Millionaire digital entrepreneur Stuart Ross produced a short video on the topic of relaxation, leisure, health, fitness and a profitable online business. This is an area he can talk about with absolute authority as it’s something that’s taken him six years to master. In the video Stuart talks about looking after yourself to ensure not just a healthy and enjoyable life but also a profitable online business. He shares some insights on what’s really impacted his productivity and that also relates to looking living a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
One of the things you’ll find in building an online business is that because you have the ability to work anywhere and at anytime (including from bed on your laptop if you want to) it becomes very easy to work all the time. Stuart came from a career where he was used to working seventy plus hours a week, so working a lot of hours was normal for him. When he was building his internet business as well as working his job there was not really anything else he did but work and sleep. During this time he often let himself get into a negative state. His nutrition went down the drain as he would sit at home working on his laptop eating crisps (chips) and drinking fizzy drinks (soda). He would do this slouched on his sofa working every spare minute he had.
Being Reactive is Not Productive
But frankly a lot of this time was not productive as he was just being reactive. He never really took enough time out to proactively plan what he was going to work on and this led to a downward spiral. Stuart was quite fortunate because when he started his online business he had no children, only had himself to look after and was not in a serious relationship. So during this period it was fairly easy for him to be selfish with his time (which he got very good at).
He saw or socialised with no one and just worked. And maybe these circumstances helped to start with. But these circumstances do not apply to Stuart’s typical students at the SFM & DEA where he’s co-founder with Jay Kubasssek. These students are often people in their forties with responsibilities with children and jobs,etc. He’s often found that when individuals do not look after themselves, over-work their online business and give themselves no time to exercise or spend with their family - it is not sustainable.
Being Steady and Consistent is Best in the Long-Term
In fact frequently Stuart notices that its students who go all out and are gung-ho at the start are those that give up the quickest on their goals and their dreams - because it’s not sustainable. He’s found that it’s the individuals who are steady and consistent, who show up on a regular basis and who are of the frame of mind that the result will come no matter how long it takes - are the ones who successfully build a profitable online business. These type of people are far more likely to succeed rather than the people who talk about making tons of money and drastically changing their life and the world in the next six months. These people tend to fizzle out the fastest.
One of the most important things to sustain your efforts is looking after yourself. Simple things like exercise, getting fresh air and spending time with your family. The chances are you are wanting to build a profitable online business to have more free time and give more quality time to your family. Do not take the route of doing every thing but that with the view that you’ll get that time back later because this is not sustainable. What you’ll also find is that when the results are not coming as quickly as you would like or the money is not pouring in, you will end up resenting your business.
This is because you’ll get pressure from the family, your nutrition has gone down the toilet, your putting on weight and you’ve got no energy. The result is that you will look at what’s happened since you’ve started building your internet business around your job and all you can really see is the negatives. Being tired, lack of energy and family resenting you. So the advice that Stuart gives - and it’s advice that he’s given to personal students at the SFM & DEA that have gone onto build successful online businesses - is to schedule in down time. This gets easier when you’re running a profitable online business full time.
Schedule Some Downtime
Recently Stuart has made sure that every morning he gets up and does some exercise, like going for a walk with the dog or having a swim. He’ll also sit in the jacuzzi, sauna or steam room. He often starts his day at 11.30am after most people are stressed out after their commute and morning meetings. At this time Stuart is just getting started where he can choose whether he works at home or at the office. It’s worth every bit of effective effort you put in to building a profitable online business because the end result is more balance in your life. This is so important in the long-term and it’s something that’s take
Stuart six years to master.
Hopefully you can take some guidance from this. The one important factor that Stuart has found when building an internet marketing business is to be sensible with your scheduling. The “steady Eddy” will often be the one who yields the best results in the long-term. If that means you only have an hour a day on your business, then it’s better to have an hour that’s productive. This should be a time when you are not feeling negative and when you are focused.
Those who take the gung-ho approach which will not last and they’ll become one of the statistics who quit their online business. This usually happens in the first six to twelve months of getting started online as it takes a lot of work, effort and learning new skills sets. But an hour of proactive money producing activity each and every day is going to be as much a 10X the value to building your profitable online business rather than two to three hours of unfocused work which is not sustainable for the majority of people who still have a job and family responsibilities.