Building your business, you're super busy and stressed, this could actually lead to feeling less productive, energized and even less balanced in your life. Hi, I'm Dr Travis Parry. I'm the host of the balanced growth show, and today we're going to be talking about the secret to nailing your health goals, which will give you more vitality and energy and productivity at work. So it's a not so secret, secret. I like to talk about your health as your wealth, because if you invest in your health, it will bring you dividends. It will bring you dividends at work. It'll bring you dividends in your relationships. It will bring you dividends in just facilitating a longer, healthier life. So let's talk about this.

One of the things that I find that most business owners struggle with is actually just making time for anything that's healthy. Okay? Why? Because, like, business is so stressful. You got to do it. You've got to run and do this and that and the other. So when do you actually make the time to work on the health to be physically fit and strong and athletic?

Well, here is a secret that I want to build out, and I want to explain it in a way that allow you to continue to use this year after year and improve wherever you're at. I want you to think about being a teenage kid. All right. What did you enjoy doing for me? I love to play soccer. I love to hike and mountain bike, snowboard, surf, like the list goes on. I was very active. I lettered in three varsity sports. It was a great fun time. Now, obviously I can't just go to a volleyball team practice every night or go to soccer pickup every Tuesday afternoon when I want so I've chosen to find something that I still enjoy, I love. It's a passion of mine that will keep me healthy, and that is mountain biking.

I talk a lot about mountain biking. You see posts of me on LinkedIn all over the place, and so much that you probably sick of seeing me in a helmet and sunglasses or whatever. But the reality is, I don't look at that as, Oh man, I have to go ride my mountain bike today. Woe is me. It's so difficult. It's so hard. No, I find actually, a lot of men who look at other guys like, man, he's ripped, he's jacked, he's fit whatever. And they tend to go and try to replicate what they see at the gym.

And they see the gym is, Oh, I hate going to the gym and blah, blah, blah. It's horrible. And I'm not saying, you know, don't go to the gym like so go to the gym, but if that is your only thing and it's keeping you from doing something fun that you enjoy, you're doing it wrong. The secret is find something, a sport, a hobby, something maybe you used to do, or something that you may have interest in doing, that you want to learn more about. For example, my son really enjoys rock climbing all of a sudden.

So you know, we're, we're getting him, you know, birthday related gifts and things associated with rock climbing. I'll go rock climbing with him in the indoor facility or whatever, and he'll take his friends. But it's, it's something that's developed and a hobby that he enjoys now. He's like, I actually really love this. I'm really good at it, and it's exciting. Find something for you that maybe you've you haven't tried. If you're like, I don't know nothing, nothing's hitting the mark for me, maybe try something else. Get a coach to teach you how to swim better. I know a lot of guys are, you know, going away from obviously, the team related sports doesn't mean you can't do pickup.

And I saw a bunch of guys playing basketball the other day, like this total pickup game. I love it as at the park, it's, it's, it's a it's what I used to do when I was a kid, like, let's, let's, let's do it. Play some ball. But a lot of the time we don't have the, you know, everybody's availability. Just pull them together for a team sport. So a lot of individual sports are on the rise to top three running, get a pair of shoes. You know, get some shorts and a shirt if you want. Like, shirts are optional when you're running, not making just the other just yesterday. And you know, most people run just guys, like, shirts are optional. So, you know, you just need shorts and shoes. But you know, there's also biking, and you don't have to be a world class, you know, cyclist, to get a basic bike and a helmet and go biking, even just for fun and swimming those, those are some of the top three.

Why? Because you can do those three solo with, you know, independent. Definitely without much of you know, trying to pull other people's schedules together. So don't let the schedule hold you back. Find time that works for you in a sport that works now, once you figured out what that sport is, again, for me, it's mountain biking.

So I put on my schedule each week where I'm going to ride. I look forward to it. I look up, I pull out my Strava app on my phone, and I'm like, hey, where am I going to ride? Today, tomorrow, Friday? And I start to plan that out. I look at the course and what I want to do to get there, and what I will need to do, what I'll have to bring with me, and it's just an exciting thing, okay? And what I'll do then is the off days, I'll probably ride three days a week or so. On the off days, I'll work out in my home gym, and I'll do exercises that will support that sport. Now, again, I was just saying, Hey, man, if you hate the gym, like, don't beat yourself up on going to the gym as the exercise. Now, if you are a weight lifter, you are a body builder. That's different. Like, you're going to go to competitions where you're going to lift weights, or you're going to flex your muscles and you're going to show off how amazing your physique is. That That's right, okay, so if that's your thing, then that is your sport. I love it.

