Walking for the Health of Your Business

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In our family, walking is an important part of our lives. Whenever we can, we try to walk the kids to school, my husband walks every morning for exercise, we make it a habit to always park at the end of the parking lot when we go out (also keeps dings & dents to a minimum), and when the weather is warmer we usually take a walk in the evening after dinner.

Our Human Resources manager, Faiza, also recommended walking in the early mornings to strengthen your vision. She had received this advice from her father who said that focusing one’s eyes on the green trees and plants in the early morning helps keep the eyes healthy and keeps vision from deteriorating. We all know that green is an uplifting color, reminding us of the beauty of nature, the permanence of life, the cleaning properties of plants, and of course good health (remember to eat your veggies). It is a deep, vibrant, and powerful color too, and and now we find out it can help improve vision.

Walking Meetings

Of course, I also do my Sunday morning walks with fellow entrepreneurs in our neighborhood to share ideas & tips on building our business. We share our experiences that week on what worked and what didn’t work in our businesses. Granted, it’s also a social affair and we do talk about lots of other things from kids, the news, and the local gossip. I don’t mind this. The business talk is a great ice breaker to start off with, especially in the early morning when we’re not completely awake yet. The important thing is that it adds some fun to the walk and makes the business stuff (which can be pretty dry) easy to talk about.

I never liked “walking meetings” when I worked as a staff person. There was always a sense that we were being led around and forced into a walk we didn’t really have time for. This is why it is important to keep it light. Obviously you can’t jot down notes in a walking meeting, so it should never become a mandatory, critical, or forced part of the work day. It should exist to complement the existing work, to offer a break from a stuffy office environment, and a chance for everyone to breathe a little.

Walking for Health

Walking is good for physical health, but it is also psychologically healthy. This is particularly the case during periods of great stress that many entrepreneurs experience when starting their businesses. For many, this involves long hours hunched over in front of computer screens, lots of low-cost travel and cramped conditions in hotels, tedious trainings, and a lot of time away from loved ones. In this environment it is incredibly easy to just hunker down, keep plugging away, and not take any breaks. This is bad for your health both physically and mentally.

Take a break and go for a walk, even if you just have 15 minutes. Go outside and take a look at the greenery or if you are in a big city, take the time to be around other people just walking the street. Even a very short walk outside every couple of hours is better than not doing this at all. I speak from personal experience writing my dissertation for hours on end that this is so incredibly important.

Working from Home

For those working from home, they typically shut their kids & pets out, turn up music or a loud fan, and try to pretend that they are isolated from the world. I know kids (and pets) can be a distraction, especially when they come home from school, but they are also a wonderful opportunity for a break. You don’t want them planted in front of a screen (or in our case, the Xbox) for hours just to be out of your hair.

So go for a walk together every couple of hours. It will be good for you and them. Starting a business from home is incredibly difficult, but even if you become extremely successful, you don’t want the memories from those first few years to be miserable ones? Well, neither do your kids.

Managing Your Meetings

Entrepreneurs also have lots of indoor meetings with clients, customers, staff, lawyers, suppliers, etc. Most of these people we are meeting with are specialists in their specific area, but as a small business owner you usually aren’t. Your job is typically to be responsible for the bigger picture. Your job is to coordinate the work of these specialists so that you can move your business forward with their help, input, and ideas. This may seem simple, but it is not and it is very common to fall into the habit of focusing too much on those things we can’t possibly become experts at – this is their job.

Taking a walk outside right after the meeting is extremely important. You need is a short break to focus your thoughts on what just occurred in the meeting. If you were in the meeting with an associate, this is the time to talk about the meeting during that walk. Compare impressions, make mental notes of the important things that stood out, and let the discussion converge to how this will help your business.

