Strong Body, Strong Mind

I know you thought this was all about entrepreneurship, SaaS, and building a business.

And it is. But these things are all tied together with the rest of our lives.

What we do at work is directly linked to what we do away from work. One feeds the other. And I’ve found that when they’re out of balance, it throws things off for all aspects of my life.

From my youth and into adult life, I’ve always been a pretty athletic person.

I’ve run marathons, trail ultramarathons (50k), did a full Ironman triathlon, and have been on competitive teams in high school. But like many of us, when I started the business, my fitness and wellness took a backseat to getting the business off the ground.

And I don’t think that kind of short-term sacrifice is necessarily wrong.

When we were just starting, everything was so hard. Getting our first customers (and keeping them) was an eternal struggle. Then it’s on to growing the team, figuring out how to be a manager, navigating finances and funding, the list is literally endless….even now.

In a lot of respects, I just feel like now 5.5 years in Castos is becoming a really great company. Amazing how long it takes even with all the focus and effort we’ve all put into it.

But somewhere along the way, I think you have to get into a place where you can balance the rest of your life and your business.

And while things like connection family, spirituality, and friends are all important, maybe the single most important is your health.

Nobody’s gonna grow the business if you’re pushing up daisies.

Ok, that’s a big dramatic, or is it?

We’ve all known of people in our entrepreneurial worlds who have burnt out, quit before they could achieve a level of success, or even worse. And that’s my biggest nightmare.

Bigger than running out of money and not being able to make payroll. I’m scared of not being here for my family and not growing old well with my wife.

Wellness is one of these areas of life where there is no single right answer.

As I mentioned, I’ve done a bit of everything. I’m all over the place: golf, running, swimming, triathlon, weight lifting, crew, etc.

And they all have their strong suits when it comes to providing balance to my life outside of work.

But recently, I’ve really found the most direct personal reward from heavy weightlifting.

Imagine me looking like The Rock!

No, seriously. Here’s what I do and why I like it.

A few months ago, I stumbled across a weightlifting program called Strong 5×5. What the heck is “Strong 5×5,” you may ask. Here is the definitive article on it (and a very interesting piece of content marketing I’d love to examine closely at another time): Get Stronger By Lifting 3x/week

Without going into too much detail, what I like about it is:

• It’s simple. 5 exercises in total
• It’s quick: I’m in and out of the gym in an hour
• I see results, quickly: every workout you add weight load on each of the exercises
• It’s functional: the exercises you do simulate real life

But like I said, there are a million different ways you can exercise and stay in shape.

I’ve also done a fair bit of CrossFit and really like it for some aspects of fitness and connectedness.

The thing I’ve found lately is that exercising (and, for me lifting heavy weights) provides a kind of mental strength when I am at work.

If I lift in the morning, which is the only way to go, and I’ve actually pushed scheduled calendar events back to accommodate it, I come to work amped up, feeling great about myself, and feel able to tackle almost anything that work throws at me.

In the last 90 days or so that I’ve been seriously sticking to this routine, I can’t count a single work day where I exercised in the morning and had a bad day at work. And some real steamers have been thrown my way in the last few months.

But going to the gym, lifting heavy, and being strong as a result, make me strong all throughout the day.

This even carries over into after-work time when I’m with my family. I have more energy to do stuff with my wife and kids, I make better nutrition decisions, and I’m generally happier with life.

Not to gush too much because I think a lot of this advice can come off as disingenuous, but it really has been a game changer.

Of course, I’m not perfect, and I’ve missed times here and there. But I have seen a strong correlation between lifting heavy and how I feel at work and home.

Curious to hear how other founders incoroprate fitness and wellness into their lives while they’re busy building their companies. Drop in a comment below and let’s all learn together.