Something that's really been a game changer in the weightlifting is CrossFit. CrossFit has just taken off, right? It has been one of the greatest, I think, revolutions in fitness and things. But people going to these gyms where they're doing like, real kind of world scenarios that that you know that may happen, instead of just pounding weights and stuff that you know, they're lifting other things, they're carrying buckets and the Spartan relays have have shown up because of that. All right, so before I get off too much on a tangent, those people who enjoy that type of workout that's fun, just like your business is fun. Find something that is fun to do because you're tricking the psych, you know, the psyche.

Here you're trying to help the subconscious be like, Hey, don't drudge the workout. Find something that you really enjoy. Then go to the gym, and on the off days where maybe I'm not mountain biking, I'm going to be working out muscles that are directly related to my mountain biking. So several years ago, I started doing this a little bit more intensely, and I was like, okay, hold on. What? What actual exercises will allow me to have better stamina, more, you know, quick reflexes on the bike and things. And it's like, whoa. Jump squats. Jump split lunges. Are some of these exercises, and there's a whole bunch of others, where you kind of go back and forth and you jump. Because I'm jumping a lot on my pedals when I'm heading downhill, I I'm jumping, and I'm gonna like, I'm, I'm, I'm gonna split, I'm gonna lunge almost sometimes and oftentimes, I'm, you know, kind of in a squat position, even just with my my feet position just slightly differently, right? So those actually help a lot.

What is it for you if you're a swimmer? Well, maybe you need to strengthen the lower, you know, the lower body legs with various types of exercises. Maybe the typical squats, maybe the leg press. I don't know. I'm not a physical trainer. That's not my specialty, but look it up. There are people out there that will help you, hire somebody, hire a coach, to say, hey, I want to take my sport to the next level. And that's really the next thing is, once you begin to find something that's fun, compete, compete at a level that is, you know, not going to kill you. So this last weekend, I just entered into a,
you know, an amateur, non, you know, basic beginner bike competition. Now, the crazy thing is, four years ago, I did the same thing, but I was not in shape. I wasn't eating right, I wasn't exercising at the altitude, like 8000 foot difference, and I even posted this on social media like I felt like I was gonna die. I was probably hypo, you know, chondriac.

At that point. I was anxious and nervous and freaked out, and I had a moment where my heart rate was way higher, and I was thinking, because of my dad who died on a mountain bike ride, that, Oh my gosh, I'm gonna put myself into cardiac arrest. What am I doing, right? And so I kind of freaked out. I wasn't gonna finish but I ended up coming to my senses. I finished my lap, and then I did another lap, and I finished the race. There were two guys behind me that didn't qualify, they didn't finish, and I've finished like the last guy who finished, but I finished, but I left with a really bad. A taste in my mouth. And so four years later, just this last weekend, I, you know, have upped my game. I got better weight training. I've done better nutrition and supplements and preparation, gear, bike, all, everything, and I won my heat for my division, my age group.

You know, there weren't hundreds of bikers, there were a handful, okay, but I won. And the reason that I want to share this with you is that progress over time is so much more important than you having this experience of all of a sudden, just showing up to the gym, having drudgery and and really feeling like this is not going to be something that's going to work for you in your life, because you don't have the time and energy and everything else when that's the point when you go out and you work out whatever sport that's good for you, whatever thing that You enjoy doing that will actually enable you to have energy, to have the vitality. If I'm at the point now that if I don't go and ride my mountain bike, that if I don't have something to look forward to, that my physical health goals don't get reached, I don't feel energized, and especially on days where it's been a tough day, hard day made a depressing day, when I go and ride my bike, I'm able to get a lot of that energy out and come back refreshed, rejuvenated.

So to recap, you want to hit your health goals. You want to be fit, you want to be strong. You want to do all the things find right now, just the very first step of sport that you enjoy, find the enjoyment in it, and then work to, you know, go to the gym and work on the areas that maybe need some improvement, compete, possibly at the next level, build your nutrition around what you're doing. You're going to sleep better and everything else, and the results will pay off over time. Your health is your wealth, the dividends will continue to pile up over the years. I consider myself to be in the best physical shape that I've ever been in my life, 45 and I feel amazing, and that's the most important part.

How are you going to feel? You're going to be energized. You're going to have the balance that you want back in your life. You're going to sleep better, you're going to be happier. Everybody's going to feel this difference in at work, at home, wherever you're at. So give it a try. Jump on the bandwagon with me and achieve your health goals today by having fun at the sport that you love. Until next time, remember to live life on purpose together with your spouse. And if you haven't picked up my book, marry and Grow Rich that you can read with your spouse, please do it. Marry and grow richbook.com, you'll learn more about achieving your goals together and improving your health and your wealth alongside each other, until next time, remember to live life on purpose together. Bye, bye.