Yep, easily said, tough to do.

Speaking as someone who came from a 60-hour work week, and being basically on-call 24/7, including while on vacation, I know what stress feels like.

When I was younger, stress was a motivator. It pushed me to try hard, and it pushed me towards results. And results spurred me on to continue to work hard at a high-stress job.  Add 15 years of doing this, coupled with the fact that when you are successful at dealing with difficult situations, your employer tends to put you into other difficult situations because you are seen as competent, it begins to wear.  Eventually, my blood pressure wouldn’t come down when I got home. Sleep hours got shorter and shorter, as I continually felt the need to be at the office earlier and earlier. Stress eventually got the better of me.

At the time, I didn’t see this.  The money was good, the job was satisfying, and the people I worked with were great. I only saw what the stress was doing to me once I was put into a situation where progress slowed significantly.  Many long-term barriers had made results very hard to come by.  That’s when I started questioning what I was doing, and whether the money was worth the stress.  That’s when I realized how little sleep I was getting, and the negative health effects it was having on me.  That’s when I realized it was time to take control of my schedule.

After working in the Automotive industry for 15 years, I left to take over the administrative side of MiltonBackDoc.  I was able to prioritize: family, sleep, exercise, the office, the house.  Suddenly I had more energy. My body began to transform.

Yes I still have stress. If anyone thinks for a second that running your own business, and relying on it alone to support your entire family isn’t stressful, then boy do you have something to learn.  But the difference is how much more ready to cope with the stress my body is.  I get enough sleep, and enough physical activity that my body systems are working well, and as a result, I recover much more quickly from the stresses of running a business.  Sure, I still work late nights. And I definitely get less vacation time, but my body is dealing with it so much better on a regular basis that I still feel healthy and energized.

While there are many articles that I have read (and/or re-post) that talk about work/life balance, or the benefits of getting enough sleep, or the benefits of daily exercise, I can truly say the health benefits are legit.  It boils down to a simple equation:

Increased Sleep + Increased Activity = Decreased Stress.

So many times I would read those types of articles and think ‘Yeah, yeah, I should blah blah blah’ and dismiss most of it. However, having now made adjustments to my own work/life balance, to my own sleep and exercise schedule, I can say that I’ve lived it.  And, YES, taking care of your body in this way does have tremendous benefits to your mental health.

So if you are stressed, dread Monday’s, crave a booze-filled Friday night, or crash hard (read: ‘catch up on’ sleep) throughout the weekend, I highly recommend you pick up those ‘benefits of sleep’ articles and the ‘best daily exercises’ magazines and have a good long look, and consider which ones you can schedule into your routine.

Your mental health is worth it.