Self Care
The most important building block of success and life

All the money and time in the world is useless if you're confined and limited by disease or disabilities - Nigel

It’s so easy to neglect your own health in pursuit of improving your therapy and health businesses. I know, because I paid the price for it. Between 2008 when I first launched my initial therapy business, and fast forward my hustling to 2014, I ballooned from a fit 75 kg to a massive 95 kg, from exercising 3-5 times a week to none at all.

My blood pressure also became borderline high, and I came close to being diagnosed with high blood pressure. And in the refining and pursuit of growing my therapy business.

Don’t get me wrong: I did build a 7-figure therapy business in the end, and we succeeded.

Question: is the price worth it?

That's a big fat no.

I’d rather take just a little more time to achieve success than to sacrifice health to accelerate business building a bit.

After my fainting spells, being out of breath in regular activities, being disappointed for the last time how my clothes “had shrunk”, and the last straw was actually two very powerful events that tipped the scale:

• losing my dad in a very sudden 17-day ordeal because he didn’t care enough of his own health
• having children
  

So I took some corrective action, and implemented the following:

#1 Started sleeping at a fixed time

This wasn’t done on purpose, but resulted as sleep-training for our kids: we started going to bed around 9 pm every night, and I found that when I woke up, I woke up so fresh and alert.

We turn off all the lights and music, did no stimulating activities on the bed but just slowly relaxed on the bed together before falling asleep together around 9.30 pm on average.

Update 18th October 2018: it's a little harder to be able to sleep at fixed time daily as we have two young children that share our bed, but we do try to be in bed together by 10+ PM every night, and perhaps are asleep around 11+ PM every night.

#2 I started exercising every day

I implemented a simple daily exercise routine:

• jog around my neighbourhood for 20 – 25 minutes
• body weight exercises (sit ups, push ups, planks, bridges, leg lifts) for another 20 – 25 minutes

Everyday.

Ok fine, sometimes when it rained, I couldn’t run but I could still do body weight exercises. Sometimes I do skip when I was too tired or when we had early morning events.

But almost 4 – 6 times exercise sessions per week.

PS: if you live a mainly sedentary life, or hadn't exercised for a long time, I recommend you start with going with low-intensity exercises first, such as long walks or brisk walks.

Just start.

Update 18th October 2018: On most weeks, I am able to exercise at least 4-5 times a week, with Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays are my weights days and Tuesdays/Thursdays being my run days.

#3 Taking high quality organic health supplements

Xtend-Life Natural Health Products (health supplements) and they are which is manufactured in their fully-own and purpose-built state-of-the-art facility in Christchurch, New Zealand.

They are highly regulated (very important to me as health professional): Has a food safety program based on hazard analysis critical control points (HACCP) which is regularly audited by AsureQuality (an internationally accredited authority owned by the New Zealand government), and a Risk Management Program (RMP) which is regularly audited by the New Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). Xtend-Life also abides by the US FDA’s cGMP (good manufacturing practices) code for dietary supplements.

These compliance programs enable them to rigorously control the quality of all raw ingredients and finished products to ensure that their products always achieve the highest standards possible.

The few products that I take and recommend:

• Xtend Life Total Balance Men’s Premium (flagship general health balance) 
  
• Xtend Life Omega 3 Fish Oil QH Ultra (for energy, brain and heart health)
  
• Xtend Life Kiwi Klenz (for improved gut health, digesting food and probiotics)
  
• Xtend Life Natural Energy Bee Pollen (for energy, especially after lunch and evenings)
• Xtend Life Male Rejuvenator (for prostate and male sexual health)
  
• Xtend Life Lipi-Rite (for lipids and cholesterol management)
  
• Xtend Life Neuro-natural Serenity (for that mental focus, calm and serenity of mind)
  

I have been taking these every day since 2014 as a supplement for my nutrition, energy and life.

#4 Drinking only filtered water

Our bodies at 70%+ water, which goes to show how important water is for our bodies.

On top of that, our water is subject to so much chemicals and toxins that are leeched into it from the pipes and underground matter that it can be very contaminated by the time it gets to us.

I was personally so shocked on the day I installed this Aquasana AQ 4000 counter top water filter (got it at discount at $68 + shipping), the filtered water was so sweet!

Drinking unfiltered water raw isn't smart, cos there are a lot of stuff in there (from stuff leeched from pipes, to the stuff in the treatment plans and stuff thrown in); and boiling unfiltered water is a good start but it just isn't great - the Aquasana AQ 4000 counter top water filter is

• affordable
• doesn't take much space
• easily to install
• easy to maintain (not much) and
  
• easy to replace the filters

As we drink water all the time, just get one here: Aquasana AQ 4000 counter top water filter

#5 Read, read, read

I am a voracious reader, from books and blogs and websites to help me gain more insight to how to be a better therapy businessman, investor, father, husband, friend and more.

It’s such a cheap way to improve ourselves especially during downtimes such as waiting for someone/order/taxi/bus, commuting, or even for itself. I highly recommend picking up reading habit.

Even if you read one book per year, you’re ahead of the game (I read on average 15 – 25 books per year, besides conferences etc)

Visit my recommended books category at the bottom of resources.

#6 Praying and Meditation

I am a Christian, a believer of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Messiah and the Holy Spirit.

I try my level best to read the bible and pray every single morning to start the day, and definitely when I find myself stuck in therapy business situations, other than consulting my mentors and associates, I find the more I spend time in praying and meditation I get many insights and solutions to get unstuck and overcome barriers.

#7 scheduled family/socialization/Weekly dating with wife

Since 2008, my wife and myself has been so busy hustling that it becomes very easy to tag team and build therapy businesses and stuff together, but we seldom go out or spend time like truly spend time together.

It’s been so long that trying to break this pattern is difficult, as we’re so utilitarian that meals can be short and sweet and we’re always talking about work (not a problem for us), but I recently installed a regular lunch with my wife just to eat together and connect, and it’s been wonderful.

An extension of this is to spend time with/calling family and friends and children, as time on earth is so short and fleeting, and in the end, most of us love our family and friends.

Guess What?

As I implemented these, the most common fear was that our therapy business would “decline” because we spend less time in them, but that didn’t happen.

In fact, the opposite happened.

Our business thrived and bloomed even more, and I think it’s because:

1. We started building deeper relationships with our friends and family, and as a by-product, that indirectly improved businesses
2. We got happier, so when we worked, people noticed it and they too enjoyed working more with us
3. We got more effective, streamlining and dropping unnecessary work/processes and achieving more
4. We got healthier, and a byproduct of that is that we got more effective

It worked out well!

Take care of your own health and the relationships you have with your family, friends and loved ones, it’d be more helpful than you think =)

Update: the business was acquired in 2015 and we both exited the acquired business at the end of 2017.

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