“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” — Abe Lincoln
I think there are many reasons for taking great care of yourself. But here is my favorite.
It makes you better at everything else you do in life.
I work with a lot of founders and entrepreneurs. One of the first things I notice is how hard they find it to take good care of themselves — because they’re so driven to work all the time.
There are a million things to do, a million fires to put out. I get it. I sincerely and experientially get it.
But few things are more detrimental to an entrepreneur’s life than abandoning their own health — physical, mental, spiritual — just to get more done.
To be clear: I don’t coach people to scale and make millions so they can buy supercars and flashy watches. I coach people to be calm, happy, fit, balanced, and connected with friends and family.
Now, if you look up search trends on YouTube, you’ll find that a lot of people are looking for ways to be more productive…So the assumption is that they don’t feel like they are being productive enough currently.
This fascination with productivity seems a little insane and appears to be driven mostly by internet-famous people who appear to be super wealthy and flying around on private aircraft. This obsession with getting more done in a day also tends to be particularly American.
The term for this type of content is “hustle porn” and most people have seen it for what it is. Bullshit.
But watch any of Alex Hormozi’s (massively popular) videos and you’ll see that he is very productive and earns great amounts of money. He also works all day, every day, and rarely takes time off to do anything other than go t the gym and eat Jersey Mikes.
Look, I like money and I’d like to have a surplus, but in no way am I interested in sacrificing this one, short life for 12 hours days of sitting in front of a laptop taking Zoom calls and answering email.
I do not believe that makes a well-rounded human being. I don’t think being singularly focused on work prepares us to be good husbands, wives, parents, friends, or community members.
And finally, for all the entrepreneurs out there, this kind of “productivity” is clearly not tenable. If you haven’t experienced burnout from that kind of manic focus, you will soon.
You are not an industrial revolution robot sent here for the sole purpose of working to generate money. You are a well-rounded, flesh and blood human being with interest and hobbies and curiosities and love in your heart.
You are creative and emotional and you know deep down that living is about more than just the almighty dollar. You also know that having more than you need isn’t gonna solve your real problem because you’ve seen or read hundreds of accounts of millionaires and billionaires who are still miserable in spite of the size of their bank account.
So while Mr. Hormozi (who I actually enjoy quite a bit) eschews a morning routine of taking care of yourself, do you really want to live your life like him? Do you really want to sit in a dark room staring at a screen all day every day drinking coffee and nicotine? That sounds so miserable to me. And it actually makes me kind of sad for him.
If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, in that one second before I’m run over, will I regret how I’ve been spending my time here, or will I think “Thank God I laid in bed a little longer laughing with my wife this morning” (or walked my dog in the woods or sat in meditation, or spent some time working on my novel)”?
Working out, meditation, journaling, reading (all kinds of books), time with friends, working in the yard, serving people in my community. Not only do these things create a rich and full life, but they are also the things that make me good at my work. These things are not part of my job description but they are the sharpening of the axe that old Abe was talking about.
If you want to be great at what you do (not just rich), then rest is part of your job. Taking care of your body and mind is part of your job. Time off, oddly enough, is part of your job.
Just like an automobile, you can’t run forever without adding fuel, changing the oil, getting new tires, swapping out the brakes, etc.
Every single entrepreneur that I’ve ever worked with who starts to adopt some healthy daily practices in their lives report back that they are happier. They get just as much, if not more, work done, and they find/create a sense of balance and calm in their life.
Taking great care of yourself is not just a luxury. It’s not just the reward for doing a good job. It’s the part of your job that enables you to be good at your craft - and being able to do it for a long, long time.