We all feel a bit blue sometimes.
But for entrepreneurs, the blues are
often caused by something ‘regular folk’ will never experience – the unique
mixture of stress, joy, drive, lethargy and creativity that comes with
building, running and managing your own business.
Overcoming said entrepreneurial blues is
often made even more difficult by many an entrepreneur’s belief that they
simply can’t afford to think about themselves.
Contrary to that belief putting yourself
first is actually paramount, and it will drive the blues away. Here’s how:
Don’t believe everything you
see and read online
Social media is fast becoming the number one
cause of all anxiety, depression and stress in the world.
Granted, I am probably overexaggerating,
but the truth may not be that far behind.
Instead of spending time scrolling
through Instagram and awing over who has accomplished what on LinkedIn, try to
take a step back and reevaluate.
First of all, most of these social media
posts are a bit more shiny and bright than anything is in real life, but more
importantly – no one talks about the hard times and all the difficulties in
getting to where they are now.
The only person you need to compare
yourself with is the one you were yesterday – and forget about all the fancy
social media posts where everyone is simply killing it at their best life. No
company or project is perfect, neither is any person.
Prioritize sleep over coffee
Entrepreneurs sleep less than most other people, thinking this will help them do more in a day. Yet they often forget that quality sleep will boost their productivity and output much more than another night of overtime ever could.
Interrupted snatches of sleep, burdened by to do lists and big dreams are no way to reach the goals you have set yourself. Instead, invest in establishing a healthy sleep routine and work on your sleep hygiene. A memory foam mattress will help you wake up rested and ready to tackle the next day.
Find time to stay fit
Apart from sleep, exercise is the other
thing we cut out of our daily routine, in order to be able to do more at the
office.
And similarly to a lack of sleep, a lack
of exercise will not provide more time: it will make you feel more sluggish,
less energized, and overall less productive.
As little as 30 minutes of exercise a day is
enough to keep you healthy, and anything more than that will only do good for
both your body and mind. Find an activity you actually enjoy doing, and never
cut it out of your calendar, unless it’s an actual emergency. Once you get over
the initial hump of sleepiness and tiredness, you will marvel at how much more
you can get done in a day.
Work on your mindset more
than anything else
Your mindset determines what your life will be like:
more than anything else, ever.
If you only see the negative, if you
focus on the things you haven’t done, or don’t have, or the things that have
not turned out right, you will have a very hard time accomplishing anything, as
you will be holding yourself down more than you know.
The key to living a happy and successful life is rolling with the punches. We need to focus on accepting the negative, the difficult, and the sad we are all going to face at some point in life. However, instead of letting this get us down we need to treat it as a learning opportunity and move on from it. If you keep dwelling on all the bad things, you will forever be stuck in the negative, and that will reflect on your company as well.
Final thoughts
Beating the entrepreneurial blues is not
easy – and you will need to train yourself quite a bit – but once you
accomplish it once, every following time will be easier and easier still.