Note from Charles: My good friend Ari Rastegar wrote a really nice piece on getting the most out of your most valuable asset: yourself. It’s a good read, and something to get you energized for the week ahead. Hope you enjoy it!
–CLS
Success as an entrepreneur or business pro depends upon identifying and attending to your most important asset. Don’t even bother thumbing through your business plan or re-reading your company mission statement to figure out what it could be. It’s YOU!
A business proposal sinks without a sound mind; a flawless strategy will fail miserably without an energetic leader; and a team will fall apart without morale and motivation. Taking care of your mind, body, and soul, what I collectively refer to as yourmost important asset, is critical to the success of any person in the world of business.
This is serious stuff. You can’t eat poorly, avoid exercise, and deprive yourself of emotional fitness and expect to achieve and sustain long-term success. Maybe some people can do it for the short term, but within time, they crash and burn. Why is it so difficult to eat a balanced diet, exercise, and feed your soul with thoughts of gratitude? Is it that we think we don’t have enough time, or perhaps we think it’s too complex? I’m here to tell you that it’s not. With a plan and purpose, you can see dramatic results. Instead of thinking of a lifestyle change as difficult or painful, think of it as training for life. When you trust in the fact that life is happening for you, not to you, it’s much easier.
The Magic of Threes.
Health and wellness is a three-legged stool. It’s attending to your body, mind, and soul for balance. Without one, you limp. Without two, you tip over. Try going all day without food, you’re not exactly pleasant to be around, right? Go weeks without exercise and then take the stairs to an important meeting. How long will it take for you to breathe normally again once you reach the top? Need a good night’s rest? Try thinking about your blessings for a few minutes before bedtime and see how you feel in the morning versus the day before.
Our lives are enhanced when you contextualize health and wellness within the metaphor of a three-legged stool. To illustrate, here’s a general list of what I do every day in the quest to take care of my most important asset: ME.
The Body.
I start every day the same: I down a large glass of water infused with lemon. This alkalizes my body and gets it hydrated and ready for action. I ascribe primarily to a diet where about 70 percent of what I eat is plant-based, non-processed food. Thirty percent of my diet focuses on high-quality protein, and I eat organic, local, grass-fed, and grass finished as much as possible.
I’m a boxer and I’m a yoga man. I don’t love weight training but I do believe in flexibility and agility. With boxing and yoga, I can be quick on my feet; explosive one moment and then calm the next.
I think you should shock your nervous system. This is why I engage in cryotherapy three to four times a week. By subjecting my body to three minutes of temperature that hits -240 degrees, I can heal my body and brain at an exponential level. Yes it hurts when I’m in the tank, but when I’m done, I feel like a king.
The Mind.
Every morning, I engage in transcendental meditation, which is a practice of effortlessly being, not doing. I learned about the importance of meditation from Ray Dalio, who is arguably the greatest hedge fund manager, ever.
I also practice priming, a 10-minute exercise of emotional conditioning that puts me in an optimal psychological state of confidence and gratitude, and allows me to laser focus on my goals. This is a daily discipline I learned from one of my mentors, Tony Robbins. During priming, you breathe profoundly and put yourself into a state of gratitude and thoughtfulness. I think about my blessings and visualize my short- and long-term goals as already achieved.
The Soul.
I’m a faith-oriented man of God and believe in the divinity and unity of all major religions. My whole life is centered on God. I have a chapel in my office, which is a dedicated area for us to meditate and pray. As a company, we begin each day with prayer and end each day with thankfulness for all our blessings received. By showing gratitude, we are not focusing on self but instead are acknowledging our blessings and privilege to serve our clients.
However, There IS Balance.
My mind and body are a gift from God and it is my job to protect, care for, and honor them. It‘s also important to know that I practice moderation in all things, including moderation, and to me this means balance.
I follow this routine most of the time, because it’s important to let loose, relax on your diet, and goof off. I make sure to include those moments. I watch shows on Netflix, I’m addicted to ice cream, potato and egg breakfast tacos are my vice, and I’d eat French fries every second of the day if possible. I’ve even been known to gorge Sour Patch Kids.
I simply believe that you have to be moderately immoderate. If you do everything perfectly, if you follow every single rule, you take the joys out of life. From a physiological perspective, if you make your body so efficient, you’ll kill your immune system. You have to toss your routine a wrench every now and then. Just not every day.
I attribute my success to the fact that I don’t believe in diet. I believe in nutrition. I don’t believe in exercise. I believe in training for life.
I run a multi-million dollar private investment firm. I have a family, I have friends, and I have my health. Most importantly, my fortune comes from hard work, training, and the belief that my most valuable asset is myself. Follow my line of thought, and I’ll bet you’ll achieve greatness too.
Ari Rastegar is the founder and CEO of Rastegar Capital. With more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur and real estate professional, he founded Rastegar Capital to provide access, transparency, and service to investors interested in commercial real estate investments located within the United States.
Photo credit: StockMonkeys.com