How To Run A Home-Based Business Without Killing Yourself: A Lesson From Our Kids

If you run a home business, you're probably struggling with a common problem: How to run your home-based business without running yourself into the ground.

If you're a parent, part of the answer may be right under your nose. In your children. Not only do kids have an invaluable sanity-saving life lesson to teach us, but they also are the incentive for making this solution a priority.

Here's what I mean . . .

See, I sometimes have to grit my teeth when homework time hits.

My son wiggled in the womb and hasn't stopped for the entire 12 years of his life. Even for homework.

Trying to make sure he concentrates on his math . . . and intervening every five minutes on behalf of his sister who wants a little quiet for her studying . . . is beyond frustrating.

But sometimes I can step back a bit and see something else in his incessant movement – Life!

A few years back Mayo Clinic researchers discovered an interesting phenomenon. They found that people who have that aggravating habit of fidgeting tend to be skinnier.

Looking deeper into this, they discovered that you can actually lose more weight by moving more at low speeds throughout the day, than hitting the treadmill for an hour.

Kids instinctively do this. They fidget, twitch, jump, wiggle, giggle, roll, skip, run, mosey, bounce, hop and spin.

Us adults – we've forgotten how to do this. We sit down sedately at desks and get to work. And we're killing ourselves slowly.

As my husband points out,

"It's not that we grow old and stop moving. We stop moving and grow old."

And this has deep implications for your business: This boundless energy we see in our children springs from the instinct to move. Movement fuels movement and energy.

Not only will adding some wiggles and jiggles to our day keep us slimmer, but also more energized, productive and – plenty of research behind this – more positive mentally.

Now, I still want my son to eventually learn how to sit still when necessary and focus. When I find 7 errors on his math homework on an especially bad day of wiggling, I know he needs to learn this skill and be able to apply it strategically.

But I also don't want him to completely lose this instinct to move.

So here's the flipside – what are we teaching our children?

First Lady Michelle Obama has launched a big campaign trying to get kids to move more. It involves schools, community programs, sports teams and more.

But I think she's got it wrong. Kids don't need to move more.

We adults do.

Kids will do what their parents do. When our kids see us stuck to the office chair and then the couch, glued to our screens, what do we expect them to do themselves?

Keep wiggling on their own?

No, they're going to follow our lead.

When they see us worry about our health and express hopelessness about changing it . . . that's what they'll feel too.

And when it comes their future . . . when they see us throw ourselves into our work putting health, family, emotions to the side . . . what do you think they'll do when they grow up and have busy adult lives?

Now it isn't easy to integrate healthy habits into our tight schedules as parents and home business owners.

I'm a health nut and sometimes I still have had a hard time doing what I know I should do to stay healthy. I've got my business to run, my kids to feed, and the house to clean – you know what I'm talking about!

But I knew there had to be better way to live and work and play than what we're doing more and more of these days.

I found that it can be done with the right mix of decisiveness and strategy.

By taking a page from our most lovable wrigglers and gigglers, I found we can transform our health. By making movement and healthy living an integrated part of our lives instead of an isolated hour at the gym, we can make it easier and a more effective part of our day.

And most importantly, by modeling a more active healthy life we can nourish that part of our children that loves to move and feel energy coursing through their veins.

What better tool can we give our children than the knowledge that in order to live well and succeed in business, you need to invest in your most valuable asset – your health.