Reggae Sumfest’s Joe takes on a new ‘balanced’ lifestyle
Published:Monday | July 9, 2018 | 12:00 AMStephanie Lyew/Gleaner Writer
Balance seems to be the key to Josef 'Joe' Bogdanovich's youthful energy, as he has adopted a more holistic approach to life. As the principal of Reggae Sumfest and Downsound Entertainment, Bogdanovich has had to reassess his lifestyle, especially as his schedule becomes full this time of year as the staging of the largest festival in the island approaches.
"When you travel the world, you see all sorts of people, and get to observe how some persons enjoy life more than others - it is not a question of money or poverty," said Bogdanovich.
He added, "It's a perspective - how you treat one another; more essentially, how you treat yourself. As you get more experienced, you just learn how important health is because with a sound body and a sound mind, you have more fun and more fun is what life is about."
The business tycoon said that while in college, he was swayed towards eastern philosophy, which is a diverse body of ideas centred on understanding the process of the universe. According to Bogdanovich, although it was hard to understand Confucianism, he grasped that the key lesson was about maintaining a balance.
"And Jamaicans and Rastafarians always talk about balance; and in entertainment, it means a lot of different things," he said. "For a deejay, balance means let me talk balance, but in terms of holistic health, it means to be able to get the ying and the yang - the left side and right of your brain, the unconscious and subconscious; everything, including emotions, in order."
CHANGING LIFESTYLE
The Downsound CEO endured losing his partner three years ago, and although he mourned privately, it has had an obvious effect on the way he views life. He expressed that when an individual experiences an accident, or some type of misfortune, then a different perceptive arises.
"It may be cliche, but it is true - when a person is younger they think they are infallible, with so much energy and exceptional amount of hormones (not that I don't have a tonne of that), but what's happened is that I can change my body and habits to become more youthful-looking," he said.
He says this involves his daily routine that always includes at least 45 minutes in the gym - this is after breakfast, and joking around with his seven-year-old son, where he always has a bowl of rice ball cereal and almond milk.
"Exercise is critical. You should do it every day so you can work harder, last longer and clear your mind. This then makes it easier to do the work, but sometimes it is hard because I don't have the time to exercise and as a result, it takes me a lot longer to get things done and I don't have as much patience."
He admitted that the Reggae Sumfest period makes him slightly negligent with his exercise routine. "I am a little sloppy with the stress from just planning the show," he said.
During the planning and execution stages of the festival, it becomes a lot more challenging, as it poses a change in his sleeping and eating habits. Rather than getting up at four in the morning, Bogdanovich says he is getting to bed at that hour.
"Worse than junk food is eating food late and going to bed right after. That's how you put on the weight. You are what you eat. You have to find balance."
It's easy to get consumed by the humdrum of a packed workday, paying bills, meeting company executives and fulfilling endless responsibilities, so much so that personal health and caring gets forgotten. But Bogdanovich says with his balanced lifestyle, he is finding more happiness to wake another day, even as the festival presents longer days and eventful nights.