20 Tips For Better

Work/Life Balance By Paul Miller

Welcome! Thank you for downloading this ebook to help you take better care of your health whilst running your business. Life is short so it is important to live it in our best possible health and wellbeing or all that hard work we do for the business would be for nothing.

Having always been so driven to succeed, I inevitably found myself devoting

too much time to work and not enough time to the actual ‘living’ part. What I found was that I had such a distorted view of what success actually is and that I was getting unnecessarily old before my time.

I knew things had to change, therefore I had to develop a deeper knowledge of how to look after myself whilst managing a big work load. Turns out it is actually very easy to create balance, you just have to be willing to seek the life that you actually want to live.

So What Is The Answer? We just accept there is a process we go through in life, yet it really doesn’t have to be that way. The most laughable thing I hear as an excuse is that you

have ‘let life take over’. No, I think you’ll find that life is what is passing you by as you plunge yourself further and further into restrictions.

What we really want from life is to get more out of it. Have more fun, more excitement. We want optimal health and vitality. We want to live more, we want freedom. So why do we spend so much time ignoring this and decide to

spend most of our waking time working?

In this ebook I will share with you 20 tips that you can apply today that are

based on my unique ‘5M’ framework. If you really have the desire to create a balance in your life, salvage your health and ultimately feel young again, then

you absolutely can. You just need to stop taking life so seriously!

!!

1. Move

A vast majority of the clients I have worked with have had some kind of pain and injury that I have had to address before I would allow more intense training to take place. This is because being sedentary for long periods can cause all kinds of issues such as stiff joints for example. !Below are 4 tips to help you reduce the risk of injury and even reduce the pain symptoms of existing injury.

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Increase Your Weekly Exercise By 45 Minutes

Chances are that it is difficult for you to find the time to exercise given that you are constantly working. I

get it, I know exactly what that's like. However, when you realise that 45

minutes is just 0.43% of your week then I have to say that there really is no excuse. You may already train regularly which is great, but you can

never have too much movement so do something light if needs be.

!!

Choose Your Favourite Exercise or Sport

I am often asked what the best type

of exercise is; to which I always

reply, "your favourite type". You are more likely to stick with something if you enjoy it. You know as well as I do that gyms are boring so pick something you love doing and start

getting back into it. It doesn't have to be anything major, just something

that get's you moving. In a recent survey I did, a few people mentioned that having a dog was great because they had to take them for walks and

it also gave them thinking time as

well. I'm not suggesting you head to your nearest pet shop now but just the point that anything is good if it gets you on your feet. Do the Hokey

Cokey for all I care!

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Mobilise Your Hips

Given the fact you spend most of your waking moments being seated, it is a safe bet that you have lost the m o b i l i t y t h r o u g h y o u r h i p s . Regardless of what your favourite sport is, it is vitally important that stay on top of your mobility work. This is of greater importance if you play racquet sports or football as there is a lot of change of direction required and with stiff hips your will put your knees as a very high risk of injury. If you currently have dodgy

knees you may start to notice the

penny drop a little right now! Check out my YouTube channel for all kinds of mobility drills.

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Get Up From Your Desk Every 90 Minutes

Lifeguards have to do this for their concentration levels so why are you going to spend hours in the same position and risk losing productivity

(and mobility). Even if you just got up to walk to the other end of the office and back, or if you work from home, walk up the stairs and back down regularly throughout the day. I

drink plenty of water so I find myself

needing the toilet quite often!

!!

2. Mindset

We may have the best intentions and even have a strong will power to succeed in what we do. Unfortunately, however, some of our best intentions are short lived. !Below are 4 tips to help you uncover what it is that you truly want and what you can do to get it.

