Recharging emotional batteries

As a small business owner, you have taken on more responsibility than you have ever had in your life. While you hear all the freedom's you can expect with being a small business owner, many of them do not come for many years as you need to establish your business first and have it running on its own before you can start enjoying the freedoms of taking off early and taking long vacations. With all the hardships you encounter, your emotional batteries can be running down and you may lacking motivation to go to work every day. This will impact your employee motivation as well and everyone's emotional batteries will be spent. So what can you do to recharge emotional batteries? Here are some tips:

Tip # 1 - Have fun
Quite often your best ideas will come when you are having fun again. Remind yourself why you decided to start your own small business and regain some of that original motivation you once felt. Take your employees out for a day of fun. Shut down the office for a few hours and head out to the golf course and participate in some fun team building activities. Try not to talk about work while you are out and just focus on having fun.

Treat your employees to a weekend retreat. Go up camping or head to the ski resorts with your employees. Spending time outside of the office is a great way to come up with new ideas and to find that extra motivation you have all been lacking. Plus, you get to spend some time away in a new environment and go out to eat at nice restaurants or even attend movies and other events together. It's a great way to bring your staff together and build up unity between employees.

Tip # 2 - Introduce wellness
A great way to recharge your emotional batteries is to introduce a wellness program into the office. You need to encourage employees to start working out as this helps to release stress and it will provide them with stamina along with motivation. Start holding yoga classes 2-3 times per week in different block hours so your employees have the choice if they would like to participate in the morning or afternoon session. Spending time in a yoga class during work hours is a great way to remove stress and to build up unity between the staff as you are all in the class relaxing together. Exercise helps to release endorphins, which put you in a good mood and they also give you energy.

The foods you consume at work also have a big impact on your emotional batteries. Remove the junk food from the office and start eating healthier snacks and lunches. Salads, fruits, vegetables, and protein snacks are all great ways to get healthy and to get a nice energy boost that lasts longer than 30 minutes. If you are a caffeine addict, try switching to vitamin water instead as it contains B vitamins which give you a stronger energy boost. Over time you will be able to overcome your addiction to caffeine and you will find that you have more energy and you feel better.

Tip # 3 - Be flexible
Another great way to recharge your emotional batteries is to be flexible. Set different work hours that are adjustable to your staff members and make sure they are able to pick a schedule that fits their family needs. Sometimes opening at 6 am and letting people leave at 3 or 4 will help them with daycare needs and other at-home needs. Also letting people come in at 10 and stay till 7 is another way to fit their scheduling needs. Be open to different hours that can help your employees out.