Exercise and Business Productivity-Home, Living - Writer Span, Journalist blogs, Free Blogs, Article Writing, Blogs, journals, current news

It is said that a dog needs a job. Charlie, my dog, has one. His job is to get my wife Kathy and I out for a walk every day. Charlie's view is that this is a 24/7 job. He's good at it and likes his job. He's a spoiled dog and gets paid very well for his service. Charlie is a 9 year old Australian Shepard/Border Collie that Kathy rescued 5 years ago. He was an out-of-the-box dog. His previous owner spent a fair amount of time to have him professionally trained. National Geographic reported that a Border Collie named Betsy "has a vocabulary of more than 300 words". Charlie, too, has a pretty fair vocabulary. Each day he walks into the office and says, "step away from the computer and go for a walk, now!"

[image]

It's good advice, generally. We try and walk at least 45 minutes every day. On weekends and on vacations we're walking or hiking miles. Kathy, Charlie, and I like doing that for fun and exercise. We're also lucky enough to live in an area of the Monterey Bay in California, called Seacliff Beach. We live just a few blocks from the Seacliff Beach State Park and walk down there most days, as we did this morning.

When Kathy first got Charlie, she started walking him, naturally. I didn't go on those walks initially. My excuse was "too much work" - I was literally working 24/7 then, trying to build the company. I was also getting to that age where I wasn't bounding out of bed each day. Little aches became more noticeable. Plus, the constant work was dragging down my energy and dimming my overall outlook. I've always liked hiking, we've done that regularly over the years, and I'm also an off-an-on jogger. After a couple of years, Kathy convinced me to walk with she and Charlie every day. At first I didn't want to commit the time away from the office. Three years ago, I decided I needed to break out of the 24/7 prison. I started walking with them every morning that weather permits - some days, even in a light rain we'll go for a walk.

It's made a major difference in my overall outlook and an improvement in my quality of work. Exercise and a moderately healthy lifestyle does make a big difference in business and productivity. Studies show this.

So, here's the idea. Improve your business and productivity by getting more exercise than you get right now. Presuming you're not already a fitness buff, like most of us we're not taking enough breaks from work for modest exercise, relaxation, and regeneration. Set aside some time each day to get outside and get some fresh air and clear your mind.

When thinking about this idea, I decided to search on walking and exercise. I found a few sites that refer to a walking concept of taking 10,000 steps a day. A site I found called thewalkingsite.com lists the following benefits:

"Burns calories
Strengthens back muscles
Slims your waist
Easy on your joints
Strengthens your bones
Lowers blood pressure
Allows time with family and friends
Shapes and tones your legs and butt
Cuts cholesterol
Reduces risk of heart disease, diabetes, & more
Reduces stress
Sleep better
Improves mood and outlook on life
Can be done almost anywhere
Requires no equipment
AND it's Free"

Having a dog, makes walking easier, in that you have to walk the dog a bit each day anyway. We also like walking, so it's easy for us to do. The key, though, is any exercise is better than none. Bike riding, walking a golf course, tennis, jogging, and many other's are good for you.

Perhaps more importantly, even a little lite exercise is good for your business. I'm no fitness buff. If you saw me today you'd see I'm a run-of-the-mill American that needs a bit of toning as do most of us. But, walking Charlie, with Kathy each day, has markedly improved my outlook and positively affected my business productivity.

Charlie's standing next to me now saying, "yeah, yeah, blaa, blaa, blaa, walk the dog!"

Control Essential Business Operations Anywhere