My Body – Mind Connection

Everyone has a different perspective on what has made them successful. I’m asked this a lot by women just entering into the meaty part of their careers, which I define as the years where you are really focused on career fit, advancement opportunities and earning potential. I invariably answer by talking about being physically fit or “in good shape”. I’m a person who got somewhere because of my resilience, among other attributes, but a positive mental attitude was only possible for me because of my deep unbending commitment to keeping my body fit. For me, being strong in the workplace, in the home, with my family and friends all came as a package – and the package was fueled by feeling alive and in shape, which in turn brought me mental clarity in every aspect of my life. There are very few things in my life that I’ve never compromised, and being in strong physical condition is one of them. 

I started off in business long enough ago that it was still noteworthy for women to be bosses, lead male teams and run companies. It was even more noteworthy to be one of those women who also “worked out” as a matter of course. During the early days of my career I played competitive level rugby and gave it up at 30. It was my first hard choice as a young professional - rugby or career. I was getting a little run down from playing a full tackle sport for 12 years so it was a good decision all the way around to choose my career. 

When I left the team, I searched for something that was as rigorous as rugby but could be done on my own schedule. This proved difficult because I was bored with gyms and hated going someplace where people worked out to be seen. I found one of the first bootcamp classes in Chicago. This was over 20 years ago, so it was novel. And it kicked my butt. I went 5 evenings a week and had no time to be bored. The problem was that I was moving up in my company and could not get out of work in the evenings on a schedule any more. I was working 65-70 hours a week, traveling at least 15-20 weekends a year. I was completely out of sorts with missing my work out routine. 

I realized the only control I had of my time was in the wee hours of the morning before work. I also have to explain that I hated the morning. I hated getting up early. I was just bad at it. (To put a fine point on it, the only truly negative feedback I ever received from my first bosses was that I was late all the time and if I wanted to move up, I had to fix that.) I knew where this was headed. 

I was running a company at this time with 500 people reporting up through my organization. I was a role model and I took it seriously. I ran races with my teams, I sponsored sporting events, sat on the board of a dance company – I knew I had to figure out how to reprioritize my time in order to stay physically fit. 

So, I made my second big decision driven by my desire to advance my career and not compromise my fitness regime. I started going to bootcamp at 6 am. For me that was up at 5:12 am, in the car by 5:30 am and at the Lake by 6 am. Two huge cups of coffee and I was ready to go. The first six months were truly horrible. Every morning when I woke up, I wondered how I was going to make it through the day. It took me a good 6 months to shift the circadian rhythms of my body into a morning person. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it was a huge shift for me in the face of late nights at work, frequent travel and less time for family and friends. It was so worth it. 

To this day, I work out 5-6 days a week, even though the stress of my work life has subsided. My advice to women is always to just do what you can, but do something for your physical self. When you make it part of a routine, you’ll never look back.