When it comes to health and fitness, If I’m honest, at one stage I had got a little over the top.
I was getting to that point where I was doing my own head-in.
Twelve months ago, if I missed one gym session, it had a really negative effect on my mindset. I've always been health and fitness conscious out of interest more than anything, but I took it a bit far
I finally hit a stage where I said to myself ‘This is just stupid now. I’m not a competitive athlete. I've got two kids and run a business. Why am I persecuting myself in my spare time?’.
So I realised I needed to adjust and that’s where the 80-20 method came in.
My week is now based around 80% of the time having a good—diet, training, and taking care of my health. If I can hit that, the 20% doesn’t matter. I've really tried to follow that rule, especially in the past six months. If you're too strict, when you inevitably break your rules, you make yourself feel worse.
It's all a mindset thing.
Fitting Healthy Habits into Everyday Life
As a busy CEO, fitting healthy habits into everyday life can be challenging. But it's doable.
As well as adopting the 80-20 method, I tried to be intentional about what I eat, training, and getting out of the monotony and always asking the question ‘Why am I doing it?’
There’s an element of it being controllable. When you have kids and run a business, there are a lot of things you can influence, but many you can't. Diet, fitness, and training are controllable. Breaking that routine feels like breaking a promise to yourself, and then you persecute yourself for missing a session.
In reality, over the past year, I’ve developed a good routine. I go to the gym at lunch. I’m grateful for that capability, having the gym so close. Many people don’t feel like they have time or can’t work it into their schedule. But having that routine and discipline is hugely beneficial. It’s built-in and always will be for me.
How do you encourage health and wellbeing in the office?
Flexibility. That’s the difference.
It's about offering opportunities without always pushing them.
There are so many benefits to exercising, but you can’t force your team. All you can do is provide the opportunity for them and make it easy. Some people who’ve joined the business can’t believe the flexibility and lack of judgment when it comes to exercising during the workday. But that’s how it should be.