Act like a kid. It’s good for business.
So, I can attest to life as an entrepreneur being an ongoing battle with juggling multiple projects and ideas. This past week however threw a few more balls in the air. A few sick kids later, and there goes all of my scheduled meetings, time at the office, and having to grind through the days working from home. I have everything I need (and more) at my home office, but can we just say distraction central when you’ve got kids around? You know what I’m talking about.
Hey dad, I’m hungry…no I don’t want that…Well what can I have?..Fine! I just won’t eat anything!..
Hey dad, what time is that birthday party on Friday?…What does perseverate mean?..What do you mean I’m doing it now?..Huh, I don’t get it, what am I doing to perseverate?…
Now fast forward to this week and my youngest bounced enthusiastically right back into school. The other two however decided to “linger” with mild symptoms. Hey, I’m a nurse and a child health consultant. I couldn’t in good conscience or clinical judgment send them to school so I figured by Wednesday I would be good to go and it would be full steam ahead. This whole ordeal was pretty stressful and I was reliving the days when they were home sick just about every other week.
Tuesday evening my oldest says to me, “don’t forget tomorrow is late start at school.” This lovely occurrence happens about once a month, but I somehow neglected to notice it on my calendar.
“What?! Good Grief! I’ve got to cancel another meeting?”
Let’s jump ahead and get to my point before the story starts to disintegrate. Okay, it’s now Wednesday morning and I’m feverishly trying to catch up on everything. I’m attempting the impossible. I’ve already been working in the evenings and burning the candle at both ends. So as I start to find an off beat rhythm, I feel myself struggling to focus on just one project and I keep getting pulled in various directions. I’m distracted again and my son is outside playing with the other kids who also have late start. I then hear the sounds of skateboarding, and I perk up.
If you don’t know this about me, you will now. I was a HUGE skateboard rat back in the day. I lived for it. It was the one thing that allowed me to experience every possible emotion, but it simply just brought me peace in my sometimes chaotic childhood.
So I decide to embrace this feeling again. I drop my pen, throw on some protective gear (hey, I have to be a good role model for the kids), leave my stacks of paperwork, grab my board and head for the door. Now I’ll admit I’m a little rusty and nowhere near the skateboarder I used to be. It’s not as graceful, but I can still do a nollie 360 shove it kick flip like this:
My kids of course love to see me skate, but my wife, well she just looks at me like I need a friendly reminder about how I’m not a kid anymore. I love you honey, but I’m having fun. Besides it’s a great bonding experience with my boys, not to mention I get to totally school mentor the other kids who are just starting out.
The stress melts away, I’m throwing high fives for the tricks we’re all landing, and my oldest keeps telling me to stay outside until he has to go to school so I know he’s having fun just hanging. It’s moments like these that I realize I’m blessed to have a thriving business and I get to turn down projects because there’s just no bandwidth available. It’s busy, but I still get to hang with my family.
As an entrepreneur I’m steering this ship and I get to make those decisions about the what, when, and where of my work. I still have to remind myself of this because I will let it swallow me up, and if you’re not cognizant of this then it will very likely happen to you.
If you’re distracted, you’ve neglected yourself physically, or if you haven’t nurtured those relationships, then you need to put down whatever it is you’re doing and get cracking. In some cases such as mine, it might be time to act like a kid again. Let me put the parent hat on for a moment and tell you to make good decisions, but just let go for a moment and embrace what’s most important in your life. Sure it’s great to get your cardio on, but don’t forget to laugh and act goofy every now and again.
Business is business and I can “crush it” with the best of them. I live this stuff, but it isn’t worthwhile unless I get to call the shots in my personal life as well. I’m not always going to be able to land those tricks and one day my boys will probably think I’m not as cool, but I’ll hang onto that for as long as I can and enjoy their company.
The take home message here people is balance. Find it, practice it, and live it.
Having the opportunity this morning allowed me to feel refreshed. I powered through all of that paperwork and my desk is clean. I answered a ton of emails and called everyone back. I even got a chance to squeeze in this post.
Thanks boys. Dad loves you.
[…] Get your kid groove on says Kevin Ross at Innovative Nurse. […]