The aging entrepreneur keeps moving forward

Like I mentioned the other day, I have aged a bit since jumping into the world of being an entrepreneur. In fact, almost thirty years have whipped by me. Many things remain the same, but some things have changed.

My entrepreneurial traits that remain:

  • I’m still very fearless in business.
  • I still fear a few things like: being struck by lightning, being hit by a flying baseball, hockey puck or golf ball and I still hope I never meet a snake.
  • I still have a strong sense of humor, love comedy and gravitate toward people who make me laugh.
  • I still believe personal responsibility is a big deal. And when people don’t take responsibility for their actions and blame others for their fate, that’s not a laughing matter, it’s a character flaw.
  • I still love my work, in fact so much that most of the time it doesn’t feel like work, but extremely satisfying play.

Some new human conditions that recently have shown up:
While my mind and passion for business and entrepreneurship remain high and are still on the “GO track”, my body has been signally some new trends. Most of which I’ve managed to fix, like gray hair – there’s hair color for that, some new facial geometry – there’s Botox® for that and even my true age – you can lie about that. But the next one I’m still working on and can’t say I’ve found the fix yet. But as an optimist, I’m confident a solution is near.

I’ve been diagnosed with Osteoarthritis. Just hearing the name creeps me out because it sounds like a very old person’s disease. Well, it turns out it’s not. Osteoarthritis can affect young people and active athletes too and most people will get some form of this condition as their bodies’ age – or we can say ‘mature’.

My case makes me feel like I’ve been hit by a Mac truck every morning. Throughout the day I get very shifty and my neck stays pretty pumped with pain. This started about a year ago. I went to a doctor just recently and she told me after reviewing my x-rays that I’ve likely had this bad boy, Osteoarthritis, for over five years.

Well, I’m not going to let some lame disease slow me down, even though there is no cure, there are things one can do to minimize the pain and I’m all about that. So this past month I embarked on a full throttle, super-sized, manage-this program.

Yes it was extreme and expensive, but I need my body in sync with my mind and saying GO! Not NO! After all, I may be aging a little but I’m not turning in my serial entrepreneur card and I have many big goals that I’m determined to reach.

So for any you that may share my pain, here’s what I did and what I believe is working.

  • I hired a stretching coach for three days a week.
  • I got regular acupuncture treatments and took a bunch of Chinese herbs that tasted like what I can imagine eating incense tastes like. If you are in Tampa, I highly recommend Dr Jiang.
  • I got a massage every week.
  • I started taking a non-addictive muscle relaxer at bedtime.
  • I started taking Advil daily.

I can’t say all the pain is gone. But my neck is more flexible and less sore. My body is still pretty tight and hurts in the morning. I play tennis 2-3 times a week and for some reason when I’m in the tennis zone and playing well my pain is completely gone.

So my move forward plan is:
I ended the stretching coach. Once I learned the stretching moves, I wanted that hour back for myself. With any coach, small talk is required and that stressed me out, especially when my work plate is really full. I need that time to think and fix stuff. The stretching coach investment was worth it because not only do I now know the exercises, but my coach also introduced me to a couple of stretching tools like my big fitness ball.

and a Real-Ease Neck and Shoulder Relaxer.
Real-Ease Neck and Shoulder RelaxerMassage & Relaxation Products)

So from here, I will continue to stretch throughout the day. This means: no more 6-hour long writing sessions, remain disciplined and keep moving around whenever possible. I’m also going to maintain the massages, acupuncture, muscle relaxer and Advil.

The big message to my fellow aging entrepreneurs–stay loose, keep moving forward, have fun and take care of what hurts.