FINAL THOUGHTS
ENTREPRENEUR’S CORNER
Yearlong Resolution Exercise your rights for a better business and life.
by Ben Rao
ou want to be a successful entrepreneur or have success
deals.” But these are delusions without spe- cific measurement of both units and time. Sound familiar? Don’t feel alone. We’ve all done it—whether it’s a New Year’s resolution or some life event that causes us to want to make a change. You might just need a little tweak to the way you approach your goals this time around. If your goal is long-term—and remem- ber, most short-term goals are just Step One of a bigger goal—you need to think lifestyle change or long-term habit. Whether you look at building a business or building your health, each is a very long-term goal that you just have to make a part of your life. After a while, it just becomes part of your DNA. You get up and do it every day—it doesn’t matter what time, you just do it—because you’re on autopilot. You don’t have any other choice. It’s what you do. Every night I wander into my bath- room before bedtime and lay out my workout clothes and don’t even think twice about it. I exercise in the morning because I know work, family or other things often have a way of cropping up and getting in the way. WHAT’S YOUR EXCUSE? WELL, THAT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Seeing Conner, a 12-year-old young man, when I was at the gym this morning made me realize there’s really no excuse for anybody to not exercise for one hour a day. Conner has no car, goes to school full time and was in the gym at 6 a.m.—cer- tainly proof that all of our excuses are just rationalizations that we are too busy.
with everything in your life, right? That means elevating your performance, and there’s no better way to help yourself ac- complish that than by making exercise a regular and continuing part of your life. That’s top of mind for me now because, as I write this, we have just begun 2017, and the New Year’s resolutions noise is deafening. But by the time you read this, we’ll already be into March, and I can guarantee that many—too many— will have lost that resolve. Why? Because in this day and age when everyone wants everything now, so many people are confronted with the reality that self-improvement is not a quick and easy thing to accomplish. It is more like marathon than a sprint. So when they don’t achieve immediate results, they get discouraged, lose focus and give up. It’s very similar to why businesses or ideas fail: No measurable or specific goal. Lack of focus or commitment. Lack of patience. Everyone wants ev- erything now. And, oh, by the way, they want it to be easy, too. With the start of any new year, we often tend to refocus on our business and other areas of our life that need attention. But so many times, these efforts are short- lived or not a long-term lifestyle change. It’s really easy to say, “I’m going to lose weight” or “I’m going to make more sales calls” or “I’m going to do more real estate MAINTAIN THAT NEWYEAR’S FOCUS
So, I ask you, what’s your excuse? Fam- ily stuff? Work is really crazy right now? Just too much to do to get to the gym? Or maybe you just want more sleep? I think many people lose track of the one of exercising’s great by-products. It gives you an excuse to reset, unplug or plug in— as I often do, reading a book as I hit my cardio. Last year I read more than a dozen books while I was exercising. You say you can’t read while exercising? That’s no excuse. Audio- books work great, too. Oh yeah, there are some other great benefits to working out. For me, my mind is more agile, I’m more creative, and I sleep better when I work out. The smaller waistline is just a bonus of this lifestyle. I’ve gotten to the point that when I don’t work out, I’m kind of cranky. (Just ask Rhonda, my wife!) And I don’t want to just graze over the creativity aspect of exercise. I have some of my greatest (and worst) ideas during my exercise sessions. The challenge is to quickly note that great idea but not get caught up checking emails or texting while you have your phone out. Otherwise, a one-hour workout can quickly become a two-hour workout with only one hour of exercise. I send a lot of emails to myself to get ideas
96 | think realty magazine march :: april 2017
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