It’s almost midnight. I’m still wide awake. This is somewhat disconcerting. I like my sleep. Anything less than 8 hours and I’m like a bear with a sore head. It’s a little strange too. You see, I’ve been disconnected from the ‘real world’ for the past fortnight. I’ve been off the grid in sunny Thailand. Not one night that I spent there with my family did I have any trouble getting to sleep due to my overactive brain. Yet, I’ve been home for two nights now and tonight I just can’t turn off. I’ve plugged back in, I’m online again. I’ve been looking at numbers. I’ve been thinking about business. And now I can’t switch off.

I don’t think this situation is all that uncommon in the modern world. In fact, I think it’s almost ‘normal’. Sleep is becoming more and more desired and less and less accomplished by far too many people to count. Scary. And I expect to hear more and more about illnesses, accidents and otherwise unhappy incidents and occurances related to lack of sleep.

I think there is a lot to learn from the locals in Koh Samui. They seemed to lead a simpler, more laid back life. Yes, they had less but they also worried less, rushed less and (I expect) enjoyed more. I learned a lot watching their world as an outsider. I am going to try and implement some of their uncommonsense. When I’m not busy I’m not going to look for more tasks. When there’s time for rest, I’m going to take it. When my family is around, I’m going to be fully involved in that moment.

So, you want to start your own business, huh?

It’s a massive step that you’ve decided to take and one that is filled with sacrifice and reward. Owning your own business is one great way to develop cash flow that will fuel what you want to do with your life. It is not the be all and end all but if you do it right it can be the start of something very big indeed. I am still learning about business, I make no secrets about that. In the few years that I’ve been running my businesses and the years that preceded in which I did piles of research I’ve learned a few important things that a lot of books and a lot of ‘experts’ don’t tell you. I’d like to share some of them with you now.

1. Why?

Before you take the jump ask yourself ‘why am I going into business?’ It is paramount that you know why you are doing it. Is it because you can do it better than your current employer? Is it because you’ve discovered a way to make a lot of money? Is it because you don’t like working for other people?

There is no right answer, but you need to know why so you know where you are starting from.

2. You’re just an apprentice

If you’ve never owned and operated a business before, you have a lot to learn. You will have to familiarise yourself with accounting, taxation law, human resources, suppliers, debtors, creditors, marketing, scheduling, sales, management, networking, planning, meetings, negotiation and much, much more.

Understand that your first business is your apprenticeship. Sure, you may think you know enough. Here’s the truth: you don’t. Be receptive to feedback from successful business owners, ideas from family and friends, and comments from customer. Read books, surf the web, get familiar with your industry, join an association, and find a networking club. Do whatever you can to learn about business.

3. It’s gonna take sacrifice

Here’s the big one. You are going to have to sacrifice a lot to achieve success. Business is an all-consuming beast. Many friendships (and even marriages) have come second to business. I’m not suggesting that you divorce your spouse and stop seeing your friends (far from it). However, you will – more than likely – see your friends less (at least in the early days) and you may have some tension with those close to you (they might not understand your passion and laser-like focus).

Going to the movies, Friday night drinks, your favourite hobbies and alike will all have to take a backseat for you to get started properly. Sure, you can start a muse-style business but this might not be the best thing right off the bat as they take a lot of nous and experience. Muses don’t necessarily take time but they do take smarts.

You have to be able to delay gratification. You won’t get everything to work on day one but if you keep at it and sacrifice where needed, your dedication will pay off.

4. Who cares?

You may have the best idea in the existance of space and time but who cares? Just because you think it’s great doesn’t mean there will be a demand for it in the marketplace. Before you spend your nest-egg starting up, do some research. Perhaps spend some money on PPC advertising to see if there’s a demand for what you want to provide. Research your prospective industry, is there room for you? Tightly define you niche; there’s no use in being general, be specific, the more specific the better. Selling training courses to human resource managers of five-star hotels is a tighter target niche than selling training courses for human resource managers.

So, ask yourself “who cares?”
And then “will they continue to care?”
And best still “how can I make them care?”

5. You will lose sleep

Unless you are super-human owning your own business is going to cause you to worry. It’s unavoidable when you start out and it’s predominantly related to the fact that you are unsure of yourself, your chances of success and most importanty what to expect. Worry diminishes with experience. Unfortunately, by definition you can’t be experienced when you’re a beginner.

