As entrepreneurs lucky enough to find the time, we measure stuff in our business.
We measure website visits, conversion rates, open rates, profit and loss…and for those fortunate few who have cracked the code, we measure lifetime customer value. All of these metrics help to create a healthier, more productive business.
There is one critical key performance indicator, or KPI, that’s often overlooked. It’s the KPI that influences performance, focus, concentration, and level of stress.
It’s the health and well being KPI.
A Check Up From the Neck Up
I consider myself to be relatively healthy. I make nutritious food choices – 75% of the time. I keep active to counteract hours of sitting – 60% of the time. Even so, my health, and accompanying energy, could benefit from a tune-up.
As every entrepreneur knows, there is a compounding impact that accompanies a less-than-optimal state of well-being. A waning state of healthiness contributes to an inability to concentrate, poor decision making, and it places a massive amount of stress and strain on all systems.
It makes running a business more challenging.
You Can’t Grow What You Don’t Know
You understand the elements that effect your business metrics. In general, you do XYZ and your KPI reflects the attention it receives. As a result, the business grows.
It’s the same with health and well-being. For sustainable energy, clear thinking, laser-like focus, resilience, and undying optimism to be the norm in our business, we need to recognize the influencers of health and well-being.
Healthy Entrepreneurs Create Healthy Businesses
Search Google for “health and well-being for entrepreneurs” and you’ll get 28,500,000 results in .77 seconds. Egad! (I don’t know about you, but my stress level just went up.)
How does health and well-being affect performance? Here are a few of the staggering numbers generated by recent studies:
- Unhealthy eating reduces productivity by 66%
- Infrequent exercise diminishes productivity by 50%
- Smoking increases the risk of losing productivity by 28%
- Insufficient sleep hinders the ability to perform tasks
Yikes! In the time it takes to woof down a sugary doughnut, imagine the health of your business stemming from a healthier you.
Start Your Engines
Starting is the hardest part. The body abhors change and fights to keep its old habits.
As you start your day with a nutrition-laden smoothie, be aware your body might want to take a Dunkin’ Donuts detour on your way to a client meeting.
Accountability – and tracking your health and well-being KPI – makes it easier to get started and keep going.
There’s an App for That
Of course there is!
Optimism Health Apps, a mood-charting app, tracks elements that influence your health and well-being. From sleep to diet to stress, Optimism App helps you focus on “stay well strategies” while avoiding the “triggers” of unproductivity and stress. And it works…
In less than 5 minutes a day, the behaviors that are harmful to you will be replaced with choices that change the course of your health and well-being, and that of your business.
When you know it, you can grow it.
Healthy entrepreneur = healthy business.
