Dr.Meredith Butulis is a Physical Therapist, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Yoga/Pilates Instructor, and 2x gym class failure turned world-level athlete. She is the author of the Mobility/Stability Equation, creator of the Fitness Comeback Certification, and host of the Fitness Comeback Coaching Podcast. Most importantly, she is a resource to support your wellness. Grab her free 30 Day Return to Fitness Blueprint here.

As an entrepreneur, you drive forward endlessly with passion, creativity, and care – until one day you don’t. Maybe you experience rollercoaster highs and lows; maybe you quit because you are tired of naysayers; maybe you freeze when you perceive competition, maybe your passion fizzles from rejection.

If you feel stuck, like someone has deflated your entrepreneurial life force, then I have a real-life story with a solution that can give your business a boost.

It was Memorial Day weekend 2023 in Tampa, Florida (where the temperature is above 90⁰F). It was my sixth year competing at the World Tri-Fitness Challenge. The three-day competition includes physique posing, tumbling fitness routines, obstacle courses, bench press, box jumps, and a shuttle run. Placing in the top 10 requires stellar performance as an all-around athlete. As an adult-onset athlete, I know my strengths, but I have many weaknesses too.

As I prepared for the first day, I sat on the ground in a full snow suit (including down-feather filled booties) running a massage gun up and down my legs. My choice of attire received some curious looks. People that didn’t know me assumed I was a first-time competitor who had lost my suitcase. A teammate came up to me, “Hey, aren’t you going to warm up? They’re already starting!” “Thanks, but I’m good here,” I replied.

The truth is that I wasn’t good. As an athlete, I know the value of dynamic warm-ups. The best performance comes from increasing heart rate, getting the muscles working, and challenging flexibility within the proper ranges of control. Warm-ups aren’t just physical, as they prime the mind and body to work together in the finest orchestration for the best performance possible. What I was doing looked more like recovery science in the middle of a Minnesota winter.

In 2020, I sustained a spinal cord injury that temporarily paralyzed my hands, and parts of my legs. While I mostly recovered from it within a year, sometimes it flares up at the least convenient times. This week was one of those times.

Three days prior to the 2023 competition, I was out for a walk and my left knee seized up completely. It was like a cartoon pirate peg leg, stuck fully straight with no way to bend it. Being a physical therapist, I immediately went to work trying to convince my nervous system to let it go. Massage gun, cupping, mobility, kinesiotaping, bracing, anti-inflammatories . . . nothing worked.

My brain panicked: I have three days to get to peak performance. What now?

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The words of one of my business mentors, James Patrick, popped into my head: “Give yourself grace.” The context was new, but the idea was not. I needed a new strategy ASAP, so I took the message literally. I started praying for wellness not just for myself, but all of my fellow teammates and competitors too. As an athlete, I also acted counterintuitively. This wasn’t going to be a taper, this was going to be a total shut-down. Since walking, stretching, and even moving just made the situation worse, I resorted to sitting and lying down for three days. It wasn’t my first injury, so I shifted my mindset. I trained my brain instead of my body. Every few hours, I would either watch my practice film, or replay the fitness events in my head. I used every opportunity to mentally fine tune performance timing while giving the body the complete rest it demanded.

On the first day of the competition, I had three choices: 1. Withdraw from the event, 2. Act on upcoming uncertainty, 3. Use the mental skills of mindset shift that I had been practicing. I decided that the best option was to give 100% commitment to option three. I ran through my performance in my head, and told myself, “You’ve practiced really hard all season; you know what you are doing; go out there and entertain the audience.”

When Meredith’s injury flared up, she knew she had to lean in to the mind/body techniques that would relieve her physical symptoms while strengthening her mind.

The result? A stellar performance. I repeated the same mindset shift, snowsuit, massage gun passive warm up for the next two days. And it worked. I PR’d for time in two events, placing first in my age group for six out of seven events, and a fourth overall world placing. I’m still at a loss for words on the amount of joy and energy that emanated all around.

As I reflect on this major win as an athlete, this was not just an external win. The challenging circumstances strengthened the ability to trust my intuition. I realized that the mind-body strategy of knowing when and how much to shift the energy from one part to the other part not only serves to peak athletic performance, but also business performance. Sometimes we drive so hard with either our body, or our mind that we cannot produce the desired result. When our body works past its limit, it will shut down with injury or illness. When our mind works past its limit, it will shut down with burn out.

As an entrepreneur you don’t need others’ permission or approval. Instead, listen to your intuition and commit. Don’t be afraid to temporarily shift the dial in one direction. If your body physically feels drained, skip a few workouts. Try playing music, drawing, coloring, or singing aloud with your favorite tunes. You don’t have to be trained; just tune out your concern about what other people think, and do what feels right.

If your brain feels drained, start moving. Go for a walk, try yoga, find an online video or magazine workout, go to the gym, or turn on music and dance around your house. It might take five minutes; it might take five days, but allowing yourself distance from your endless drive into your passion just might be the grace that you need to discover your next competitive edge.

Don’t stop there. Spread the love by sharing this mind-body shift with other entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and athletes whose well-being you care about.