I need a hobby...

I had a conversation with my eight year old this morning, who seems to be involved with every activity and sport he possibly can, about the fact that I need a hobby. I asked him what he thought I should do for a hobby in order to get my mind off work. So he began to name things he thought I would be interested in doing..."you like working on the computer"...yes, unfortunately way too much. "You like spending time with me and Lucas"...that is true...and "you like softball"...yes, but I stink at it.

We had this discussion in the car on the way to the health club where he ran 20+ laps around the track and I walked about half that in the same amount of time. Why can't we have the energy and stamina of an eight year old? My son is like the Energizer bunny.

A valuable lesson that I have learned in the past few years, is the importance of a constant exercise routine the older I get. The doctor says I am healthy, but I need to feel like I can keep up with my children. Over the past six months, it has been a challenge to commit to an exercise routine. What I have discovered however, is that I felt guilty when I was not in the office. I felt like I was not doing my job and letting my employees down. Still struggling to understand why I felt that way. I had very young employees working for me who did not understand the balance of motherhood with running a business and the personal tasks you need to do to stay healthy. They never said anything, but I could sense it.

Fortunately, I have gone through a changing of the guard, and I now work with other mom entrepreneurs who get it. I don't have to explain myself to them because they already understand! The change has been so refreshing. I feel better about myself and I do not feel guilty for taking time to exercise, which I have come to love.

So, back to my hobby story. As most mom entrepreneurs will tell you, our work consumes so much of our time. For me it has consumed too much time. When my son thinks my hobby is working on my computer, I know that is a bad sign. So today, I decided to change my work hours to coincide with school starting back up. School gets out at 3:00pm, so I will pick up my son (instead of him attending the after school program) and we will go to the gym together. Sometimes we will exercise together and other times he will go to the FitSpot program for kids. I am really excited about this change and hope that I can make spending more time with my kids and exercising my permanent hobbies.

I would love to hear from other mom entrepreneurs about what hobbies you do to get yout minds off of work if even for a short period of time.