Taking Care Of You

There is more to business than business

As many of us go about setting up our businesses, we’re extremely conscientious to make sure we have all of our “ducks in row”, so to speak. We write a Business Plan, the Financial Plan. We put Disaster Recovery and Marketing very near the top of our thoughts; we look forward to the influx of clients we just know are waiting for us to tell them we’re ready to begin working with them.

However, one or two crucial tasks, often neglected, ought to be considered, too

When setting your sights on working from home, and when writing your Business Plan, you may want to include a chapter, or at least a verse, on how you will “take care of you”!

Now, you know, we grow up learning about the many elements of the important food groups, and how drinking enough water to almost drown ourselves is somehow good for us. Some recent studies have changed the “drinking 8 glasses of water” thing to a fallacy so that you’re good to go if you just “drink water whenever you want”; thankfully, they’re leaving out the drinking until “soggy” and “completely saturated” part.

The reality is your physical and mental well-being are just as important as your ability to pull in prospects and capture ideal clients. In fact, if you are feeling up to 100% or very near to it, you’ll feel more like tackling anything that comes your way. You’ll also have more stamina to look a 24-hour day in the eye!

Instead, though, you become a victim

You accidentally “just” discover it.

Where did you go wrong?

It seems like it was just yesterday (more like two years, actually) that you were walking in the mall, running down the street, huffing and puffing or “preening” at the gym, taking the stairs two at a time, or using the treadmill for a trip to wherever your imagination or your stamina would take you.

Now, you’re experiencing a twinge here or maybe a “crick” there. n
It’s known as an occupational hazard, and one that seems to be compounded when working virtually at home! Alone! Completely by oneself, for extended periods of time!

It’s become somewhat of a “marriage” between you and your chair!

Now don’t get me wrong. I, too, love my computer. I love my internet business. I love what I’m doing. I love that I stick to projects and stay on task and turn out really stellar products and services on a regular basis.

But inactivity, I love…not so much!

What happened to you?

You’ve noticed how your jeans might be a little bit tighter. But that’s because the new dryer has a much better heat setting than the last one and most likely shrunk them, you rationalize.

Or when you go up the stairs you experience a huff-and-puff at step number 4 that you didn’t a week or so ago. But that’s because you are carrying a feather duster.

Business Plan – “Any Movement” Major, in Part II

You need a divorce—from your chair!

Each day or week, as you put together your goals or “to do” list, include some time for regular activity. The activity can be as simple as getting up from your chair and leaving the room—except, not heading for the kitchen.

Bust a move!

Get up and dance!

Touch your toes 10 times.

Too hard?

Then perhaps you can sit in your chair and lift your legs, one at a time, straight out in front of you; 5 or 10 times each leg.

Or try this!

Lift your arms out to your sides, horizontal to the floor. Uhhn, you know, don’t you, that your mouse is not going anywhere so it’s okay to let go of it?

Really it is!

The point is to get your body moving

It’s a well-known fact that exercise releases endorphins that play around with your happiness and your ability to lose weight (or to keep the excess away in the first place). In fact, regular exercise of 20-30 minutes three times a week can get you happy and put you on a nice little high.

So listen to your body talk. But if it says it would rather eat chocolate than get you up out of your chair, put it on “ignore”!

In the end, with such diligence, no doubt, you’ll be fitting into those jeans again in no timennnn