In 2016, I decided that I was going to own my own business – I was going to be an entrepreneur.
It was both the best decision I have ever made and the worst. They say "running a business is hard," but it's hard for most people to conceptualize what that actually means. And when I talk to people about what I do and they say, "That sounds really hard," they usually think the "hard" part is one of the following:
Working long hours
Talking to lots of strangers
Enduring lots of rejection
They are partially right. The long hours aren't really noticeable because I'm working towards something I really want, talking to strangers gets a lot easier (and fun) the more you do it, and by the 50th or so rejection, the feeling of everything the world hates me and it's useless fades.
The hardest part of being an entrepreneur is dealing with anxiety. Even if you're not a particularly anxious person (which I'm not), dealing with all the worries of being the master of your own destiny is crippling. Things you didn't even consider when you were working in your traditional job have become huge, terrifying beasts of thought that circle your brain.
Related: 9 entrepreneurial lessons you never learned in school
But I learned to kill those beasts. (Okay, they're still around, but I'm a lot less terrified of them.) Here are three techniques that have helped me deal with the anxiety of being an entrepreneur.
1. Learn not to think.
I was quite resistant to meditation when it was suggested to me as a method to manage anxiety. I assumed it was one of those new age things reserved for hippies and mystics and the deranged. I thought meditation was just basic thinking … When in reality it is the opposite.
Meditation is the practice of focusing on your breath and nothing else. When your mind drifts (and it will), you notice that it has drifted, and then you go back to focusing on your breath. Once I started meditating daily, I became less critical of other people's actions (and my own), stopped feeling like everything was a major crisis, and was able to to think more clearly about my business strategy.
Although meditation has markedly improved my life, I still thought it was a placebo effect or maybe even just anecdotal for me; I was so wrong. In March 2014, Johns Hopkins University published a meta-analysis of all studies on the relationship between meditation and well-being – here are two of the most important points:
“We found weak evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight. "
"Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs may result in small to moderate reductions in multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. »
In non-academic speeches, meditation actually reduces negative emotions and mental stress.
2. Make molehills with your mountains.
One dreary Friday morning, I woke up and everything crashed down on me at once. I tried to get into my morning routine, but I couldn't. I couldn't even move. My mind was struggling with everything that could go wrong, and it terrified me. I suffered from analysis paralysis.
Once I finally got out of bed, I found myself on my bedroom floor and did the one thing that any self-respecting entrepreneur and terrified of what the future would do:I called my mother. She helped me understand what was really worrying me and made me realize that the reason I couldn't do anything was because I was trying to do everything mentally at the same time.
Related: 3 Emotions All Entrepreneurs Feel (And How To Keep Them Under Control)
Cutting the huge goal (creating a million dollar business) to more immediate goals (breaking loose from the fetal position and getting up from the bedroom floor), I felt more empowered and motivated to literally get up and do something.
Incredibly, a 2013 study by Dr. Joanne Dickson at the University of Liverpool revealed that “very broad and abstract goals can exacerbate depression”. When you think about your ultimate big goal, the process and the idea seem abstract because you don't know how to reach that level. Breaking down your goals into manageable actions helps ease anxiety and fear.
3. Track the small wins.
Something I carried over from my days of having a boss is keeping a win log. When I worked 9-5, I kept a log of everything I accomplished that week. I originally did this to impress my manager, but having a record of my weekly wins also acts as motivation.
A curse of entrepreneurship is that we are always looking for the next peak to climb. The problem with always focusing on the top is that you never turn around and enjoy the view. By keeping track of your accomplishments, you build the view from your path.
Professor Robert Emmons has written a fascinating article on the correlation between gratitude and psychological and physical well-being. His study was based on students writing down things they were grateful for on a daily basis. He found this:
“Participants in the gratitude group rated their lives more favorably on both counts than participants in either the hassle group or the event group…. Participants in the gratitude group experienced fewer symptoms of physical illness than those in the other two groups. Finally, there was a main effect on exercise hours:people in the grateful condition spent significantly more time exercising (nearly 1.5 hours more per week) than those in the grateful condition. of hassle. »
Writing in a Wins journal works on exactly the same principle, focusing on the things you do well or the accomplishments you are proud of. So, at the end of each day, write down three things that happened, things that you are proud of. And at the end of the week, pick your five favorites.
Courage works despite fear, and if you haven't started your entrepreneurial journey yet, you will still feel some level of anxiety. The things I share with you in this article are not ways to get rid of anxiety, but they are managing it.
Eventually, your anxiety will turn into a feeling of excitement. You don't know what's going to happen next, you can't control everything…and that's part of the fun.
Related: How to make your friend stress
