Workout and Grow Rich: Healthy Habits to Fuel Your Best Success - Softcover

Lieber, Perry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1630477184 ISBN 13: 9781630477189

Publisher: Morgan James Publishing, 2016

Synopsis

Most of us know that we need to work out to be healthier and live longer lives, but did we know that our success at work depends on it? Elite personal trainer and workplace wellness expert Perry Lieber knows it, but he doesn’t want you to take his word for it. In Work Out and Grow Rich, interviews with his most successful clients (such as Greg Renker, founder of Guthy-Renker, and Mark Bissell, CEO of Bissell) reveal the habits that helped them become rich in every meaningful sense of the word―and how you can too.

About this title

About the Author

Elite personal trainer Perry Lieber is a proven expert in bringing wellness to the workplace and fueling peak performance at the highest level. He is the founder and president of Foundwellness: The Workplace Workout, which helps businesses create healthy work cultures, and the elite training facility The Workplace in Santa Barbara. His clients have included professional athletes such as Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks, Kyle Singler of the Detroit Pistons, Fab Melo of the Boston Celtics, celebrities such as Glenn Frey, lead singer of the Eagles, and corporate executives such as Greg Renker (Founder, Guthy-Renker) and Mark Bissell (CEO, Bissell).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Workout And Grow Rich

Connecting The Dots Between Health And Wealth

By Perry Lieber

Morgan James Publishing

Copyright © 2016 PERRY LIEBER
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-63047-718-9

Contents

Foreword by Andy Puzder, 
Introduction: Why Working Out May Be Your Secret to Success, 
Part One: The Seven Healthy Habits of Success, 
Chapter 1: Create a Routine, 
Chapter 2: Grow Your Career from Your Passion, 
Chapter 3: Collaborate, 
Chapter 4: Learn from Your Mistakes, 
Chapter 5: Lead from Within, 
Chapter 6: Set Meaningful Goals, 
Chapter 7: Sweat Every Day, 
Part Two: How to Make Working Out Part of Your Success Routine, 
Chapter 8: Food Is Fuel, 
Chapter 9: The Workbody Program, 
Chapter 10: Putting It All Together: Two Case Studies, 
Conclusion, 
Appendix: Bonus Resistance Training Workouts, 
Acknowledgments, 
About the Author, 
Further Resources, 

CHAPTER 1

CREATE A ROUTINE

Have you ever missed a work meeting, missed a workout, showed up late for an appointment, or stayed up until two a.m. to finish a work or school project because you ran out of time? I know I've used that excuse many times: "I just didn't have time."

The truth is, we all get stressed, tired, and behind in our schedules. The reason isn't that we don't have enough time. The reason is that we're not making time for what's really most important. If you can learn to make time on a regular basis, you will become more successful, have more discretionary time, and simply be a happier person. The secret to having enough time is creating a routine. I know, it sounds too simple — like the way life was back in grade school. Remember grade school? Wake up, eat breakfast, go to school, play at recess, go back to class, eat lunch, return to class until school ends, go to some afterschool activity (music, sports, daycare, etc.), go home, do your homework, eat dinner, play, go to bed, repeat. Those were the good old days, when things were simple and easy.

As adults, we forget how powerful the simplicity of routine can be. There's no longer one schedule that fits all: Some people work nights, others work multiple jobs, and some people have families while others do not. So how do you create the right routine for you?

Based on what I've learned from my clients who are rich in every positive sense of the word — in health, wealth, happiness, and purpose — a successful routine includes three main components:

1. Setting boundaries

2. Setting priorities

3. Getting up early

Set Priorities

Have you ever felt overscheduled and overcommitted? We all have; it is a major cause of stress. If you often find yourself in this situation, it's a good indication that you need to set your priorities, which is the first step in creating your routine.

Mark Bissell is CEO of Bissell, a family-owned business probably best known for its vacuum cleaners and floor cleaners. Like most business owners, Mark has a lot on his plate.

I have a tendency to overschedule. I mean, I love doing things. Whether it is work related, or we get invited by friends to do really fun things, or it's working out, a year or more in advance, I start slotting things in. At the time, it makes sense. And then I think of something else, and then I think of something else, and it kind of stacks up. Every now and then, I realize, Hey, I'm overcommitted. And then I start getting stressed, which manifests itself in different ways.

I just have to step back and say, "Okay, focus. What are the three things that are important?" I do not like canceling things. If I make a commitment, I am driven to do it. But sometimes, I find that I just have to cancel. So one thing I am trying to do better with is not overscheduling. Creating more time. Because things kind of fill in as the day and the week and the month progress. If you are already scheduled half a year in advance, you know there are going to be problems.

To set his priorities, Mark says to himself, "Okay, focus. What are the three things that are important?" What three priorities are most important to you? Mine include:

1. Family Time

2. Working out

3. Eating healthy

You might be surprised to see that "growing my business" or "becoming a top speaker" didn't make it to my top three. Why? I believe that the physical is the foundation of the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life. So in order to be a better husband, business owner, friend, student, and trainer, I need to sweat first and keep moving (see chapter 7 for more about this habit).

