Many of the people whom I've spoken with recently have been feeling under the weather, incapacitated or have suffered complications that have no doubt impeded their ability to put pen to paper and in the voice over industry, even step up to the microphone.



When some people get sick, falling ill on a holiday or weekend is a blessing in disguise. For instance, if you are sick when no one is expecting you to perform, work, or provide service, catching a twenty-four hour flu bug doesn't seem like such a hardship. For the majority of people out there who work for others and do not run their own businesses, this theory applies.

But what about entrepreneurs and freelance artists who work online?

For most businesses owners of the brick and mortar variety, a statutory day off would have come as a blessing if you were ill, but when you run an online business or accept work through the Internet, it seems like you are trapped by the tireless world that apparently works twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week on the web.

Holidays aside, it becomes evident very quickly that too many of us out there get sick because of not getting adequate rest due to pushing too hard to 'get things done'.

But how do you do that when everything needs to have been done yesterday and people expect automatic responses or reactions?

If you think about it, our society has turned into a machine that keeps plugging away long after we should be tucked into our beds.

Just because an email can be sent instantly doesn't mean that a response to an email needs to be fired off just as instantaneously... I've heard that concept several times over on podcasts and on radio programs about workplace stress or stress in general.

Overworking and trying to solve every minute problem that crosses our paths or email boxes can be very taxing on your health, regardless of what profession we have.

What can we do to avoid getting sick and rundown?

Try these helpful tips:

1. Get at least 8 hours of sleep each night (the hours before midnight are worth almost twice the value of hours after midnight)

2. Don't push yourself past your "limit"

3. Know where your limits are and respect them - they protect you from burnout

4. Respect the boundaries of others so that you don't pull them down

5. Eat properly and make sure you have 3 square meals a day

6. Cut back or eliminate activities that cause you anxiety like comparing yourself to others or over exertion

7. Don't drink caffeinated beverages if you don't need to (moderation is key if you enjoy them)

8. Be at peace with yourself, your life (family) and your career

9. Be thankful for what you have, especially if it is your health

10. Don't take anything for granted

There isn't one entrepreneur or freelance professional that cannot relate to this article I am certain. That's why is it so important that these tips be brought to light ensuring that at least one other person can keep their health about them and make business decisions that benefit their overall wellbeing.

Your health is one of the most important and vital possessions that you have. With it, you can do anything. Without it, you have nothing.

If you have found yourself in a pattern of illness that you've brought upon yourself by working too hard, comparing yourself to others or trying to please everyone, it will be difficult to break out of those habits because you feel like if you stop even for a minute, something or someone somewhere is going to notice and all of your hard work will unravel before your very eyes.

In order to move ahead with goals of achieving good health, you'll need to overcome the mind games that so many people play and allow yourself to just be a normal person. Workaholics and others with stress-related problems are the most susceptible to falling ill and breaking down.

It is by defeating those inner voices that burden you with excessive workloads that you can unload some baggage that has held you down and dragged your health through the mud.

Just how do you do that?

To get back on the road to health, the ten tips mentioned above will be of great service to you so long as they are incorporated into your lifestyle, mindset and embraced by you completely.

To your health!