This may not sound like business talk but one of those things most home based small business owners tend to forget to do is to take time out. This fact in particular has surfaced lately & is close to my heart because of my own experience. Health problems could have been avoided by simply taking time out. It’s easy to get caught up in the flow of work & business management where you just keep going, & before you know it, it creeps up on you and ‘bang’ the time-out factor is forced upon you because your health breaks down or you break down. Then you start thinking about how you could have avoided it all if only you had taken care of yourself. I don’t think we allow this to happen on purpose and there is usually more than one contributing factor which can lead to this. But it does creep up on you like the frog in the pot of water – the water begins nice & cool for the frog & the frog is nice & secure in it’s familiar surroundings that it doesn’t realise the heat under the pot is also heating up the water, ever so slowly, that it may be too late when the frog realises it’s in hot water. 

I’ve been like that little frog and I thank my God that the water didn’t reach boiling point for me. I’ve had to stop, pause my business (only keeping it going slowly) & try regain my health. Slowly but surely I’m now getting back on track with my health, taking things a day at a time, and doing jobs one small step at a time. Hopefully it won’t be too long before I’m back to my usual self….. well, minus the crazy overwork. Although for me it was a culmination of personal circumstances as well as business that brought me to a halt, temporarily, I realise the importance of taking time out. We all know about it but usually continue to ‘soldier on’ believing ‘we can manage ok’ because we have to. Something as simple as going out for a short walk, meeting someone for coffee, browsing through non-business related web sites, or remembering what your hobbies are & get stuck into them again are amongst some of the things you can do to help keep yourself healthy.

It’s those Little things that will help fend off those mind & body break downs which will ultimately force you to stop whether you like it or not, whether you want to or not. We feed our children, take care family, we help out friends, we work, we pay our bills …… but the do we knock off at a reasonable appointed time to end the working day? Do we rest when we’re tired? Eat when we’re hungry? Drink when thirsty? No? This is not good and only adds to the recipe for disaster. It’s best not to wait before something happens but do it now. If you find that things are starting to get out of hand, then slow down, look after yourself, take time out without feeling guilty, before it’s too late, because you are important.