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It's easy to just go after your number one value. The trouble is, as I have experienced personally, is that we go about achieving it the wrong way. For example, my number one value is Freedom, so to get that I attempted to work all the hours under the sun chasing....Financial Independence. As a result, I would neglect training sessions and eat quick convenience foods that would compromise my health. What I realised is that this is what pretty much everyone does and I thought to myself, where am I going to be in 10 years time if I carry

on this way? I would have lost

everything I stand for. So I figured out that my top three values are Freedom, Health & Fitness and Financial Independence. I now life my life giving equal importance to all three.

Figure Out Your Top THREE Values

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As if you haven't already got enough

to do, right? Well this shouldn't take

too much time if you're clever about it. Simply use the Notes app in your phone, put the date and time before each entry and make a brief note of what training you did and how you measure it i.e. a 5km run in 24m 42s or Deadlift 5x5 100kg. Then for nutrition, a quick note after each meal. The training diary will give you

a bench mark to improve upon for next time and the food diary will give you that stark realisation that you could probably eat better.

Keep A Training Journal And Food Diary

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You know the value of accountability and no doubt you would have been making full use of it throughout your professional career. So why not apply

it to your health and wellbeing too? Maybe team up with a business associate or friend in a similar position and hold each other accountable to carry out as many of these tips as you can in 30 days. You could have a friendly competition or you could just touch base weekly to

check on progress. Either way, just make sure you have something positive to report back with.

Be Accountable

!!

You didn't get to where you are now professionally by sitting around waiting for things to happen, you went and made them happen. That is exactly what you need to do for your health. And the hard truth is that

you're not getting any younger so you need to start right now. Get aggressive with it and see out the

30 days starting from today!

Take Immediate Action

!!

3. Meals

What I have come to realise when it comes to eating is that we eat for one of three reasons. We are hungry, we need nutrients or there is an emotional driver. Working long hours and having lots of stress and pressure leads us to make poor food choices. !Below are 4 tips to help you combat the emotional driver and enable you to feel more empowered when it comes to food.

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Eat The Healthiest Thing On The Menu

Remember why you are out in the first place. You are either socialising with friends and family, or you are having a business meeting. You are NOT there for the food. At least not for most of the time anyway. We have a strange relationship with food and I believe we seek it because we are unfulfilled in other areas of our lives. You will have a better evening if you eat the best thing on the menu and just enjoy the occasion. Laugh, joke and have fun. What you will notice is that your energy levels go through the roof. Treat food as fuel not as sabotage. I

can honestly say this is the biggest difference I have made because whenever I would go out I would use it as an excuse to indulge and it made me feel horrific the next day.

And that is without alcohol!

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Snack On Nuts

Cravings can get the best of us sometimes and it is very easy to grab unhealthy snacks to get us through the day because there is just so much rubbish everywhere we turn. Pretty much anything that is labelled

as healthy really isn't healthy at all so even if you do have good intentions you will find yourself fooled. Snacking on nuts and seeds will do wonders for you. They are high in fat so will increase your

energy and your health. My nut of preference is the Macadamia. It has the h ighest levels of mono-unsaturated fat of all the nut family.

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Cut Out Sugar

Just stop consuming sugar. It's not easy, but just do it. I believe sugar is the cause of anger. I find myself getting really worked up post sugar consumption and it is the smallest of things that spark irritation and frustration so I just cut it out completely now. Not only that, it will give you a spike and will drop you. To combat this you will have more sugar to bring yourself back up and a vicious cycle starts to begin. And

we're all scratching our heads wondering why there is so much

illness and obesity in the world?! !

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Replace Coffee With Water

No, seriously! You drink coffee because you feel you need energy or

some kind of pick me up. You don't actually need that. You need to eat better and get good quality sleep. Keeping on top of those two things will mean that coffee is the last

thing you'll need so drink water

instead. It's much better for you and will aid toward better energy levels and vitality.

!!

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4. Manage (time/stress) Running a business is a full contact sport. It can be unpredictable and often be quite inconsistent. Being time poor can lead to a lot of unnecessary stress and pressure. We impose a lot of this on ourselves without us even realising. !Below are 4 tips to help you combat stress and start to create more time for the things in life we really enjoy doing.