Mark told me that one of his top priorities is his family business.

Family is important. Business is important. I've got a great company, a great legacy, and my goal is to build on that and to nurture the next generation where possible to continue to invest in the business so that it continues to do well and prosper. So I put a lot of time into that. That is one of the things that I would like to have more time for, just for the succession planning and the work that goes around that, because it is work. If you just [say], "Well, we'll see what happens," that doesn't work out well.

You have got to manage the family process actively. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources out there that can help, because there are so many family businesses now. While they might be very different in terms of industry, there is a lot that they have in common. Whether they are large or small, 80 percent of the issues are pretty much the same. ... It's important to know what these businesses look like and the typical traps they fall into. Because you've got not only the business issues, but you have the whole dynamic of family and all that that represents, so I have put some thought into that as well.

He also works hard to protect his family time at home.

A night at home doing nothing is a real luxury. I try to protect those times a little bit more than others. Otherwise, the evenings can be relatively full also.

Mark also prioritizes his workout time. Not only does he and his company sponsor and endorse a professional cycling team, he is also an avid cyclist.

Now, in biking weather, I do block a lot of time for that. There are groups that I ride with or certain events that I do. Whether it is the morning workout or an actual event, you've got to block the time, you know. It has to be as important as any other meeting. Nobody is going to give you that time if you do not take it for yourself. So I block those times and everybody knows that. They do not know the details. They just say I'm not here.

To drive this home, Mark also prioritizes working out, nutrition, and recovery to fuel his overall success as a CEO.

I probably average between six to seven hours of sleep; it is probably closer to six. I get up at six in the morning — I have a little workout routine. Nothing too much. Some stretching and Pilates-type stuff every morning. Two mornings a week I will do an hour of weight training. I have a small gym at home, which is perfect for that, and then depending on the season, my workout routine changes.

I eat a light breakfast, normally a coffee, eggs, and some grapefruit. I eat a reasonably light lunch and I usually have a pretty big dinner. I know that is not the normal program most people do, but I have always enjoyed cooking and eating good food. So for me, dinner is really important and I refuse to just have a pizza or have a sandwich unless I am really desperate. I would rather take the time and either go out or make a nice dinner. That is always part of my routine and I enjoy that. I usually have a couple glasses of wine with dinner. Not all the time, but more often than not. Never or very rarely during the day do I have anything to drink.

During the day my schedule is pretty full; I travel quite a bit for work, have meetings, spend time with customers, and of course keep up with email. I just came back Sunday from a two-week trip in Asia and the Middle East. That throws off your schedule completely, and you're exercising less and you're eating more. During trips like that, I do now go crazy, because it is harder to recalibrate when I get back as I get older. My sleep is off. Everything takes longer. As you age, I think, even a good workout takes longer to recover from.

You may not know Greg Renker, but you have likely seen one of his commercials for beauty products (Proactiv+, Meaningful Beauty, WEN Haircare). Greg is the founding principal and co-chairman of Guthy-Renker, one of the most successful and reputable direct marketing companies in the world. When I asked Greg who he would say he was, he answered: "father, husband, tennis and golf enthusiast, executive." It is pretty easy to see where his priorities lie: family, health, and then business.

I asked him more about how he fits in family, working out, and work on a regular basis. Here is a day in the life of Greg:

That's a great question. First of all, I fit it in because I'm blessed. I'm blessed to live in a country that enabled me to build my own business, so the free enterprise system and capitalism enable me to have the freedom to make that choice. Therefore, because I have my own business, I set my own schedule, including when I travel.

Yes, I'm in the gym every morning at seven a.m. and I leave the gym between eight thirty and nine. I'm always in the gym a minimum of ninety minutes, usually two hours. I always use a trainer unless I'm riding a bike. I never work out without a trainer. That's a pet peeve. I want to do the proper technique. I want someone else to do the thinking for me. I also enjoy being in the moment of working out ... not anxious to get it over with and finished with it, but appreciating it while I'm doing it. The beauty of having a quality trainer is that it enables you to focus on the moment and the technique and the movement, so it becomes very precise and it's a lot like your favorite sport. It's like being totally into golf where you really, really want to get better each time you do it. You're trying to get better. That's what makes it fun.

Then I go to the office. I would say five days a week, I'm moving again by five thirty p.m., either on the tennis court, on a bike, or in a pool for a thirty-minute to forty-five-minute burst before dinner. That's the routine.

Patty Aubery is the president of Jack Canfield Companies, the umbrella organization that oversees the training, events, and coaching practice of Jack Canfield, author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She names health as one of her top priorities.

I think health is a huge component of the different areas in your life. You know, we talk about business and health and home and relationships and everything else. I joke about it: I say, "If I'm sad, everybody's miserable." When you don't feel good, you don't have the clarity you need. You don't have the stamina you need. You don't have the sleep that you need. I mean, everything's kind of off. And I also believe that it's something we can completely control in our lives. It's a formula, like everything else — just like success. And I tell people [when] they say "How much do you weigh?" [that] I don't weigh myself, because I know if I'm doing the right things I don't need to. I'll be a size four. It's just clear.

