Learning business skills through the power of sport and fitness

By Lauren Goggs, personal trainer for ‘Relentless Magazine’ 

Almost every successful entrepreneur will have some relationship with fitness, whether that’s using fitness to stamp out bad habits, grow self-confidence, eliminate self-doubt, learn how to manage failure or just simply to think more clearly day in day out. Regardless of reason, most people will use fitness to help achieve personal goals as well as business success.

In fact, you’d struggle to find a successful business owner who doesn’t see the value of fitness to their business, as a healthy lifestyle can be related to increased productivity, happier employees and overall success. Just like Rome – fitness or businesses are not built in a day, they are both built over time and grow through people practicing certain skills. This is why professional sports men and women often make great leaders. Resilience, determination, communication and the ability to work under immense pressure are all relatable skills to both fitness and business. Passion and enthusiasm are also two key elements that sports men and women use to build a successful career, and entrepreneurs use to build a successful business.

The best way to see the effect of the “small efforts” is to benchmark yourself over a period of time. Where are you today? Where do you want to be tomorrow? What small efforts are needed to achieve that success? In business, small efforts achieve success, but in fitness we call them marginal gain. That inch you have lost off your waist, that pound you lost on the scales, the kilogram you added for your last squat. All are marginal gains that if repeated, add up to your overall success of lifting heavier, losing weight or running further. That kilogram you added for your last squat. All are marginal gains that if repeated, add up to your overall success of lifting heavier, losing weight or running further.

Successful sports men and women understand their personal limits and find the will to push past them at every step. These people will lift slightly heavier or run slightly further every time they hit the gym, quitting their comfort zone and building a fitter, healthier body. Successful entrepreneurs are the same, working longer hours and taking on more stress every time they go to work. In both business and fitness, breaking into “this area of pain” builds physical and mental resilience, enabling people to handle the day to day pressures and challenges that they face.

Successful entrepreneurs and business moguls will never play the blame game. They own up to mistakes and take responsibility for every aspect of their lives both personally and professionally. They push past their physical and mental capabilities, surpassing their goals and succeeding no matter what. Failure is also inevitable, but these people adapt, learn, listen and even fail again before achieving success. This relentless determination and mentality is echoed in fitness. One day you won’t be able to lift heavier or run further as your body will need a rest to come back stronger and ready for that next step. Marathon runners listen to their bodies and will do a temp run (slower than your normal pace) in order to push past that mental barrier or ‘brick wall’. Setting a vision for your company as well as yourself is important. You can find every companies vision and mission statement on their website. It’s something for all employees to work towards but equally can be used to measure a business’s success. Nothing changes if nothing changes, right? A business would never be built if it wasn’t worked hard for, weight loss goals would never be hit by keeping to bad habits, and ultra-marathons would never be run without a training plan. We learn to conquer certain skills in fitness in order to achieve success. These skills can also be applied to any business and ultimately by doing so, we realise how inter-linked these industries really are.

@Quityourcomfortzone

quitthecomfortzone.com

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