No matter where you work these days, chances are your company is facing one or more various challenges: a shrinking customer base, increasing competition, lower profits, high turnover, etc. In today’s economy, no one is immune from setbacks and obstacles. So what makes one company able to rebound and recover in the midst of adversity while other companies throw in the towel and give up? It all depends on the company’s ability to work through the challenge as a team.

Despite the proliferation of team building advice available, the fact is that most people don’t work together to accomplish something good for the company. Even though many workers give lip service to the idea of teamwork, they really still want to be seen as the hero – as the Lone Ranger who tackles the problem, figures out a unique solution, and gets all the credit. Compounding the problem is the economic meltdown. Since many companies are cutting costs and laying people off, no one wants to be seen as useless or dispensable. As a result, they take every opportunity they get to stand out and appear more knowledgeable or more skilled than anyone else.

While such an approach may enable someone to stay on board for another pay cycle, it does little to solve the company’s challenges. In order for true problem solving to take place, everyone needs to put pride and ego aside and truly work together to come up with viable solutions. In order to do so without feeling threatened or vulnerable, instill the following guidelines in your organization.

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The United States is one of the unhealthiest countries in the world – with more obese people than anywhere else on the globe. According to the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention), obesity in adults has increased by 60% within the past twenty years and obesity in children has tripled in the past thirty years. A staggering 33% of American adults are obese, and obesity-related deaths have climbed to more than 300,000 a year, second only to tobacco-related deaths.

So what’s the root of the problem? Quite simply, many Americans are eating too much and exercising too little. Between quick and easy processed foods with little nutritional value and an abundance of sedentary jobs and leisure activities that enable people to go literally hours without moving more than their fingers, it’s no wonder so many people are so overweight.

While changing your diet may seem like the obvious fix to losing those extra pounds, diet is only half the equation. In addition to cleaning up your eating habits by skipping the fast food and consuming more whole foods (fruits, vegetables, and whole grains), you also need to get moving. In other words, you need to exercise.

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Every entertainer has a perceived market value – the amount of money people are willing to pay for your services based on their past experience with you or their name recognition of you. Unfortunately, during tough economic times many entertainers feel they must reduce their fee in order to get the gig. They think short-term and become a “gig pig” rather than adopt a long-term philosophy of protecting their value. Whatever your perceived market value is, you must protect it, nurture it, and grow it despite the current economy. Lowering your price in the short-term economic recession hurts your long-term profitability. Granted, you need money now to pay your bills, so it might be easy to justify lowering your rates. There are other ways to make some short-term money to fill in any gaps in income, such as a temporary part time job. Even better, start saving some money so you have a cushion to fall back on when times are tight. Whatever you do, if you want to build your reputation, you need to turn down gigs that could hurt or inhibit your long-term pricing.  As you work your way through the current recession, keep the following best practices in mind.

1. Don’t change your price; change who you market to.

If your current target market can no longer afford your fee, offer your services to a new market who can afford you. If you are a corporate entertainer, for example, and your fee is $5,000, that’s a lot of money for a company who paid $1,500 for the holiday party entertainer last year. For a company that paid $10,000 for their entertainment, however, $5,000 is a steal. If you work fairs, don’t waste time and money marketing to one- and two-day events. Go for the three-week fairs in Texas, California, and the massive Calgary Stampede Fair in Canada. These are the ones with bigger budgets who can afford your fee. Likewise, if you work birthday parties, target wealthy neighborhoods. If you work schools, target wealthy school districts. Economic pain is relative. So shift your focus to the target markets that consider your current fee a great deal.

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If you’re tired of your kids sitting around and playing video games all day and wish there was a way to get them to be more active and involved in a less sedentary pursuit, you may want to introduce them to juggling. The fact is that today’s youth are inundated with countless sedentary hobbies. The days of playing tag outside or riding bikes for hours seem to be fading away. No wonder the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cite that16 percent of children (over 9 million) 6-19 years old are overweight or obese – a number that has tripled since 1980.

Learning to juggle has many benefits for children. It enables them to engage their mind and body into a fun activity, it’s something “cool” that they can do to impress their friends, and when kids learn to juggle with their parents, it gives them a new way to connect and interact with each other.

By all accounts, juggling is a powerful hobby for today’s children. It provides the perfect disguise for teaching many useful life lessons in a way that is lively, engaging, and different. Here are a few of the essential life lessons both kids and adults can glean from juggling.

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