5 Top Reasons Entrepreneurs Should Own a Dog If you get a pet, taking on even more responsibility will lessen your stress, and craft you into a healthier, more efficient and focused entrepreneur

In the crazy hustle and bustle that comes with being an entrepreneur, it is often hard to find down time. Due to this, it can be hard to maintain friendships, find time to get to the gym, or even just simply unwind. The fast-paced lifestyle also makes it all too easy for you to slip into your own world and distance yourself from others. One simple remedy for this is to get a pet. That's right, taking on even more responsibility will lessen your stress, and craft you into a healthier, more efficient and focused entrepreneur.

Dogs Reduce Cortisol Levels

You may have heard of the stress hormone called cortisol. This hormone can be found raging in significantly higher quantities in high risk professions such as entrepreneurial work. Higher cortisol levels have been linked to not only increased risk for disease development, but also decreased efficiency at work. Thankfully, dogs have been proven time and time again to significantly lower levels of these disease causing, work and relationship hindering hormones.

Helps You Stay Active

I think we can all agree that we can make time for a little more self-care especially when it comes to exercising. The fact of the matter is, to be sustainable long term, you need to commit to a fitness routine that you actually enjoy, or else you're just setting yourself up for further disappointment and failure. Taking your dog on a measly 10-minute walk twice daily can significantly improve the amount of daily calories burned. Dogs can be a constant reminder that no matter how stressful your day has been, you are blessed enough to get out and move, while others may only dream of having that luxury.

Promotes Positive Social Interaction

Let's be honest here, the life of an entrepreneur can be one of keeping your head down and sticking to the grind. It can be a very daunting realization when you look up one day and notice that you've been so focused on becoming successful you now have no one to share it with. Well, it just so turns out that walking your dog not only is good for your health, but significantly increases positive social interactions as well, helping you maintain and creating new friendships along the way.

Lowers Blood Pressure and Heart Rate

In the crazy world of entrepreneurs, everyone moves at 90 miles a minute, constantly going and rarely slowing down. This causes the body to constantly release hormones that prepare it for anything which inevitably maintain higher blood pressures and heart rate, which have been proven to increase risk for early disease development. Even just petting a dog for a few minutes a day has been shown to significantly lower blood pressure and heart rate especially during stressful situations.

Reduces Anxiety

If you have ever considered yourself an entrepreneur, then you are far too familiar with howling calls from a siren known as anxiety. Constantly reaching out, waiting for that phone call that can either make or break your future in the industry certainly can take its toll on any self-made success candidate. Thankfully, a loving dog's presence can be a solution as many studies have indicated the anxiolytic effects of simply having a dog in the same room during stressful times, like waiting for that life changing phone call.

Plus dogs are a human's best friend. If you found these tips helpful, please put them into action, share them with a friend who needs to read this.