📄 Protect the Asset

What’s your default… crush it, hustle till you drop, and sleep is for suckers?

You might not think that’s you, but are you really protecting the asset?

As in: the single most important asset you have, the one without which you couldn’t do anything… the asset called “you” ?

You might eat really good food, and get your eight hours of sleep a day… but is that enough? Is that all you need to do to take care of yourself?

For many of us, taking care of self is an afterthought.

Something we do when work and life allows us, and only then.

We plan our work, and in the remaining blocks of time when we don't work, that's when we get to take care of the self.

Well, that’s the wrong way round.

A healthy and sensible entrepreneur starts by planning recovery time: rest, play, meals, social time etc - and in the slots that aren’t recovery time, that’s when you plan your work.

I admit that at some point, I started to let things slide.

Used to be, every day had a three-hour siesta, as is tradition in Spain.

That siesta is the time for cooking, eating, reading, taking a nap, playing with the kids or the cat, seeing a friend… the things that fill the well.

But gradually my siestas got shorter and shorter, and at some point I realised that I'd been putting in 10 to 12 hour days, with barely an hour midday to eat and take a catnap.

And the effect wasn’t good: loss of focus, more procrastination, and a decidedly foggy feeling in my head as to what decisions to make for my business.

And that just won’t do. So, I went back to sanity:

Normal working hours, a normal siesta, and my work hours planned around my free time, instead of the other way round.

So if you feel under pressure, if your work feels frenetic to you, or if there’s never enough hours in the day… maybe do the illogical?

Maybe, work less, and dedicate more time to yourself… to protect the asset?

Remember, there’s only one you. And you’ll agree that you do your best work when you are at your best.

The modern myth purported by people like Gary Vaynerchuck and others who preach the doctrine of 24/7 hustle? I don’t buy it, and maybe neither should you.

When you’re at your best, you feel better and perform better - something which both you and your clients deserve.

Protect the asset, people.