As an internet entrepreneur you never have enough time complete all the things you have on your list get done. Often working out is not high up on that list, but I’m going to encourage you to put it up there at the top… Membership fees cost around $20-50 a month and I promise you you’ll get a great return on your investment of cash and time. Have more energy, feel better, be happy, sleep better, be more successful… yes, I’m going to stretch this one all the way out and say a gym membership will in the long run make you more successful.

You Are Your Startup. A Sick You is a Dead Startup

In the early days of getting your idea off the ground you are the one man army that gets the ship all ready for launch… and then after the launch you’ll be juggling even more things under even more stress. Getting sick enough to knock you out of commission means your startup will be out of commission too. If you left your web server exposed to the dangerous viruses and bots of the internet, it would eventually get infected and shut down… killing your site. You run the same risk with not keeping your own physical body healthy.

TIP - Don’t think of your gym membership as just a place to exercise.  Use it as a core part of your lifestyle to stay healthy, fit and energized.  Take a daily multivitamin. Exercise and eat well.

Commit and Be Disciplined

If you’re going to make it as an internet entrepreneur, you’re going to need to be very dedicated and disciplined. You are in the captains chair of your startup and it will fail to launch or rocket upwards based on your passion, efforts and commitment. There are any number of distractions that will pop up along the way and while you need to be flexible and responsive, you also need to maintain order and balance in your life. Can you do without this in order to achieve that? Can you still get there if you start from here? Seth Godin’s book The Dip is a great resource for explaining how you might need to give certain things up in order to be successful in what things are most important to you.  Your health is paramount to your survival and that of your startup.

Make sure you get to the gym regularly and that your diet is supporting your efforts in the gym. The reward will be well worth it.

TIP- The best way to be disciplined is prioritize all the things you have in your life and build some structure around the most important things that need to get done. Be conscious of your actions and commit to your goals. Committing to certain goals often means giving up on others. The old adage of quitters never win is stupid. Lance Armstrong quit a lot of other things in order to be the great cyclist that he is today. Be disciplined and make sure you stay focused on your major priorities, exercising included.

Remember to Eat or Your Body Will Eat You

Your body is a little like a zombie when it thinks it’s starving. Muscles require more calories than fat and if you forget to eat and your body thinks it might be starving… it starts eating your muscles first for energy. One of the most common things that hard working entrepreneurs forget to do is feed themselves, which usually leads to picking something up that is quick and usually not so healthy.  Make it easy on yourself.  Have some healthy snack food around that allows you to eat something when you’re in a rush without comprising your diet… yogurt and granola is one good option.

TIP -Drop by a GNC or sports supplement store and pick up some protein drinks… not the 60 grams of protein build muscles like a horse stuff, just the ready to drink meal replacements. Some taste great and aren’t that expensive.

Sleep Better & Have More Energy

Let me first say that I live by the mantra that I’ll sleep when I’m dead… but with that being said, your body does require a basic amount of sleep to function well and strenuous physical exercise during the day will help you rest better at night.  Like most entrepreneurs my brain doesn’t have a very easy to access off button.  I often take several thoughts with me to bed and can end up spending some nights tossing and turning without getting the rest I need.

TIP - Don’t work from your laptop in bed.  Make your sleeping space only where you sleep.  If you often work from bed your brain begins to associate your bed with being alert and working.  Train it to deactivate when you’re in your sleepy space by keeping your work on your desk.

Get Happy and Get High on Life

Being an internet astronaut can be very stressful. The constant fight to keep your idea alive and the financial risk can wear heavily on your mood and attitude. One way to get your spirits back up is to get high on life… And do it without any drugs. Your body releases endorphins during strenuous exercise.

“Endorphins are neurotransmitters produced in the brain that reduce pain… They have also been known to induce euphoria.” says Alan Hirsch, MD, neurological director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago.

TIP - Researchers say that the better physically fit a person is, the more receptive they are to endorphins. Also, as your exercise intensity and duration increase, the greater the concentration of endorphins released will be… so keep hitting the gym and hit it hard.