Worry will cause you to loose sleep. I don’t consider myself a worrier but I do find myself looking at the ceiling when I should be asleep. I’m simply mulling over issues and trying to plan my next step. As I said before business can be all-consuming. I like thinking about my business so it doesn’t bug me too much (except when it really cuts into my sleeping time).

Be prepared to lose sleep. Whether due to worry, or planning, or thinking, or working long hours, it is highly likely that you will lose sleep. Deal with it as best you can. And be sure to get back on track as soon as possible. Your sleep is important to your success. The better you sleep, the better you will perform.

There are not many worse ways to start your day off than a terrible night of sleep (or more accurately: lack of sleep). Waking on the wrong side of the bed due to bad dreams, inability to get comfortable or a mind that won’t stop ticking is infuriating at best. This is something that we all have to deal with from time to time. But we don’t have to accept it as standard.

Not getting a good night’s sleep is bad, mmm-kay.

If you are regularly waking up cranky, tired or otherwise not at your best, then it’s time to start taking steps to remedy the situation. Don’t let it get out of hand. If you are tired you are never going to be able to contribute fully at work and you will more than likely rub your friends and family the wrong way too. More seriously, you may be a danger to yourself and others on the road, at work and at home.

When my clients turn up to morning training sessions looking like they’ve just gotten home from a night of clubbing it’s time for some questions and answers. If you are getting to work and desperately reaching for your mug of hot coffee whilst yawning and wiping the sleep from your eyes, you need to take a good hard look at things too.

Here are a few things I recommend to those struggling to get a good night’s sleep:

• Get into a rhythm – try to rise and retire at the same time every morning and night. Your body craves rhythm, once you get used to the pattern it will become natural.
• Hit the sack when your body tells you too – if you feel like it’s time to go to bed then it’s time to go to bed, don’t watch the rest of the TV show or read another chapter of your book. Your body follows its own inner patterns of about 90 minute intervals, if you don’t go to sleep when you get tired chances are it will be another 90 minutes before your body and mind will relax again.
• Don’t watch the TV right before bedtime – TV stimulates your brain, all those bright lights and flashy noises aren’t going to calm you down, are they?
• Write down what’s on your mind - before you go to bed write down everything that you are thinking about, list your tasks for tomorrow and anything else that needs attention. Now forget about it and get some sleep.
• Meditate – you don’t have to be a reclusive Zen monk to benefit from a little meditation. Keep it simple – find a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed and let you mind wander for 10-15 minutes, once you’ve thought everything through your mind will relax all by itself.
• Nine is the magic number – aim for nine hours of sleep every night in a totally dark room. Sacrifice whatever you have to in order to get to the magic number.

Good night and good luck, Adam.

If you are happy to believe that 9 hours of sleep each night is what you reaaly need. (It is. Especially if you work hard and play hard.) Then try this exercise: calculate the hours that you slept this past week. Now subtract the total from 63 (7 nights x 9 hours).

That’s how many hours of sleep you missed this week.

So, if you generally sleep 7- hours per night you are effectively missing a WHOLE night of precious sleep.

So, I’m doing a lot of research for my book about the three pillars of health and fitness – sleep (and rest), diet and exercise – and their connectedness and I come across the term Ultradian Rhythm. Now, I’ve heard all about Circadian Rhythm before but this term was new to me. Yet, it turns out I’ve known about the concept but not the terminology for quite some time. I think you might have inherently known about this too.

This description of ultradian rhythm sums it up pretty well: “Ultradian rhythms are biological rhythms with durations shorter than circadian rhythms (i.e., shorter than approximately 19 hours). They include cardiac, respiratory, neuroendocrine, gastrointestinal, tidal, and other rhythms.” (source)

No doubt most of you have probably experienced the frustration where your body tells you to go to bed but you decide that you’ll watch more TV and then when you retire to bed a bit later you can’t get to sleep for love nor money. Guess what? That’s an ultradian rhythm at work. Your body is cycling every 60-90 minutes and if you miss or ignore that “go to bed, fool” signal then you have to wait for the next one to come along.

The thing is that ultradian rhythms aren’t related only to sleep patterns but many other patterns that occur during the day too. I guess the description above indicates that, eh?

If you aren’t getting a regular break from work then this could be why you are burning out with excessive stress levels. Some research suggests that we need a break every 60-90 minutes our output becomes sub-par and our stress level rise. Not good for you or your boss.

So, what does this mean? Well, it could give you a damn simple way to relieve your stress levels, get a better night’s sleep, perform better at work and did I mention sex? Yeah that’s right if your understand these rhythms a little more you just might become a superstar in the sack too.