And it was all going so well…I spent last week relaxing in a gorgeous 400 year old cottage, occasionally popping out to look at vineyards and llamas…(see the pics above)
Until I pulled my back.
Now I’m writing this for you propped up on my pillows, looking on this as a salutary lesson to look after myself better.
It’s all too easy to injure your back – and other bits – if you spend hours at a keyboard, as many of us do. It’s particularly easy if, like me, you spend a lot of those hours on a laptop instead of a PC.
Quite apart from the impact on your health, injuring yourself or contracting RSI can prove a significant blow to your earning power. That’s why this week, in the spirit of looking after you all, I’m sharing some great resources on staying healthy (in all ways) as an entrepreneur/self-employed person.
First up are a couple of excellent pieces on getting your working space set up correctly ergonomically and positioning yourself correctly:
http://www.uhs.umich.edu/computerergonomics
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/workplacehealth/Pages/howtositcorrectly.aspx
Then there is what I consider to be an essential guide to protecting your emotional and mental health – something you absolutely have to think about, particularly if you are new to working for yourself:
To help reinforce what you learned in that last link, here’s a thought-provoking piece on the top 10 characteristics of emotionally strong entrepreneurs – adopt these and prosper:
http://www.chahal.com/top-10-characteristics-of-emotionally-strong-entrepreneurs
You hear all the time about having the right ‘mindset’ for marketing – here’s the always wonderful Brian Clark, founder of Copyblogger, on what he thinks it takes to make online marketing work:
http://marketingland.com/the-mindset-that-makes-online-marketing-work-39981
And a truly special Hangout on mindset featuring some of my favourite marketers, including John Paduchak, Dennis Becker, Justin Popovic, Barb Ling and Connie Ragen Green:
https://plus.google.com/+JohnPaduchak1/posts/W46npjc5i1H
Before we leave the topic of mindset, here’s another thought-provoking piece on the difference between being self-employed and having an entrepreneurial mindset – plenty to take on board here:
http://www.smallbusiness-bigresults.com/entrepreneurial-mind-set.htm
One thing I find that helps my mindset is keeping everything else on track so I can focus on what’s important – these free Excel templates will help you do that too:
http://lifehacker.com/download-free-excel-templates-to-manage-time-money-or-1648774760
Finally, a great TedED talk on mindset and success – you not only get to watch the video but do the exercises for a more in-depth experience:
Find the exercises here:
