If there is something that many people rarely associate with their overall financial welfare it is physical fitness. To the avoidance of doubt, it is not easy to keep fit especially when money starts flowing in plenty.
First, you are able to afford most things that the poor can only dream about. A not long time ago, I was reading a book that made an interesting observation that the weakest link to any success is actually the very things that made you successful in the first place.
For example, most people work hard and tend to keep healthy when they are struggling financially. But as soon as they start doing well financially, they lose control of the very habits that made them succeed and keep fit.
One of the automatic challenges that come the moment you are able to afford basic needs like food is to control what you eat and in what moderation. Unfortunately, for most of our African culture, we view gaining weight as a sign of success.
In fact, you can easily be missed out in any crowd if you are small-bodied. On the contrary, a person with a good weight and who appears dressed well can easily get a seat at the high table even when they are not doing well financially.
We can easily misjudge purely based on physical appearance. Here are five reasons why you MUST mind your physical fitness as part of your money strategy:
- It is a sign of personal discipline – to attain physical fitness requires a lot of personal discipline in terms of your exercises, eating and dietary habits and sleeping times among others. The same attribute of discipline is central to making money and growing it into wealth. No one has ever been able to keep money without high levels of personal discipline. If you know any, I would be happy to meet them too;
- It is a demonstration of personal commitment and resilience – people all over the world all the time keep on making resolutions to enrol or start exercising. Many are very much aware of their unfitness and bad habits. But few people succeed in sustaining a fitness routine year in and year out. It requires a lot of commitment and internal resilience to keep going even when you do not feel like it. Money and wealth work by the same rules, it is a long marathon that requires your commitment and internal resilience to overcome setbacks and pay the ultimate price of personal sacrifices;
- It reflects high willpower – to keep fit in the long term, it takes a lot of personal willpower. Anybody who has done exploits in any field be it in sports, arts, innovation, business or any other craft, they were motivated first and foremost from the inside. The world is full of dream killers, doubting Thomases and outright detractors. To bypass them in your money journey, you will need a lot of self-motivation from the inside. That way you will manage to stay on track with your path to your wealth goals;
- It is an ingredient to improve personal productivity – of course, we all know to accumulate more money than the masses you must be able to earn or produce more. The physical fitness enables you to get the best out of the 24 hours a day given to all of us by the creator. How you utilize those hours differentiates men and women from boys and girls when it comes to money;
- Relieves stress and ensures you are in good moods/spirits most of the time – physical exercises are a costless time-tested means of dealing with stress and keeping you in good spirits. To make money, you do not want to waste most of your days stressed up and in a foul mood. Opportunities often follow people full of life and comfortable in their skin. Unfitness is a leading source of stress in our daily activities.
- A bonus point here is that physical fitness saves you money and allows you a long life to enjoy your money – this is well documented both in social and mainstream media. It is also inbuilt into most of our traditions and community practices. Am sure you do not want to make your money and lose it in hospital bills every time or not live long enough to enjoy your wealth.
As my concluding thought, Robin Sharma proposes each one of us maintains a good balance of four important things: Physical sets; Health sets; Heart sets; and Mindsets. The Physical sets almost always drive the others in one way or the other.
Have a blessed week ahead!