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Watch Cartoons

Sounds crazy I know but I stumbled u p o n t h i s i d e a w h e n I w a s babysitting my nephews once. I had an incredibly long week and was stressed up to the eyeballs. They made me flick through the kids channels and we found classic Tom & Jerry which I remember watching as a kid as if it was yesterday. Not only did they make me chuckle but it also gave me that association of

being a kid again when you didn't have a care in the world. I tend to watch a lot of Family Guy instead

now as it is a lot funnier!

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Juggle....literally

I must admit, given that my mind runs at 100mph I really struggle to switch off and meditate so I got the idea of juggling from watching a TED talk on Mindfulness by Andy Puddicombe. He used juggling balls to demonstrate his point. With juggling you need to be there in the

moment with 100% focus or you will drop the balls. 10 minutes is enough

each day to help switch off and reset your brain.

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Do, Ditch or Delegate

If you're anything like me you will constantly have a list of about a million things that you think you need to get done. Then you get

annoyed when you don't do them. So now that I am giving you 20 more things to do in your life you really need to start prioritising really, really

well! What tasks provide you with

the most value? What tasks do you think that you could ignore without the world coming to a premature end and which tasks could you outsource.

Chances are that most of them sit in the latter two categories so really

look closely. This isn't something

that you don't already know but I am constantly finding myself being sucked back in to long to do lists very easily.

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Get A Virtual Assistant

Whether you are a one man band or you own a small business, no doubt there is a huge workload. The best way to handle that is to figure out the important things that you really

don't like doing but yet must be done and outsource them to a VA. They are cost effective and very efficient.

It's a no brainer really.

!!

5. Madness

We have forgotten what it is like to have fun. We spend so much time working and just let life sail by. I believe that fun and laughter is the cure for everything. I never used to take anything too seriously and then suddenly found myself trapped. !Below are 4 tips to help you recapture that inner child and just enjoy being here in this time.

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Book A Secret Holiday

A few times each year, me and my friends throw some money into a kitty and nominate one person to book flights and accommodation for a weekend. The rest of the group has no idea where they are going until they arrive at the airport. The suspense adds to the excitement and you may even find you end up in places that you have never been before. When it was my turn I

organised Madrid and got tickets for a Real Madrid game where Gareth Bale scored an absolute screamer.

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Do A Fun Activity Each Month

Is there something that looks incredibly fun that you would just

love to try but haven't got round to? If so, do it! Maybe it is Zorbing? Maybe it is GoApe? How about

trampolining? Whatever it is, make sure it will give you a laugh and do it

once per month!

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Socialise Weekly

Socialising with friends really helps you unwind and let off some steam. Although it is very easy to do this in

a pub or a bar. Don't get me wrong I definitely think that a beer with friends at the end of a long week is actually very good for you. The trouble is that one beer can very easily turn into several and before you know it you have no energy and an ever growing beer belly. Get your

friends together and play a sport or do some hiking or physical activity of

some sort. There's your extra 45

minutes covered! !

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Play Pranks

I love playing practical jokes. Not so sure I love them being played on me but when I get someone good it has

me in stitches! The laughter you get from this g ives you a great endorphin release that helps you de-stress and unwind. It also helps you not take life so seriously. The point is that if you start acting like a kid again it will help you realise that life is there to be enjoyed and not

something that forces us to follow a particular path to your death bed. Make the most of now. Mess around, act silly, have fun. Just whatever you

do, don’t ever get old!

Paul Miller

P a u l i s t h e f o u n d e r o f www.moveplayexplore.com which is a c o n c e p t d e s i g n e d t o h e l p entrepreneurs and small business owners recapture the body, energy and vitality of their younger self. !Paul is on a mission to create communities of fit and active, fun loving business owners all over the world that want to get the most out of life.