Busy is Good

Did you ever get into that classic conversation about the "over-scheduled child"? It starts with an innocent comment, typically from a caring relative or concerned neighbor -usually after they watched some news piece about stressed out kids - or after an inadvertent and miscalculated statement on mom's part about being too busy to do whatever they've been invited to do! Before long, the debate heats up, and mom leverages the perils of childhood obesity, video game addictions, couch potato syndrome to explain the busyness...from there, the conversation takes a nosedive . Over the years, I've engaged in such precarious banter - justifying all the reasons why my kids are just so darned booked! I've wrestled with the myriad of opinions about my hectic schedule - and finally settled into a rhythm of responses...that cover all the angles. If ever the subject rears its ugly (or mildly unattractive) face - steal shamelessly from my arsenal!
1) Doing nothing is not an option! From the time they were old enough to walk...no...breathe on their own, my kids were lovingly informed that they got to do things...Not had to do things...but were privileged enough to have the health, resources and support to be able to...So, from mom and tot swimming to baby tumbling - it became a standard...doing nothing was out of the question.
2) All you need to know in business you can learn from being on a sports team...Forget the expensive MBA programs, and even the dream of a sports scholarship...the real education...the stuff that shapes an entrepreneurial brain, takes place on the bench, in the locker room, on the fields and ice rinks of the amateur sports world...cool basics like "there's no "I" in team"...(but there is in WIN!). And do what you love...where there's passion, there's talent. Too many people in business get hung up on fixing their weaknesses - so they spend all of their time focusing on what they're bad at...hoping to get a little bit better (Oh - you suck at math...better take more math to improve...DOESN'T WORK - You'll not only continue to suck at it, you'll grow to hate it too). It's way smarter to take your lead from the world of sports - where athletes are placed where their greatest talents lie...and they rise to a level of excellence rooted in passion rather than to a level of mediocrity rooted in dread...Hey, you don't see Sydney Crosby playing between the pipes because, well, he's NOT a very good goalie and could use some practice...Sports teams get the whole strengths-based concept...and kids start learning how their role and their contributions matter - from PeeWee on...They also learn that when they are passionate about something, they can manage the pain and sacrifice that goes with it. Stressed out kids? Only if the stuff you've got them doing is stuff they hate. If they love it - they're not stressed - they're busy...welcome to the real world - we're all busy...
3) There's a direct relationship between boredom and trouble in the teen years...Busy is the antidote to basement dwelling or joining the ranks of mall rats - kids just want to belong! I'd much rather they wear team colours than gang colours - and that their number is on a team jersey and not on a mug shot!
4) There is a return on your investment! Sure you have to drive them around at 6:00 in the morning, write a lot of cheques, and forfiet any semblance of a weekend but the payoff is huge!
I'm writing this on the eve of Nationals weekend, where my daughter and her Cheerleading team will be competing for back to back National Champion titles...Oh and by the way...the overscheduled thing...small price to pay when you see all of the hard work pay off at a world class event that the under-scheduled kid would give anything to experience...if only they were told from the start..."doing nothing is not an option"!