Jerry Oshinsky, the attorney known as "the father of insurance law," views family as his top priority.

Well, I think family always comes first over everything else. I've always been very fortunate in being very fast at what I do and being able to absorb a lot of information in a hurry. Fortunately for me, I don't have to worry about any of the things that most people worry about, [such as] where do you write your checks, and where is your bank account, and how do you pay the mortgage? My wife, Sandy, does all of that. I have no idea how any of that works, and I've never had to do any of that. She even prints my boarding passes for the trips. I've been very fortunate in having that kind of support.... I can focus on the substance of the legal work that I do and also spend a lot of time with the family and [at] family events like soccer games and basketball games and tennis matches and things like that.

Plus, I've never needed a lot of sleep. I've always been able to get by most of the time on five or six hours. Every so often I have to catch up, but I've usually been able to spend eighteen hours a day doing things, which allows me to spend time not only on my professional life but also my personal life.

Set Boundaries

Once you've set your top priorities, your next task in creating your routine is setting boundaries around those priorities. Patty notes that women in particular tend to feel guilty about setting boundaries around time: I think the biggest struggles really come from your belief about time and where you should spend it. I think a lot of women spend time feeling guilty. They feel guilty when they're not at work, and they feel guilty when they're not at home. And so for me, it's more about living in the moment and being present wherever I am.

The ability to be present in the moment is a sign you've not only set clear priorities, but that you've set clear boundaries around your priorities; you know that what you're doing right now is exactly what you need to be doing. Also, when you focus on being present in the moment, fully aware of your surroundings, you can also make good decisions about new requests. Instead of saying yes to a request without thinking, you can take a second to remember what is truly important to you and choose what would produce a positive result in your life.

Before I got married and started a family, for many years I used to work twelve to fourteen hours a day, five to seven days a week. Truthfully, I had no boundaries regarding my work time because at that point in my life, I had no competing priorities. My choice was simple: More work equals more money, so work more hours.

Since I've gotten married, I have learned to set boundaries because I have new priorities: I love to spend time with my wife and enjoy fun activities with her. I simply make a choice: I choose to spend time with my wife rather than work ridiculously long hours. When I became a father, my boundaries became even more sacred to me. Family time definitely trumps working too many hours, and when I am careful to maintain the boundaries between work time and family time, I am simultaneously creating a higher demand for my work time. It's simply a fallacy now that more work equals more money. The opposite is actually true: Less work equals more money, because my rates have increased due to demand.

So setting boundaries all comes down to making a choice. In every scenario, we always have the choice to say yes or no to an opportunity or request, and this choice can lead to either negative or positive circumstances for us. We may not always like our choices, but the choice is always ours. Uber successful people understand this: They are fully present in the moment and aware of their surroundings, and they make choices to set appropriate boundaries on their time according to the situation. Angel Martinez is the CEO, president, and board chair of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, a footwear manufacturer with seven popular brands including Teva, UGG Australia, Sanuk, and Hoka One One. Angel understands the power of choice in creating necessary boundaries (with the help of his wife, he admits). In his company, he tries to help his employees set healthy boundaries as well.

We hire a lot of people (we have quite a few employees now), and I'm looking for balanced employees. I'm looking for balanced people. People who don't live in an office and just never leave the office. I want people to get out and do stuff on the weekends, during the week, at lunch time, whenever. Our team tries to facilitate that.

As a matter of fact, our new office building is going to have a workout facility, a third-of-a-mile jogging path around a marsh area, basketball courts, and other fun stuff. In addition, we've also included a program for smoking cessation, weight loss, and a variety of other things.

First things first, you've got to be a healthy person. That's all part of being a productive employee. If you're not, I don't believe you're going to be that productive, and I think you're going to be very unhappy. Plus, it's not good for the culture in the company if people are stressed out, unhappy, and feeling trapped by work.

Setting boundaries on your time, so you can honor your commitments and know when it's time to shift to your next priority, helps keep you balanced and healthy.

Get Up Early

Because we now live in a world with 24/7 instant access and communication, even when we clearly set our priorities it can still be difficult to fit everything into a day. This is why my most successful clients find it extremely important to wake up early.

Jim Corcoran is senior vice president of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. He's clear about his family priorities and wants to be a good example for his kids, and for him, it all comes down to getting up early.

You get your ass up early in the morning. What else do you want me to say? After work, my kids have games and I want to be there. They are all active, and the reason they are active is because they see me being active and I'm in their face encouraging them, but they are talented as well. They see me working, they know how fit I am, and they are saying, "Hey, I can be as healthy as that."

I know, I know, a lot people say they are "night owls" and just "can't" get up early. But I believe it also comes down to making a choice in light of what you really want in life. So here are ten reasons why getting out of bed sooner so often leads to success.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Workout And Grow Rich by Perry Lieber. Copyright © 2016 PERRY LIEBER. Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1630477184
• ISBN 13: 9781630477189
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 172