When you get back to your office, you will likely jump right back on your email, you’ll answer calls that you missed and become distracted by whatever advertisements pop up on your computer screen. Don’t do this – turn it all off. Now that you’ve had your meeting, followed by a short walk to synthesize your thoughts, it’s time to jot down notes and anything else that you need to remember. You’ll be surprised how that short walk after the meeting helps synthesize your thoughts.

Walking between stretches of work just makes sense

Walking, especially outside and away from your office, should become an important part of your work routine. The more you do it, the easier it will become and the better you will be able to determine what was important and what wasn’t. Focus on the green plants and let your mind do what it needs to do to store the information where it needs to. You’ll be surprised how easy this becomes with practice.

In my case, those walks are with my kids and while you might think they distract me from my thoughts about the business, they actually don’t. I always come back to the office refreshed and focused. So go for that walk regularly, talk with your kids about completely unrelated things, it won’t matter because your mind is particularly good at compartmentalizing when it is not stressed. That is ultimately what this is about: reducing stress..

Shifting Your Mentality

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This quick article in TecRepublic gives some new insights into the Gig economy. What is interesting is that they refer to a watershed moment that we believe will have a significant impact on how it is viewed both by employers and by the Gigsters themselves. It involves a shift in mentality about work.

This is essentially a shift from seeing oneself as an employee to becoming a business operator. As a Gigster, your business is yourself: your skills and expertise are what you are selling to those who need them and everything you do is purposeful to your success. All your education and work experience now become critical as you create a business showcasing your expertise.

This shift is often difficult to make because we are psychologically reluctant to make it. For those of us in our 40s and over, we likely started working at a company where we expected steady income growth and benefits that would last until retirement. We would stay at this one job to build up a good living, pay for a house, a car, a growing family, and eventually retirement, all from this one job. These jobs are disspearing as employers look to cut the costs of benefits. Successful Gigsters understand this and price themselves accordingly.

Another factor is that in the old 9-5 jobs, concerns like benefits, the computer network, job assignments, etc. were all handled by other people or departments at the company, so those were not immediate concerns. As a Gigster, those are now very real concerns and require additional work on their own to do. Again, successful Gigsters know how to price these into their fees.

The changes in how Gigsters understand work can be daunting, but here is the key: it is also incredibly empowering. Taking control of all aspects of one’s success becomes not just a necessity, but also something that puts Gigsters in complete control. It gives them control over things they previously had no control over, including clocking in & out, the dreaded employee reviews, demotions, firing, office politics, abusive bosses, and yes, also the common harassment issues based on gender, race, beliefs, etc.

It is a trade-off, but the evidence seems to suggest that now more than ever, people young and old are choosing the Gig option instead, and this includes making this mental shift. Once Gigsters make that shift, they begin to put structures in place to ensure that they are paid what they are worth, they manage their own schedules, and chose work that is more fulfilling to them. In a way, they become the architects of their own success.

Will this be the year that the Gig economy becomes the dominant paradigm? Maybe not yet, but Gigsters, and especially Collegiate Gigsters are becoming more self-aware of their worth and this is incredibly encouraging. We at the Colégas Group fully support this and we want to provide as many ways to assist Gigsters in realizing their own success.

Like Ripples in Water, Professional Growth Happens in Ebbs and Waves

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When I decided to pursue my doctorate degree, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that I loved school and saw it as a way to continue my own personal and professional growth and development. I didn’t pay much attention to how I would grow into an academic over time, but now that I reflect on it, it was definitely not a linear process, but rather occurred in ebbs and waves.

What I was not ready for was how non-linear the process would be. There were significant fits and stops; times where my fingers could not keep up with the thoughts coming to me, and other times when I literally cried because I could not make sense of a basic idea in class. There were times when I spoke like the expert I was becoming, and times when I could not even find the words to explain my thoughts. There were times I felt like my mind was not my own, racing ahead of my comfort zone, and times when it was completely blank.

