test it over four weeks.)
But that’s your body. I learned the same about my mind. If I want to grow, I have to fuel myself. I listen to great audiobooks. I read awesome books on mental toughness and the like. I listen to great podcasts. This fuel helps me just as much as eating and drinking more regularly helps me.
The Lessons Keep On Coming
I’m learning more every day in the gym than I ever did in college. I learn more from the act of execution than I ever do from reading. My friend Anthony said to me about a similar storyline, “It’s like the difference between reading a book on swimming and swimming across the English Channel.” Meaning, you can read all you want, but until you DO something with it all, it doesn’t matter.
I think that’s why the gym helped spark my business growth. Because somehow just going in there, picking up the iron and putting down the iron, and repeating this over and over again, has given me the template for understanding. It’s like meditating with metal. And the more I make simple plans, test simple plans, and execute simple plans, the more everything is growing for me. In all ways.
Chris Brogan is CEO of Owner Media Group and the New York Times bestselling author of eight books. His latest is Just Start Here, with Jacqueline Carly.
