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Guest post by: Michael Hume Become an Author

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Health Habits: Apply Your Entrepreneurial Initiative To Yourself Being an entrepreneur is demanding. Many of my clients are entrepreneurs, and they're characterized by a willingness (some might say a compulsion) to work much harder than the average person. Whether you own a business, or you're the type of entrepreneur who's simply on a driven mission in your existing job, you probably push yourself pretty hard. In some cases, that admirable work ethic can be pushed too far.

I've known more than one entrepreneur who pushed himself to the point of breakdown. After months of sleep deprivation, let alone other sorts of physical deprivation, the brain simply goes on strike. If you, like many entrepreneurs, live your daily life as though you see yourself as a "brain on a stick" - without regard for the needs of your body - you're in danger of such a breakdown.

But it's worse than that. If you are in business for yourself, the brain-on-a-stick mindset is slowly draining your shop's bottom line, no less than would leaky plumbing or inefficient electrical wiring. Your business depends on your personal vitality as much as it does on water, electricity, or any other "utility." And as your vitality decays over time, so does your self-perception and your estimation of how well you're doing.

Let's face it, you have to get a lot of stuff right to run a successful business. You have dozens of decisions to make, every day, and while your business might be robust enough to withstand a couple of boo-boos, you know how tough the business environment is today - you have to get almost all of it right. You certainly have to get all the big stuff right. And when you're not at your best (and who's at their best when they haven't slept or nourished themselves?), you might think you're getting it right, but you're probably goofing up. In a time when one mistake can cost you your enterprise, you have to face the fact that your own personal vitality is a critical business asset.

Take an hour off and go get a check-up. Get the doc to draw blood and test it. Be straight and thorough with the doc, too - tell her everything she needs to know about your current health. Are you drinking more than you used to, or should? Are you leaning quite a bit on energy drinks and pep supplements? Are you struggling to find the energy to keep up your necessary pace? Are you getting heartburn or constipation on a regular basis, where before you didn't? Are you emotionally stressed-out? Being honest about this stuff is the first step toward restoring your vitality.

Next, view your personal vitality as a project against which you can apply your considerable entrepreneurial talent and initiative. Think of your own personal energy as a new product line you're going to launch, and go about it with the same drive and enthusiasm you'd apply to any other business initiative.

Start with the five key daily health habits I call "The NEWSS:" Nutrition (start by cutting the garbage out of your diet and going with fresh, real food), Exercise (yes, you have to get to the gym at least three times a week, and six is better... think of it as the marketing meetings you'd have to have to launch your new product), Water (this one's easy - just make sure you get two liters every day), Sleep (get eight hours every night, whatever it takes), and Supplements (energy drinks vary; some are natural and fine, but make sure you're getting at least one good daily multi-nutrient supplement).

Don't let an energy crisis - yours - take your business down. You can get back to those electric days when you were just breaking into the black; start by making sure your own health habits keep you fully juiced. Your business, and that other important thing called your life, depend on it.

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