These waves of activity followed by ebbs of inactivity also affected me physically. One week I would gain weight and then the following week I would lose it again. I’m sure others who have written a thesis can relate to this. During those periods when things stalled for me, it seemed like my entire PhD would come to a screeching halt. Fortunately, I did complete the PhD and life proceeded onward. It was these experiences, these taller waves separating the ebbs, that became so transformational for me. They taught me to anticipate the patterns and to know when and how to act.

Doing a PhD also involves developing important but smaller, transferrable skills such as focus, tenacity, resilience, resourcefulness, agility, adaptability, concise writing, insight, self-knowledge, etc. These formed small building blocks for my professional development As it turns out, these skills also developed in waves and ebbs. They did not come into focus slowly over time, but instead appeared suddenly because I needed them right then & there to achieve a milestone or complete an assignment.

Coming to accept these is an intricate part of my successes over time. I hear the same from colleagues who have experienced this in their own professional development. Perhaps this process hearkens back to our human development, which also tends to come in waves – like that growth spurt when we turned 12. Perhaps our professional development emulates the natural human growth spurts earlier in life. Whatever the reason, I have come to accept these are a normal part of the process.

Interestingly, these waves also occur in our business. When we started with our website, we saw an original surge in interest that quickly reached a plateau. When we started distributing a regular newsletter we noticed another wave of activity not just on our website, but also in people wanting to partner with us. The phones rang more often, our PO box required regular checks, and email boxes filled. When we branched out into Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and LinkedIn, we saw another wave of interest.

It was because of these successive waves that we are now at the top of most Google searches – just type in Collegiate Gigster and we’re right there under the Gigster.com ad (they paid for that, so we’re not worried). With every new milestone of success, we saw the ripple effect across all the ways we interfaced with the public, from our websites to our newsletter to our social media pages.

Most recently we were asked why we don’t teach classes. A silly question, really, especially since this was our original plan for the business. So we dusted off the idea and we are starting our Collegiate Seminars this November. Again, we saw a new wave in interest across all our media. When we go live with Public Academic, we expect to see another wave hitting all our  platforms.

At Colégas we see the importance of embracing these waves as a company. We can’t stress enough the importance of recognizing this process in your own businesses. It has been my experience in life, and especially in my professional life, and it is now what I am seeing in the growth of our business. Like ripples of water on a quiet pond, growth occurs in tall waves followed by wide ebbs in between.

Transferrable Skills for the Over-40 Set

In a previous blog on transferrable skills, it was brought to my attention that the suggestions I made were more appropriate for those just finishing college and entering the workforce for the first time. That is true. That demographic doesn’t have the skills and experience that will help them land their dream job right away. Often, they have never worked and have only “done school”, so they need some coaching to identify what skills they did acquire while completing their education that can translate into skills that will help them succeed in the world of work.

The suggestion was to look at how those who are 40 or older can identify their skills and translate them to fit to the modern work environment. As I was drafting this blog, I came across a post by Jo Weech who spoke about the experiences of interviewing while 40. Her descriptions are at times funny while other times they are soul-crushing. Her recommendations are for the employer to focus on the opportunities, skills, insights, and maturity that “older” employees can bring to an organization.

This blog is about what you can do to shine. I go back to the categories I used in my previous blog and ask you to do some reflection. Look at areas in your resume and work (both paid and unpaid) experience and see how they can be retooled to fit the contemporary work environment:

Management

• Project management

• Time management

• Problem-solving

• Organizing events

• Task-focused

• Managing a budget

Supervising Skills

• Domestic and international team leadership

• Mentoring and coaching peers

• Team-work

• Interpersonal skills

• Skilled in working with diverse groups

• Leading small or large groups

Entrepreneurship Skills:

• Creating or doing something new

• Risk-taking

• Being resilient

• Winning awards and grants

• Networking

• International travel and experience

Communication Skills:

• Writing

• Public speaking

• Multi-lingual abilities

• Training others

• Keeping the important people informed about your progress

• Web, email, content creation and social media

Knowledge & Information Skills:

• Learning (taking classes)

• Critical thinking

• Research & analysis

• Managing data & information

• IT applications & programming languages

• Subject matter expertise

You may never have had to look at your resume and your experiences in these terms. Developing different ways to look at your skills, abilities, and experience gives you the insight to decipher job descriptions to better understand what it being asked by the employer. You need to become more adept at reading between the lines and seeing how to market your skills, abilities, and experience to match what is being asked of in the job description. You need to become a translator, someone who understands the job market and knows how to make your skills fit.

