How walking can help you and your business grow By Jackie Jarvis Walking Business Coach

Walk and Grow Rich

May 18, 2018
by Jackie Jarvis The Walking Business Coach & Natural Selling Expert

How walking can help you and your business grow

I have always called the bridge close to where I live in Wallingford, ‘Magic Bridge.’ I wonder why I hear you asking.

Well, I think that crossing it is magical. I love the view of the beautiful Thames river as it flows beneath, the peace and quiet of the early morning just as the sun rises, the light shinning on the church spire flanked by the bright green of the meadows and trees. Magic Bridge always seems to give me energy, whether I am walking or running over it or simply looking up at it from the riverbank.

Now, what has ‘Magic Bridge’ got to do with growing a business?

Magic Bridge in Wallingford is the start and end point for my walking business coaching sessions and the starting point for our Wallingford Natural Netwalks for business owners and their employees.

I regularly see how it works it’s magic on the spirit, momentum and clarity of the business owners that walk across it.

When we walk over Magic Bridge at the end of the coaching sessions and back to my meeting room for tea and biscuits there is a buzz in the room. The buzz of real actions being planned. The energy of a firm commitment to the plan. I have noticed an ease and a flow that is often not the case at the end of an intense meeting in the office.

What is it about walking that is enriching?

Hippocrates said over 2,00 years ago ‘Walking is a man’s best medicine’ and a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that he was not wrong. Many medical studies have been carried out to verify the health and well being benefits of even as little as, 20 minutes walking a day.

Walking is low intensity exercise, easy on the joints and great for getting your blood flowing. Walking helps to power up your brain as well as your body. You feel good during and after a good walk as chemicals called endorphins are released, which naturally lift your mood.

You can expect a natural buzz!

Let go and Let in

A good walk does wonders for your mental well-being. Walking forward in the fresh open air enables you to clear your head and let go of all the intensity of the day’s activities. Being outside helps to set you Free from the heavy thinking you may have been doing inside.

Once you are outside moving forward you will find a vital space appearing in your mind, space for new insights.

What stops you?

Most of the people I work with want to grow their business, make positive change, overcome challenges and make better decisions. They want to feel happier and more satisfied. They may even know what to do but for some reason they are not doing it, something is blocking or stopping them.

I am engaged because there is something that is blocking, confusing or frustrating that they can’t get over by themselves. They know their business, but I know how to get the best from them.

I have found walking business coaching to be the most effective and enjoyable way to help.

Walk and grow Rich

By walking the benefits of coaching are much more easily accessed, walking outside in a different environment incites emotions and enriches conversations. Walking side by side helps with free relaxed thinking and as a coach, my job is to listen and gently guide the conversation in a way that enables self-reflection and insight.

Many busy business owners want to grow but think that, that means they must keep pushing hard, working all hours and putting their own well-being on the back burner. The problem with this approach is, once the thing that you have been pushing for is achieved, often your level of happiness does not reach the dizzy heights thought it would. And then it is often a case of ‘What’s next?’

If you give yourself time out to walk as you grow your business, you may find that the direction you end up taking will be one that you know with absolute clarity is the one you are happiest taking.

Stepping forward

At the end of my walking business coaching sessions when we walk back over Magic Bridge, I ask my clients to visualise the positive changes they have spoken about, as if they were a reality. Then they take those important steps back over the bridge, walking and growing rich at many different levels, as the light shines over the church spire.