Like many small business owners, I am not working with just one business or one client each day/week. I have to manage where my energy is used to generate the best outcome. Some weeks external factors create stress, and if not managed correctly stress can be the underlying cause to many negative impacts on our lives.

Stress is a feeling people have when they’re overloaded and struggling to cope with demands on work, relationships, finances, or other situations that pose real or perceived challenges or threats to a person’s wellbeing. Stress can be a motivator and it can be essential to survival. However, too much stress can decrease immune activity, slow down digestion, and prevent sleep.

Stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances. Stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. According to the Cleveland Clinic, stress is a normal part of life that people experience – stress from the body, stress from thoughts, or stress from the environment.

Being aware of how you react to stressors can help reduce negative impacts and manage more effective strategies to cope with stress. As leaders, it is important to develop effective stress reducing strategies. Some strategies that help reduce or manage the impact of stress include: exercise, balanced nutrition, time for relaxation, breathing practices, mediation, and prioritizing what is important.

In order for a business to grow, those invested in the business must also grow. Entrepreneurs and leaders of small businesses often find it difficult to allocate time for professional development, and sadly when the leaders don’t grow then the business can lose some or all of its potential to grow. It is vital that as leaders we schedule time for our own professional development in order to stay in tune with changing trends in the industry, in technology, in processes, and in policies that affect our business.

In John Maxwell’s book “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth,” John recommends making an appointment in your calendar for professional growth. We schedule clients, meetings, inventory, as well as time to read and reply to email, so why not begin to set aside time each week to increase your knowledge and understanding of specific topics that can impact the growth of your business.

Start small. For example, you could read an article about the impact of social media on developing new customers, or listen to a podcast related to customer service. The important thing is to schedule the time and then track what you learn from the time spent learning new information, skills, or processes.

It has been proven that it takes at least 3-4 weeks to develop a habit, so I challenge you to schedule 20-30 minutes in your calendar for 4-6 weeks and create a professional growth plan. The plan will identify what you will do during the time, and describe why this is important to the business. You might look at ways to improve sales, train or manage employees, identify new marketing strategies, or other topics related to your specific business.

Keep a notebook (physical or electronic) where you can evaluate how to apply what you learn to your business; assess if you can use the information as it is given, or possibly adapt the information to your specific business. Documenting what you are learning and describing how you will use it is a great way to process new knowledge, and often it will give you inspiration to make changes the will positively impact your business. Share your progress.

After facing challenges last year and surgery in January, I am finally getting back to things I started last year. As I looked back at my Blog Posts, I had to smile when I realized that the last one focused on self-care. Self-care has held me together through many challenges. If you have a foundation of self-care practices, then you will automatically have habits or rituals in place when faced with difficult situations (stressors). Changes in technology and the 24/7 world around us make it essential that we are prepared to face whatever stress impacts our daily lives. Stress can be physical, psychological, emotional, or environmental, and our bodies will either react or be trained to act in a specific way to the stress. For example, sitting too long at work puts stress on the body, and the stress can be lessened by getting up and moving. One way to train your body is to set a timer – either on your computer, phone or fitness device. In order to live and work at the new speed of light, we need to make sure that we are taking care of these amazing bodies that we have the responsibility to maintain.

If you have taken a trip by air, you should have heard the announcement regarding the use of the oxygen masks. The rule is that once they are activated you should put your mask on before assisting anyone else. I have heard this message for years, but it wasn’t until I was focused on self-care practices that I realized how much this message resonates in everyday life. How often do we take care of those around us to our own self-care detriment? It is easy to do if you don’t have a self-care plan. Much like the fuel gauge on your vehicle – you can’t go anywhere on empty. It is so important to design self-care practices that are implemented throughout the day. They can be as simple as starting the day with breathing or meditation practices, followed by walking and breathing in nature (when possible), or finding a quiet place to decompress for a few minutes between busy meetings. What have you done today to refuel your energy level?