What You’ll Take Away
◆ You cannot outperform your body. Physical and mental health are not side projects; they are the foundation everything else is built on.
◆ The leaders who sustain excellence over decades treat their wellbeing with the same discipline they bring to their work.
◆ Burnout is not a badge of honor. It is a system failure.
BONUS: I will give you an AI Prompt at the end to keep track of your health!
The Wake Up Call
I spent most of my thirties running on caffeine, adrenaline, and the belief that sleep was negotiable. I told myself I would rest later. Later, when the launch was done. Later, when the deal closed. Later, when things calmed down.
Don’t get me wrong, I always tried to be active. Skiing, Crossfit, Hot Yoga, Spin Classes. I’ve done them all and really love being active. But in life….
Things never calm down.
What did happen was my body started sending invoices for all the rest I had deferred. The back aches got worse. The energy dips got longer. The patience got shorter. And I noticed something I did not want to admit: my best thinking was happening less and less often.
I was not burned out in the dramatic, collapse at your desk way. It was quieter than that. I was operating at seventy percent and had convinced myself it was a hundred.
You cannot lead at your ceiling when your body is running on fumes. The math does not work.
Why Leaders Ignore the Obvious
There is a culture in high performance environments that treats health like a luxury. Sleep when you are dead. Grind harder. Push through. It sounds motivational until you are the person sitting in a doctor’s office wondering how you let it get this far.
I have seen brilliant executives make terrible decisions because they were exhausted. I have watched creative leaders lose their edge because they stopped moving their bodies. I have been the person in the room who could not see the obvious answer because my brain was running on four hours of sleep and a protein bar.
The turning point for me came during my time in Costa Rica. My wife and I had relocated there during the pandemic, and for the first time in years, I had space. Not vacation space. Living space. Room to walk, to think, to sleep properly, to eat food that was not grabbed between meetings.
Within weeks, I felt like a different person. My ideas were sharper. My patience was longer. My ability to see around corners came back. I had not gotten smarter. I had gotten healthier. And the difference was staggering.
Treating Your Body Like a Business Asset
When I came back from that experience, I made a decision: I would treat my health the way I treated a quarterly target. Measurable. Non negotiable. Tracked.
This was not about becoming a fitness influencer. It was about acknowledging a simple truth: my capacity to lead, to create, to show up for my team, all of it runs through a body and a mind that need maintenance.
You track revenue. You track engagement. You track growth. Track the one metric that makes all the others possible.
I started scheduling exercise the way I scheduled calls. I started protecting sleep the way I protected creative time. I stopped glorifying the nights I worked until 2am and started recognizing them for what they were: poor planning.
The Compound Effect of Showing Up Healthy
Here is what nobody tells you about taking your health seriously as a leader: the returns are not just personal. They ripple through your team.
When you show up rested, your team gets a better version of you. When you prioritize your wellbeing, you give your people permission to do the same. When you model sustainable performance instead of performative suffering, you create a culture where people can actually do their best work.
Your health is not a side project. It is the infrastructure. Treat it like one.
Community Challenge: The Health KPI Check
This week, pick one health metric and treat it like a business KPI. It could be hours of sleep, glasses of water, minutes of movement, or days without checking email before bed.
Track it for seven days. Write it down. No apps required, just a notebook or a note on your phone.
At the end of the week, ask yourself: did protecting this one thing change how I showed up for the people around me?
If this resonated, drop HEALTH in the comments and tell me: what is one thing your body has been asking you to change that you keep putting off? And if you want the simple KPI tracker I use to keep my health and performance in sync, comment TRACKER and I will share it.
BONUS: AI Prompt to keep track of your health
Step 1. Set up Folder In Your Favorite AI Tool. This is so you can stay organized from the start
Step 2. Upload every blood test you have to date. I currently get my blood tested every 6 months. I track the following: Cholesterol, A1C, Vitamin D, etc.
Step 3: THE PROMPT:
“I want you to remember and keep track of all my health records and blood tests. Please keep track of trends, especially for results that are on the board of normal. Please store this in memory.”
You can also upload as many results are you want. You can even track your weight!
SUPER PROMPT: If you really want to take it a step further. I do have a much longer prompt I can send you. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter, if you have not done so, COMMENT HEALTH!