5 Reasons Time Poor Women in Business MUST Prioritise Exercise

What is your greatest struggle when it comes to your health and fitness?

There were some interesting results from a recent Facebook group survey of focused business women when a member asked the above question.

The overwhelming sentiment from almost 600 comments attributed their struggle to some derivative of time and motivation that stops them from getting to the gym or exercising regularly.

I experience this reasoning on a day to day basis in my business. A client recently said to me “When I invest in my health and fitness, my career suffers. Sounds bad but it’s the truth!”

My thoughts?

If that is the truth you’re choosing – all I can say is, with love, you’re doing it wrong.

Firstly, health is a holistic value – it is the expression of your Physical, Mental, Emotional AND Spiritual Body. It’s not just about exercise, and it’s definitely not only about fitness.

Secondly, as an elite athlete since I was 14, I would tell the woman who wants to balance her success in every area of her life – fitness is the least important part of your health you should be concerned with.

However, if you want to create peak performance in your business AND have the prosperity to actually enjoy the trappings of all your efforts, movement is an essential piece of the equation that no amount of intellectual posturing can successfully deny.

Here are my top 4 reasons why you MUST invest time into your body if you TRULY want to succeed and flourish in your career.

1. Exercise allows you to shift your identity.

Just a typical morning in my house:

Before I get to class I’m running around getting lunches together, managing a certain level of fatigue and striving to do the best things for my families health. I’m also thinking about the training I need to create, the mentor video I need to watch and the sales conversation I need to perform later on this evening.

Right as I’m ready to walk out the door, I realise my 2 year old has left a huge stink bomb in his pants, just after I’ve given him a baby snack bar that he REALLY wants to eat. Whilst it’s filled with sugar and cereals and not the ideal thing to give him, I’m just happy he’s eating something with a bit of variety.

Then I’m arguing with him why he can’t eat a bar when I’m changing his nappy, and trying to explain the concept of patience and delayed gratification whilst he’s squirming, screaming and rolling around – making the whole exercise way longer and more painful than it had to be.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what I’m even going to do at the gym when I get there and I’m not motivated at all. I treat it as if it’s any other appointment I wouldn’t shirk for a client or provider. I set the bar low and leave the options open to just doing the warm up and some stretching. It turns out that I was able to do a modified workout (being 15 weeks pregnant with triplets) that at it’s core level, just gave me the opportunity to be present in my body.

As I sit there listening to the instructions I start to feel relief, a familiar feeling of the woman I was before children. The woman who got excited at the concept of being strong, of feeling in tune with her body, zoning out and losing herself in the role of Bianca: The Individual. A rare opportunity these days and a welcome distraction from the long list of things I think I “should” be doing, haven’t done yet, am not doing well and wondering how the hell am I ever going solve.

I’m lucky, my Coach is also one of my most trusted friends. I know I can be a total pain in his arse, actually sometimes it’s my goal. And to be real, sometimes he annoys the crap out of me – but ultimately we understand each other. His rule for me is no phone 5 minutes before or after the class which I respect;

Because how much is my time really worth if I can’t afford to spend any of it on myself?

That reinforcement of the belief “I am worth this time” is huge for empowering yourself throughout the rest of your daily tasks.

When you re-centre your identity from mother, business owner, professional household juggler and remember who you REALLY are: A spiritual being having a human experience – this is when you connect to the deeper truth of your identity.

Knowing the true nature of your existence not only gives you permission but also a much higher awareness on how to focus on the MOST important things in your business.

By respecting your time enough to allocate it for yourself and to nurture the physical vehicle you are living in (without which none of your roles are even possible)…

> You will focus on your own objectives more efficiently and rescue time from over delivering for others (who really don’t deserve it),

> You will re-establish boundaries and be more efficient at delegating (and stop being such a stressed-out-control-freak)

> Quit the round and round about dilemma of self sabotage that hides under the cloak of perfectionism and procrastination.

> You’ll stop moving the goal posts on a project because you’re constantly running a program of thinking “This is good, but not good enough”

Even if it’s just 20 minutes of movement, if you are a high performing woman in business (or you want to be) – you cannot afford NOT to give yourself this time.

If nothing else for the sake of your career rather than the suffering of it.

2. Being present in your body

Most women who struggle with prioritising a regular exercise routine get it wrong because they miss the most crucial point of why daily movement is important.

> It’s not to push yourself within an inch of total exhaustion,
> It’s not to burn off more calories than you consume
> It’s not to try to tone your jelly belly or tuck shop arms.

