At the young age of 16, I read a book that forever changed my life. Written a 100 years ago, “I Dare YOU” preaches a life of balance. William Danforth was a man well ahead of his time. His writing is corny, written for an early 20th century audience. Many of his directives will simply make you laugh. His fundamental principles are ones I challenge myself to follow every day.
Sales professional live with an incredible amount of pressure. There’s little subjectivity on how we are doing. Our performance is delivered every day in black and white; we’re either making our goals or we aren’t. That intensity leads so many to burnout. Protect yourself against that burnout and increase your productivity by simply living a square life.
Picture the four sides of your life’s sides: physical, mental, spiritual and social. As you build your daily and weekly schedule, work to ensure you’re giving attention to all four sides equally.
Physical:
You don’t need necessarily to become a gym rat. You do need to take the time with physical activity to increase your heart rate. Cardio can be as simple as going for a walk, running on a treadmill or enjoying an intense tennis match. Combine that cardio with some weight training. Some kind resistance training will help build your endurance. Simply holding plank for two minutes will help build core strength! Nationally recognized exercise guru, Sean Foy, gives the absolute best exercise for you to do TODAY! His advice? The exercise you should do is the one you WILL do.
Mental:
As sales people, we are focused on the “busy-ness” of our business and rarely take the time to build a sales strategy. We don’t even take the time to THINK about our business. I challenge you to add to your planner “think” time every week. Block out just one hour a week time to build strategy on building new business, better serve your existing business and genuinely reviewing your goals. I don’t mean revenue goals; sales managers will usually do that for you! I want you to set weekly personal achievement goals. Perhaps you attend a networking event; challenge yourself to walk away with three new contacts.
Social:
Interpersonal relationships feed your soul! And when your soul is fed and happy, you will be more productive! Take the time to nurture professional relationships and personal friendships. Time spent socializing is just as critical as your physical exercise!
Spiritual:
By “spiritual,” I don’t necessarily mean formal religion. Take time for yoga, meditation, a walk in nature. It may be music that feeds your spirit! It may be a place that make your heart sings…the mountains do that for me! Make a habit every day of taking moments to connect spiritually.
Danforth’s philosophy is all four sides should be balanced. Whenever I’m feeling stressed, I look at my square…does it look more like a triangle? Have I neglected one of the four sides? Two of the four sides? I know I’m out of balance and that’s driving my stress.
Live a balanced life! I DARE YOU! To lead a square life! 
