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.

A conversation with a dear friend reminded me that April is Stress Awareness Month. Initially, I chuckled at the thought. Small business owners seldom need a reminder of the ongoing stress associated with business. As my internal laughter subsided, the magnitude of a month designated to make us aware of the degree of stress we experience—and steps to reduce it—isn’t all bad.

Stress: A Small Business Owner’s Constant Companion

Technology, intended to make our lives easier, is overwhelming. Cash flow, or the lack of, influences performance. Workload, even during times of positive growth, can be crushing.

It goes with the territory.

Stress is a chemical reaction that occurs when we feel threatened. It’s the “fight or flight” imbedded in our DNA that served our ancestors well in more challenging times.

A little stress is good. It serves as a catalyst for tackling projects and meeting timelines. But, too much…and we’re caught in a vicious cycle of diminishing returns.

Stress symptoms are as varied as the causes. They range from subtle to striking. Stress shows up as agitation, moodiness, overwhelm, avoidance, and procrastination. Or, it can be more pronounced as fatigue, headache, forgetfulness, insomnia, and heart palpitations.

What’s really frightening is that stress at work could take up to 33 years of your life.

No matter the manifestation, it’s important to raise awareness to recognize the expressions of stress common to you.

Stress Reduction: An Inside Job

Frankly, I wish I could purchase “stress reduction” with Amazon Prime or outsource it using Upwork. However, reducing stress—its causes and symptoms—is really an internal operation.

Although Google is flush with stress reduction techniques, small business owners remain frazzled. We’ve yet to challenge the core solution to stress. And, until we do so, other stress management techniques are like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound.

To achieve sustainable stress reduction:

1. Practice mindfulness.
   Mindfulness is a moment-to-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. It’s paying attention on purpose, suspending all judgment of good or bad, right or wrong. It’s objective, neutral thinking that eliminates the emotional reactions that contribute to stress.
2. Create a reserve.
   Supplement whatever triggers stress with more than is necessary. For instance, if cash flow is producing tension, design (and achieve) a plan to generate more cash than is needed. When you have more to accomplish than time in a day, a strategy that results in more time than to-dos eases the release of stress hormones into your blood stream.

Yes, it is true—we’ve met the enemy and it is us.

Isn’t it time to stop letting stress dictate your business strategy? Take back control, kick stress to the curb and redirect your energy into accelerating your business growth.

Open your mind and experience the “ah” of sustainable stress reduction with a strategic coaching demo.

Have you ever experienced that “ah-ha” moment that made you realize that your life really HAD changed?

As a strategic coach, I’ll be the first to admit that years ago, my life was horribly out of balance.  It was one dimensional.  It consisted primarily of my business.  I worked – ate – and slept my occupation.  A medical diagnosis was the catalyst I needed to make some long-overdue changes.

I won’t tell you that the inner work required was easy.  I had to take myself kicking and screaming to the depths of change that would have the greatest impact on how I was going to live my life.

The journey, at times, has seemed horribly slow with seemingly few signs of actual change – until that fortunate morning when I realized that the indicator of my accomplishing an improved work/life balance was humorously reflected in my shoe wardrobe.

Imelda Marcos I am not. However, I have noticed that my shoe apparel seems to reflect how far I’ve come in my travels.  Years ago, I essentially owned one type of shoe – the 2″ pump.  Curiously, my foot garb has expanded to reflect my many developing interests in my pursuit for balance.

It now consists of walking sneakers, cushy running shoes, red rubber yard clogs, sleek biking shoes, dusty hiking boots, comfy house slippers, professional loafers, casual clogs, and, oh yes, the 2″ pump. In addition to owning such a variety of footwear – they’re actually getting used!

So, there you have it.  My declaration is complete.

How do you define balance for yourself? What indicators do you use to measure how you’re doing with equilibrium in your life?  Is it time to evaluate your footwear? Don’t let a crisis be the vehicle that takes you shoe shopping!