Get Structure With a Regular Schedule

In the chaos that is getting your idea launched the rapid fire schedule that comes along with it, needs a little balance every now and then. I understand that sometimes things pop up and you have to be able to adjust your schedule, but making a regular time every day to hit the gym is a good way to give a little structure to your day. By using the gym as an anchor point in your schedule you can build out structure for the rest of the day and your evening.

TIP - You get more of a benefit from working out earlier in the day. You can use an early workout to give your brain a rest before the onslaught of the day begins. The drive to and from can also give you a little bit of time to think about the things you need to get done in the day.

Fight Isolation and Get Human Contact

When you spend all your time hunkered down behind a keyboard you can begin to feel isolated. Maintaining some connection with the outside world is good for your mental state as well as for your perspective of what’s going on. It’s pretty hard to build a tool or service for other people if you haven’t seen one in several weeks. The gym can be a nice way to get some exposure with other people without being overly social and distracting. If you find a partner to work out with, you can have some chit-chat between exercises or during breaks or you can meet new friends after classes or workouts.

TIP- The gym is not a bar. Your primary reason for being there is the workout.  Make friends and have some short conversations, but spending the whole time you’re there will result in a poor workout for you and annoyance for those around you trying to get theirs.

Eat a Better Diet & Eat More

When you’ve spent several hours in the last weak sweating and literally busting your ass to burn off some extra calories it helps to put the 500 calories in the ice-cream cone you’re about to consume into perspective. After a few weeks in the gym your muscles will feel tighter and the mild soreness from the previous days exercise are very useful reminders of what’s more important. A short sugar fix or the long term health of your body? Getting control of your diet is more than half the battle in getting healthy and fit. That isn’t to say you need to eat like a monk. Take a free day to eat whatever you want and rain in the junk food for the rest of the week.

Also, as you put on more muscle mass your body will naturally need more calories during the day. So you don’t need to starve yourself to be healthy. If you eat decent sized meals several times a day and you can feel satiated without gorging yourself.

TIP- Learn to enjoy black coffee. You can shave off a few hundred calories a day by drinking it black instead of with the creme and sugar. Learn to love plain yogurt. I’m lucky to have grown up in a Persian household where plain yogurt is a normal part of the diet, but it is a healthy snack with good protein and live cultures to help your body… throw on some granola and raisins for a good and tasty treat.

Time to Unplug from the Matrix

I’m all about throwing yourself into your work and passionately working long days and nights… but you also need to unplug sometimes and give your brain a chance to rest and get exposure to the real world you live in. The gym is a great place to give your mental wheels a break as you focus on your workout and not all the hundreds of details bouncing around upstairs.  You can also take a run outside or a hike on a trail to get some peaceful exercise in.

TIP - To make the most of a workout, you should be making a mind body connection… meaning, you’re focused on what you’re actually doing and on what muscles are working. Focus on your movements and the muscles that are working for better results. Put the details of your work out of your head and enjoy the meditation of focusing on yourself for an hour or so.

Designers Would Be Out of Work if Looks Didn’t Matter

Let’s be honest, looks matter. I’m not talking about the superficiality of current fads or facades. I’m talking about the appearance of a healthy person vs. an unhealthy person. Again, in the early days of your startup you are your startup. Investors put money in at the angel phase more so for the person than the idea… and a healthy person is a much more appealing investment. Even the best ideas can get passed over if they’re presented poorly. So let me be clear again since this can be a touchy subject. You don’t need six pack abs to be a successful entrepreneur, but if it looks like you can barely take care of yourself it is harder to convince people you can take care of your startup.

TIP- Potential job hunters spend huge amounts of time building the perfect resume. In a lot of respects, for the internet entrepreneur, your resume is you. You’ll be pitching investors, enlisting the help of partners and evangelizing your idea. Take pride in the skin you’re in and take care of it. Instead of a fake tan or another layer of make-up… try some natural color and some confidence.

 

There should probably be some sort of disclaimer here that says you should consult your doctor before engaging in strenuous activities and that I’m not a medical professional and my advice should not be taken as such.

P.S. How many people yawned when they saw the photo for the Sleep Better & Have More Energy section? For fun you should go browse stock art tagged “yawn” and see if you can hold out.