Remember, survival of the fittest has nothing to do with strength, and everything to do with the ability to adapt. Those over 40 experience a different kind of Imposter Syndrome. This sort of imposter isn’t one that knows they will be found out as a fake, but one who doesn’t feel like they belong in the current work environment. With that mindset, we give off a feeling of inadequacy…sometimes this feeling is so strong that we don’t even bother to apply for the jobs in the first place.

I’m not saying that your feelings are wrong. They are not…they are a real response to a real situation. What I am saying is that you have control over your future. You must remember the drive and desire to succeed that got you the work experience you have now. You must not get stuck in the thinking that “at my age, I shouldn’t be doing this!” whatever “this” is. The new economy requires all of us to retool and continue learning, growing, and challenging ourselves.

Demographers are saying that the US population will continue to age well into the 21st century. Birth rates are dropping, and people are living longer. Currently employers don’t know what to do to better integrating a multi-generational workforce. That needs to change in order for industry to remain competitive worldwide. You may be just the person to help in that transition. Businesses must do better in abiding by the EEOC guidelines and consider diversifying their hiring practices to ensure that the best candidate for the job is hired. In the meantime, do the work on yourself, both mentally and physically, to make sure you present your best self to the world. Evolution benefits those who adapt.

Keep it Positive! Seeing speed-bumps rather than road-blocks

As a Collegiate Gigster, I read a lot of cynicism online. It usually comes up in conversations about the economy or politics, but also life in general. Life can be difficult, especially for Gigsters and I’m not saying it isn’t. What I am saying is that our life is full of events, and it is the meaning we give to these events that make them negative or positive, or what I call seeing roadblocks vs. speed-bumps.

As we proceed through our day at work, having negative thoughts does not make the work any easier. Sometimes we really have to search for the good in the things around us. According to Johns Hopkins University medical researchers, having a positive mental outlook benefits our body and mind. From a physiological perspective, when you are positive, you are more relaxed and focused on the present moment. This allows optimal blood flow to your entire brain, but primarily the frontal cortex, to better problem-solve and deal with issues as they come up. If you are in a negative mindset, you are usually under stress. This state concentrates the blood flow in the part of the brain where the fight-or-flight response originates from. It limits your visual focus and you react, instead of responding to situations and events more introspectively.

Remaining positive, even hopeful, is one way to keep your mind and your brain healthy and consequently receptive to the positive resources in the environment. The article also talks of re-framing your assessment of the circumstances around you. Take for instance the example of getting into an accident on the way to work. Yes, this isn’t ideal, but it does happen. How we deal with this circumstance determines whether this is a roadblock or a speed-bump. A roadblock could lead you to fall apart at the side of road, crying and feeling helpless and hopeless. A speed-bump mentality focuses your mind on the foresight of paying your car insurance on-time (and adding roadside assistance to the policy).

Also consider the fact that it was just a fender bender and not a horrible wreck that could have landed you and possibly others in the hospital. Focusing on the positives allows you to not only better deal with the immediate issues, but also helps you move on from them. The simple mental exercise of re-framing can keep you from going down a rabbit hole of despair that limits your ability to help yourself.

Reach out, ask for help, ask questions, stay humble, smile, laugh. Also have faith in your abilities and your capacity to thrive. Your smarts got you this far, so I’m confident that you will continue to transform those roadblocks into speed-bumps. I like to think that Collegiate Gigsters are a little better at this than most, but this advice is good for everyone.