EMBiz: Save Yourself First

Laurel Mintz, CEO & Founder

Hi guys, Laurel Mintz here. I want to be really honest with you: being an entrepreneur is fucking hard sometimes. And the truth is is that you have to really be conscious of how you take care of yourself, otherwise it’s easy to fall into the traps of gaining weight, eating poorly, not sleeping. So this week I want to talk to you about putting your own oxygen mask on first. I know you’ve heard that saying before. If you’re really going to be in the entrepreneurial world it is even more critical, and there are four things that I try and respect for myself every single week.

Number one is gratitude journaling. I actually do this every single day. There’s a great journal called the 5 minute journal. You can literally buy it on Amazon right now, and it really does take 5 minutes and it’s all about being conscious of the things you’re grateful for in your life. Oftentimes we focus on the negative. It’s very easy to go down that path, and so especially as an entrepreneur, it’s important to stay positive and gratitude journaling and gratitude in general is a really great way to stay positive.

Number Two - Meditation. So I don’t do this as often as I should. I try and do at least ten minutes every other day and one of my tricks is that I’ll show up to a meeting ten minutes or twenty minutes early so I can sit in my car and have those ten minutes to close my eyes and meditate. And there are a million apps out there that you can use as well.

Number three is fitness. I work out probably 5 to 6 days a week. It is a non negotiable for me. I do it first thing in the morning, and I don’t even check my phone until I’m back from my workout because I know that something’s going to blow up or maybe I have a really big meeting that day that I have to think about, but I don’t want to think about any of that until I’ve had my morning workout so that I can get my energy positive and moving in the right direction.

And finally, and I think this is absolutely critical, is sleep. It seems super intuitive but entrepreneurs have a tendency to go really, really hard and they feel like they’ve got to grind it out and work harder and longer hours than anyone else. And the truth is that that’s exactly how you get burned out. Bad sleep leads to bad eating habits, lack of fitness, and all of these other things kind of fall by the wayside.

So if you follow those 4 guidelines I think that you will find the entrepreneurial journey won’t be easy, but at least you’ll make sure that you put yourself first as a priority.