Physical Stress, Nutritional Factors & Drug Abuse

Business has been fun over the years & it has fortunately been very rewarding for me. I've learnt a lot of lessons, but the one of the most important for any working person even is that you have to manage the basics principles that keep us alive.

A CEO is 7 times more likely to commit suicide than the everyday person, 12 times more likely to suffer from stress induced anxiety & 19 times more likely to develop depression. I'll discuss depression later.

After a GP told me a tablet would suppress my depression, I became defiant to it & sought methods to help myself fix my mindset & work out what this 'stress' was that the doctor keeps telling me I am suffering from. It's really simple too, It made the world of difference to my mental state just manage the simple elements that are responsible for our structure & wellbeing - Sleep, Water and Food.

Sleep/Correct sleep levels - If you do not get the full 8 hours sleep your body needs, you will experience sleep deficit & that deficit grows. If one night you only have 7, you will need an extra hour the following to recover. Exhaustion will cause your body to burn out & eventually, aside from the mental health state, it can lead to more serious health conditions.

Water/Correct Hydration Levels - Its basic, but lack of H2O levels in the body (dehydration) causes the brain to shrink & also the muscles in our bodies to constrict and become weak. Ensure that you intake 2-3 litres a day, EVERYDAY. It will also help you sleep & help your body metabolise food.

Food/Correct Energy Levels - Carbohydrates give us calories, which we burn when we are using energy, but Carbs also help produce glucose which are used in the process of producing electrolytes. We know our body has a small current running through it, electrolytes carry the current through our muscles. The signals from our brain to our muscles or brain to brain. Without electrolytes, our bodies cannot efficiently energise muscles & organs including our brain, brain function & our hearts. We have toxins in our bloodstream, that our livers flush out of our bodies. If the muscles are not hydrated, the liver cannot clean them out, which leaves us feeling heavy & achey, they are effectively clogged up with toxins. Then if the liver isn't hydrated, it cannot effectively clean the toxins from within your entire system, including your brain. The brain then shrinks & confusion occurs. The liver directly impacts the brain, especially in regards to emotional stress. All of these together, leads to heart & brain functionality problems, which in entrepreneurial life, is not good for any decision making, especially for business transactions.

Conclusion - seriously proper food & water intake completely changed my energy levels. If you're an active entrepreneur, ensure you do not skip breakfast & have a protein shake a day to help repair the muscles that become damaged. You'll be amazed at how much energy (glucose) the brain uses. I used to walk around all day lifting things & I still rarely sit down & do paperwork - that's my evening job, combined with an overactive problem finding & solving brain, I tend to used a lot of energy 👇😊 food & water feeds muscles & focus - remember to always maintain a balanced diet & avoid processed foods (fast food especially as they contain high levels of sodium). Advice can be sought from a professional nutritionist if you feel you are lacking the knowledge behind what foods can be combined to achieve a healthy balance.

I was kind of ashamed to add this part in, but after I came out of hospital, I spoke with a few of my business contacts who confirmed that I am not the only one who has suffered with this kind of problem, so I'll explain it a little.

Alcohol abuse - its not something I've suffered with per say, but I did have a very short phase of drinking a bottle of wine to myself each night. I also went through a bottle of whiskey over a month period which is nothing too drastic I guess. My friend who has been in business for 45 years, explained to me that when he first went solo, he was going great guns for the first 2 years, full of energy and like me had to learn the ropes the hard way. His friends who he did business with turned out to be back stabbing him on deals & his employees weren't working while he was trying to expand into different ventures & keep the lights on. I have a similar story, but mine was drugs. He explained that after 2 years, he began to drink heavily. It was his escape from life. That habit became an addiction & he went on to tell me that he drank 1litre of Vodka everyday for 4 years. He would wake & drink. Drink while at work to pass the day & he explained it really helped in giving him a sense of courage to tell his employees what was what. After 4 years, he ended up in hospital. The damage it had caused to his liver was close to killing him at a young age, so he did the right thing & stopped immediately. While we were discussing it, he said that he was slowly killing himself, all just to blank out the noise of what was happening in his life. It had detrimental effects on his thought processes during the time, as I mentioned earlier the liver has a huge impact on emotional stress which causes a lot of confusion. He was essentially trying to block out the worry, but by doing so he fell behind more & more on resolving his problems. The whole process made him stronger & he then learnt that his own life was more important than what others thought of him. The change of mindset actually paid dividends as he explained, he resolved his issues, then won more contracts, developed a successful business & his employees, although they didn't particularly like him, gained respect for his ability to get situations resolved fast & the fact he kept them all in a fast moving efficient environment.

Drug Abuse - This is my side of the story. After 1 year of being in business, things got messy.. I went around to a friends house and his friend was smoking cannabis. He gave me some & various effects kicked began. I began laughing at nothing & then fell asleep. My mind went completely blank for that evening. Following this, each time I returned to a stressful situation, I returned to smoking it. It seemed to help to begin with, I was more focused on day to day things having slept better than I had for the previous years. Not long after, I began employing staff. Staff seemed to come with their own stressful situations, the more I tried to do & the more I noticed wasn't being done, the more I smoked cannabis. The more I smoked, the more unfinished tasks built up. The further I got in business, the more problems arose, more pressure to help relatives who were financially in trouble, more questions being asked distracting me from my day to day, more employees were employed to take up slack & more problems arose from that & ultimately I just smoked more & more & more. The circle was vicious. The cannabis had its side effects, I ate less which resulted in the effects mentioned in the nutrition section, I drank less water, more coffee, I smoke more cigarettes. I don't believe cannabis damaged my brain, I believe the long term effects of stress & my incorrect strategy to block out the stress is what damaged my brain.

I'm now drug free, cigarette free, I just stopped overnight & I rarely touch alcohol anyway. I've learnt that I would rather not have a life in business than be stressed with any factors brought by anyone else in my life.

There are methods to deal with problems & if you find yourself resulting to these methods as a result of life in business, please reach out to me & I'll help by trying to understand your journey & offer impartial advice to help you get out of the situation you are experiencing, but just know one thing, nothing is worth letting your body deteriorate for, focus on you & what you can achieve.