Fit for business

Date: 4th December 2014

Sometimes the best way to improve a business is to improve something else altogether.

By that I mean that succeeding in business doesn’t just depend on the fitness of your business. Your own fitness can be just as important.

The magic to improving your business could be to understand when you need to stop working on your business, and start working on yourself.

JFK believed that “physical fitness is the basis of all the activities of our society”. He was trying to improve the performance of a whole country – and he was pretty clear on the need to improve something else first if he was going to achieve that goal! As he said; “If we fail to encourage physical development and prowess, we will undermine our capacity for thought, for work and for the use of those skills vital to an expanding and complex America.”

Surely the same must be true for an expanding and complex business environment?

In the decades since JFK’s pronouncement study after study has shown exactly that. Physical exercise doesn’t just improve your health – it improves your performance at work too. By a significant margin.

And that must be right. The same circulatory system is responsible for transporting oxygen to both the muscles and the brain. That makes the body and mind inseparable. Studies support that view, evidencing that direct and powerful cognitive benefits flow from regular exercise. Memory and concentration improves, creativity and mental stamina increases, and stress levels lower.

The key is to see personal exercise as an important element of your business – whatever the nature of your business. To acknowledge that working on your own fitness is a valid way to work on your business. Taking the time to walk through the park, enjoy a class at the gym or jump on your bike is not time wasting. It is valuable work time. We need to redefine the meaning of work and start seeing physical movement during the working day as a valid contribution to our work. How many times have you struggled to solve a problem at work for the answer to pop in to your head when walking to the shops, or mowing the lawn?

The first step is to accept the positive connection between the two. By accepting the relationship between exercise and increased work performance it becomes easier to see exercise as part of your work. It’s not skiving off, or ducking your responsibilities. It’s quite the opposite. Ask yourself this – will it assist your business if you are more stressed and forget things quicker? Does it improve your business performance if you lack creativity and struggle to concentrate on the business task? Unless it does, you can be sure that time spent working on your fitness is time spent working on your business.

Having accepted the connection it should become easier to find time for exercise. Saying you don’t have enough time isn’t an absolute truth. We all have the same amount of time in the day. The issue is really one of priority. Lacking time to work on fitness is actually just a case of lacking a desire to prioritise fitness. In a busy working day that may seem to make sense, but only if you fail to see the connection between fitness and improved work performance. If fitness is part of work it should be prioritised just like your tax return and meeting payroll.

The second step is find a physical activity that appeals. Don’t follow the trends – follow your interests. To get started just choose something you enjoy. Hate running? Don’t fight it. Try something else. Maybe you like to swim? Or stroll along the waterfront or learn yoga? If it’s fun you’re more likely to stick with it.

The third and final step is to build your new work activity (fitness) in to your business network. Find another business person and do something active together. You’re more likely to turn up if someone else is depending on you and it will provide a new way to develop your business connections. ‘Fit for business’ could become the new slogan driving forward local businesses.

JFK’s ideas helped build the most powerful nation on earth. There were a lot of reasons for that success but understanding the relationship between physical activity and work activity was a very important one. We all need to remember that connection when trying to build business performance. Sometimes the magic to succeeding in business is found outside the business environment. With a little extra work in the natural environment we should all be able to find that extra spark to drive forward our businesses – and drive forward our health at the same time!

Cameron Lawes, Barrister & Business Owner, Resolution Chambers

(This article first appeared in Admire Magazine on 29 November 2014)

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