What Bodybuilding Taught Me About Showing Up
Four valuable lessons bodybuilding taught me about building a business and showing up.
Do you know what a new week represents in the world of gym-goer or bodybuilders? It symbolises growth and opportunity. It is another chance to build more muscle and be bigger and better than you were last week.
It's not like my former career, where Monday mornings were full of tales of woe. The fear of what lay ahead in the coming week distorts many people's reality—a world where people would gather before 9 am and create hysteria around Mondays.
Monday in the gym is different. It is not a day where everyone drags themselves into the office. The dark circles were visible under their eyes from lack of sleep ahead of the Monday morning fear. It's not a day when people complain about the week ahead at their desks.
The words of the Bangles Manic Monday are running through their heads on replay.
"It's just another manic Monday
I wish it was Sunday
'Cause that's my fun day
I don't have to run day
It's just another manic Monday."
There is no blaming it on the train because the boss is already there. There is no blame, full stop. In the gym, there is ownership. Monday is a day when a gym-goer or bodybuilder shows up optimistic and full of determination. They focus on what they want to get out of the week ahead and push themselves to achieve it.
It is a day of momentum that moves you forward through the week with the insatiable drive to reach the next. It is a day to show up for success.
I lived like a bodybuilder for two years and won many medals and trophies. I ate, slept, drank and trained to compete. It taught me many life lessons that I carry into my business today. Without my experience, I doubt I would have the courage to keep showing up vulnerable every day. There is something about standing on a stage, baring yourself for all to see and judge you.
It is that piece that gives me grit. It takes unshakable confidence. Unshakable confidence only comes when you place your values on things no one can take away from you. No one can take away the hard work you have done to get there and the sense of achievement that comes with it.
Before stepping onto a stage, you must take a deep breath and banish the negative thoughts. Those who tell you you are not good enough cannot do it. Every morning I awake, I take that deep breath again and imagine myself at the side of the stage before my routine. I banish my negative thoughts and self-doubt and tell myself I can do this. That stepping back in time enables me to show up in business even on the days no one else does.
When I was 38 years old, I hit my turning point. I was five stone overweight and suffering from chronic illness. I have Crohn's disease, a rare blood disorder and a fused spine following major surgery in 2010. I had lost seven pregnancies through early miscarriage. I was broke in every shape and form. I was an Insurance Executive or, as I say, the broker who broke.
I spent years burning the candle at both ends. Stress and anxiety played havoc with my health and lifestyle. I had enough. I had a vision that by the time I was forty, I would be in the best shape of my life.
That began in 2014 when I started training. I shifted the weight, regained my health, and ditched the excess emotional baggage. It began when not only on a Monday morning but every morning, I awoke with meaning and purpose in my life. I showed up for success instead of a babbling mess of emotion and stress. From my experience, anyone that goes to the gym loves Mondays. There is no complaining that it's Monday. There is no "I wish it were Sunday."
Why? The weekend is a chance to reflect on what went well and on what you can improve on in the next. When I took redundancy in 2015, I competed in bodybuilding for another year until 2016. But when I decided to set up my company, I didn't want to make it my life. I did a value realignment and decided to give my business my best shot. Being a bodybuilder would give me valuable skills to adopt an entrepreneurial mindset and move forward.
I learned a lot of lessons from my two years of competing. For two years, I ate six to eight meals a day. I trained for 2–3 hours daily. I slept for eight hours for muscle recovery. I walked around with a couple of litres of water in tow.
In my cooler bag, I had rice cakes, broccoli, chicken, and wholegrain rice in containers. That way, I'd never enter a catabolic state. I didn't drink alcohol. I never missed a day, and I kept showing up. I tracked macronutrients and the number of grams of protein, carbs, and fats I ate daily. It gave me discipline. To this day, I still eat, sleep and train like a bodybuilder, but I do it for me and my business, not for anything else.
It enables me to show up and serve my people well. The people who get me and I do my best work with and connect. I have carried many lessons with me from the bodybuilding world. I apply them to my business and entrepreneurship. I want to share them because I see many people struggle in their lives and businesses.
They lose sight of the end vision and get caught up in distractions. Boundaries get breached, and physical and emotional health gets compromised. They are sleep deprived and stressed. I see many people rush around without regard for their schedules and priorities. With the rush, they crush their chances of success. Motivation dwindles, and they lose sight of the end vision.
They get caught up in distractions fearing failure and judgment from others. By the time Monday comes around again, they are in the depths of mental and physical exhaustion. They begin to complain. Once the complaining continues, it is game over. They need to stop and check in with themselves and where they are now. A value realignment is a wise choice so they can realise their life reflects their choices.
I still struggle but have the emotional and physical strength to call it out. As a CEO, I know you are not only a chief executive officer. You are so much more.
Chief Emotional Officer.
You have to learn to control your emotions, thoughts and feelings. You must contextualise your emotions to help you reach a positive outcome.
Chief Enabling Officer.
You have to learn to become in control of what enables you to do your best work. You must put in place practices to help you achieve this.
Chief Energy Officer.
You have to learn to become in control of your time and energy. You must put in place healthy boundaries to protect yourself.
Here are the four valuable lessons bodybuilding taught me about building my business and showing up.
1. Resilience.
When you learn that you must train to fail, applying that principle in life and business is easier.
As a business owner, I have failed many times in the past 18 months. But I keep getting back up and coming back stronger. When I train to fail in the gym, I build more strength. It is the same in business. Fail harder. Succeed better and become wiser.
2. Vision.
I always maintain sight of the end vision. Stephen Covey's famous quote says, "Begin with the end on the mind."
When I was a bodybuilder, I always knew how I would look bringing the final package to the stage. To this day, when I train, I have a body composition goal in mind, and everything I do serves that goal and end vision. In business, I have an end vision in sight. Every day my big failures and small wins take me closer to that measure of success I define for myself.
3. Avoid Comparisons.
I never looked at my fellow competitors to bring my best package to the bodybuilding stage. I never compared myself to their measure of success or what they were doing. I apply the same principle in business. I look for inspiration but never compare or compete with anyone else in my industry. I am my own competition.
The act of comparing is robbing yourself of your real potential. It leads to procrastination which is the thief of time. It causes you to doubt yourself and second-guess your decisions. You get distracted from the great work you need to do. You lose your voice. It prevents you from showing up as you. Be brave and bold! Be vulnerable enough to be you.
4. Gratitude.
Being grateful has been one of the most powerful shifts in my mindset since my training began. I used to focus on everything going wrong and find fault where I could. Now I focus on my strength and all that is going well.
Every morning I wake up with a grateful heart. On taking that deep breath that I am also grateful for and focus on all that is good in my life. It has been empowering.
But most importantly, I wake up in a world where I no longer fear Mondays.
