As your kids try to squeeze every last bit of fun they can out of the summer days, you’re getting ready for the fall. School starts along with the holiday business season. There’s so much to plan, schedule, and organize, it’s enough to make your head swim. Slow down! Take a moment to recharge and refresh your mind and body before it all begins. While you’re at it, take a lesson or two from your kids.
5 Lessons for Business Owners as Kids Go Back to School
Being an adult, and a business owner at that is full of never-ending work and stress. There are never enough hours in a day, days in a week, or weeks in the year for the work that needs to be done. You’re perpetually swamped, and it’s easy to lock into your weekly routine and forget some of the important things in life. Consider the following 5 lessons we can all learn from kids:
1) Laugh! Often.
Kids love to laugh! So much so, they’ll often laugh when nothing is really all that funny. Laughter, as it turns out, truly is good for the soul. It reduces the levels of stress hormones in your body immediately while also increasing the production of serotonin and endorphins which reduce the effects of stress.
Put simply, it reduces stress and the effects of stress in your body very quickly. Laughing often is good for your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. And people are drawn to people who laugh and smile often.
2) Make Time for Play
Play is always mission #1 for kids. When deciding on what they want to do, they’re constantly assessing the fun factor. Play is even how they initially learn. Kids love to play, and they’re very good at it. For most adults, however, play is often seen as unproductive, irresponsible, and a waste of time.
While too much of anything can become all of those things, adults need play too! It’s vital for creativity and solving problems. It exercises your brain in ways nothing else can. It’s also central to relationships. In other words, play builds stronger teams.
3) Try Something New
Kids are always discovering the world. Everything is new until they encounter it for the first time. They’re accustomed to learning and growing and trying new things. As an adult and business owner, you also need to keep growing and learning to keep your edge. One way to keep your brain engaged and growing is to keep trying new things. Find something you’ve never done but always wanted to try and do it! Find something you’ve never even thought about trying and give it a go. Give your brain something new to process. Do it as often as you can.
4) Be Social
The best part of the school day is always the lunch hour and any other random free moments to socialize. As humans, we are social creatures and need community and friendship. We need to be connected to others and we need conversation. Kids do it automatically, every chance they get. It’s easy for adults to neglect this much-needed part of life.
Find a way to have regular social time with other adults. Find a tennis partner. Join a bible study. Start a poker night with your friends. Find or create opportunities for regular social interaction. You need it. Everyone needs it.
5) Dream Big
Kids dream big dreams about life. They aren’t afraid to dream bigger than themselves. They don’t know and don’t care about what’s possible or probable. Kids just dream. Dreaming is good for everyone. Something happens to us as we become adults, however. Somewhere along the way, we lose our ability to dream big dreams with reckless abandon. Reality sets in. We know too much. We know how life “works”.
It’s the biggest dreams, however, that bring the biggest and best realities to fruition. It’s far better to dream bigger than you know is possible and achieve half of it, than planning for the “possible” and accomplishing all or a part of it. When the dream is big enough, people will rise to the occasion and accomplish the impossible. Try it.
Let the Kid in You Come Out!
As you prepare for your end of year cycle and your kids go back to school, don’t forget to let the kid in you come out. Laugh often, make time for play, try something new, be social, and don’t forget to dream big! We are also still in hurricane season, so make sure you and your business is prepared for possible inclement weather scenarios.
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