The number 1 reason to exercise is for you to feel what it’s like to actually BE in your body and PRESENT in your now.

Most smart, capable and driven women are constantly doing mental aerobatics all day long – to the point where many experience adrenal fatigue, find it difficult to switch off in the evening and often need to rely on wine to relax.

I get it, when you pride yourself on your intellectual capacity, why wouldn’t you spend a lot of time up there in your head?

But if your natural mode of operation is being disconnected from the neck down – completely unaware what’s truly going on in your body – you’re severely choking your productivity and your potential for much higher levels of clarity and performance.

Exercise allows you to actually feel what it’s like to let go of all the monkey mind chatter, and to release all those bottled up stress hormones that create anxiety and cause excess fat storage in your stomach and thighs.

Ultimately what you want from this investment of time is to create a much clearer connection between your head, heart and gut so that you’re actually receiving messages from your intuition that isn’t clouded by junk, inflammatory food, caffeine and alcohol.

On the other side of that brain fog are;

Income diversity Ideas
Expense and time saving concepts
Revolutionary career changing instincts

Can you afford NOT to tap into the brilliance of your clear mind?

3. Challenging fear based thoughts

I have often wondered why CrossFit has been such a phenomenon amongst the everyday person. It was only when I retired from competition that I realised, nowhere else in life do you get that team camaraderie and support from other adults cheering you on;

> Pushing you when you think you’ve got nothing left,
> Giving you a bright friendly hello on those days when you can barely muster a smile and most importantly,
> Constantly being put in a situation where you think “I can’t” and turning it in to “Fuck me, I can’t believe I just did that”.

There’s nothing better than proving something is possible, that you once thought was impossible.

To be honest, I think I’ve been addicted to that high all my life.

Sometimes yes, to my detriment – the survival mode of the Aussie Battler who’s constantly got their back up against the wall proving their worth to the Nay Sayers again and again – it is certainly a recipe for a long list of accolades and Achievements. Admittedly, it is not always conducive to inner peace, joy and happiness from enjoying balance in life.

However, when you give yourself the opportunity to give voice to those subconscious stories that are looping around in your mind;

“My body can’t do that – it’s broken”
“I wish I could do that – but that would definitely hurt me if I tried”
“I don’t have time for exercise”
“I’m too weak for that”
“I’m just old and past it”
“It’s not going to work for me, so why am I bothering to even try?”
“Everyone else’s needs are more important than me”
“My career would suffer if I gave myself time to exercise”

… you reclaim your power back from your shadow self.

Applying yourself to an exercise session daily gives you the opportunity to identify the negative radio station that is going on in the background, influencing your performance in your work and robbing you off your efficency, productivity and overall enjoyment of life.

You can choose a truth that empowers you, or you can choose a truth that steals from you – but ultimately it is a choice that only YOU can make.

A high performing woman in business who truly knows her worth recognises that in order to realise your potential, be more resillient to stress and access true prosperity in every area of your life – regular movement is key to your success – not a barrier to it.

4. An opportunity to feel Bliss

It doesn’t always happen, sometimes a workout feels like I’m just going through the motions with my constant bitch face on, but other times, when I really get to throw off the shackles of all the shoulds, and the gunna’s and the need to’s – and just connect into the joy of being present in my body – that’s a pure instant of unadulterated joy.

It might only be in the first 15 seconds of realising, this time is for ME! And yes, it might quickly dissipate into a mess of heavy breathing, straining muscles and thinking “This is BULLSHIT!” but there is something raw about that moment that doesn’t need an external stimulant or depressant from food or alcohol to achieve.

I find at the end of a workout there is a certain satisfaction that comes from quietening the monkey mind and exhausting ones physical and mental bodies.I believe this is an innate identity carried from our Hunter Gatherer days where our bodies were not corrupted by processed foods, high stress careers and addictions to sugar, caffeine and alcohol.

It’s rare that a high performer in business will give herself permission to feel joy, this is why pleasure from external sources such as food and alcohol can be so addictive.

Ironically it’s also one of the qualities that makes us so successful – we constantly strive for better and for more and are always thinking about how we can improve.

Robbing yourself of the oppportunity to release endorphins and feel joy and passion in your body is the only real factor that makes your career suffer.

The key is to find something you enjoy, without putting any stipulations on what the outcome must be for it to be “worth it”, and instead just focus on being IN your body so that regular movement becomes a non-negotiable part of your week. From there you can progress in intensity and duration, but consistency first above all else is more important than anything else.

5. Solves Aches and Pains