We all know how important exercise and keeping fit is when it comes to our overall health but did you know it can also help you to improve your business mindset?

Whilst you might not immediately think about the business benefits of working out and keeping fit, there are a number of ways in which keeping fit can improve your business mindset.

Reduce your stress

One of the biggest barriers to our own creativity and performance is stress. We all know how good exercise is for our body, but many of us are too stressed and busy to fit exercise into our routine. However, in order to reduce our stress and perform better in the workplace, we should all be making more time for exercise.

Exercise improves our overall health and sense of wellbeing, however, it also has some more direct stress-busting benefits according to Mayo Clinic:

• It pumps up your endorphins - these are also known as your brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters and you can bump up the production from a range of exercise activities including running, tennis, and hiking.
• It reduces the negative effects of stress - exercise can provide stress relief for your body while imitating effects of stress, such as the flight or fight response, and helping your body and its systems practice working together through those effects.
• It improves your mood - regular exercise can increase self-confidence, improve your mood, help you relax, and lower symptoms of mild depression and anxiety.

Reducing your stress will undoubtedly help to improve your overall business mindset, freeing you up to make better decisions.

Overcome business challenges

Exercise, as well as improving your physical health, can also have a positive impact on your mental health and importantly, your mental strength. According to the Mental Health Foundation, “Being active doesn’t have to mean doing sport or going to the gym. There are lots of ways to be active; find the one that works for you and let’s all get physical!”

Training for a fitness challenge such as a marathon can help entrepreneurs to re-learn the importance of goal-setting and determination. Undertaking a rigorous training regime in order to achieve your fitness goals can make you more tenacious as an entrepreneur and help you to remove the word ‘can’t’ from your vocabulary. Obstacles in the workplace become a challenge to be overcome instead of a barrier to progression.

 

Improve your creative thinking

We’ve already touched on how exercise can help to reduce stress and help to free up your mind, however a study by Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found that regular exercisers do better on tests of creativity than their more sedentary peers.

Specifically, researchers noted that regular exercise seems to be associated with improved divergent and convergent thinking, which are considered the two components of creative thinking; the former involves thinking of multiple solutions for one problem, while the latter involves thinking of one solution for a problem.

 

Build your network

Whether you workout at the gym or you participate in team sports, fitness can help you to build your network with prospective clients or build your existing business relationships. The golf course has long been seen as a place where business is conducted - players can talk without the distractions of phones or meetings whilst also getting 3-4 hours of exercise, however, it’s not just golf where you can build your network.

Fitness challenges open a window into individuals' personalities and allow you to communicate with others in a very different way and consequently learn more about each other than would normally be possible over a cup of coffee.

 

Improve your strategic thinking

There has long been a link between game theory and business strategy but there is also an argument that exercise and keeping fit can also help you to think more strategically. The development of strategy board games such as Settler of Catan or Risk has spawned a whole new genre of strategy board games. Online casino sites like Betway have created games including poker which all rely on strategy and can help to improve your business strategy.

Whilst these types of games do help with business strategy, they are typically very sedentary. Exercise and fitness can also have a positive impact on business strategy. In sport, especially team sport, strategic decisions are part and parcel of many major events. Penalty shoot-outs require strategy from both the goalkeeper and the penalty taker. In matchplay golf, strategic decisions are made based on the probability of a golfer sinking a putt and whether to concede. In American Football, every play is planned over and over again and a high level of planning and strategy is required.

Those who exercise, and particularly those who participate in sports like football, hockey, golf, and American Football, are more likely to be able to make strategic decisions quickly and decisively thanks to their experience on the field.

Summary

Exercise and fitness can have much broader benefits than simply improving your overall health. Improving your business mindset is as much about letting go as it is taking control and exercise and fitness can help you to let go, help you to trust in others (whether that’s a personal trainer or your teammates), and reduce the stresses in life which stop you from making better decisions.

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