For many, the emotional side of entrepreneurship can be difficult to handle. Entrepreneurs have to juggle many roles and very open, the original concept they start with falls flat and fails delivering. Stress is a common occurrence under the circumstances – 45 percent of entrepreneurs confirm that they’re stressed out.
Juggling tons of responsibilities, stress and having to make quick adjustments on the go can all contribute to quick entrepreneurial burnout.
According to researchers, entrepreneurs are more prone to burnout than other professionals because they’re exceptionally passionate about what they do. In addition, entrepreneurs tend to often be socially isolated and they operate in a highly uncertain environment.
Is it possible to avoid the stress and still enjoy a work to life balance as an entrepreneur? Can steps be undertaken to bring down the risk of entrepreneurial burnout? While launching a brand new endeavor is usually very difficult, there are preventative steps that can help for the effective control of stress levels.
Manage Your Expectations
Even if you have a ton of experience, a new venture will result in a lot of uncertainty. Overestimating performance and having unrealistic expectations right from the start are both very common. These misguided beliefs, however, can get your stress through the roof right from the start.
To prevent burnout, you have to manage expectations and set realistic goals.
Overnight successes occur once in a blue moon. Don’t count on such developments. Instead, do conservative rather than aggressive forecasting. If performance exceeds these milestones, you’ll simply have a reason to celebrate.
Pick one primary goal to work towards and remain focused. The more scattered you are in attempts to develop the business in multiple directions, the higher the risk of failure.
Try Journaling
Does journaling seem like new age nonsense to you? Even if it does, you’ll have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
Starting a journal has been proven to produce positive mental health effects.
Through journaling, you can face and release your negative emotions. Writing your thoughts down is beneficial in terms of managing anxiety, reducing stress levels and even coping with depression more effectively.
When you write down everything that’s troubling you, it will become much easier to prioritize concerns and dismiss the ones that are too far-fetched. In addition, journaling will help you recognize stress and anxiety triggers, it will enable the easier management of everyday issues and it will also provide a chance to identify and eliminate negative self-talk.
Create a Daily Structure
It’s a well-known fact that most entrepreneurs are overworked.
One thing you will have to understand early on is that you can’t handle everything on your own. Attempting to multitask extensively is a sure recipe for almost immediate burnout.
To prevent yourself from getting overworked, you will need to create a daily structure to your work and your responsibilities.
What are your goals for every single day? Can you delegate tasks to others for better time management and still get the positive outcome that you need? Would you require a business partner in order to ensure proper functioning of the business? These are the questions to answer if you feel like you’re suffocating under the mountain of tasks.
Identify Your Stress Triggers
Chronic stress is a massive contributor to entrepreneurial burnout. Apart from altering your state of mind, prolonged periods of stress will also have a serious negative effect on your overall health.
To maintain a positive attitude, feel productive and happy with your business development, you will have to identify and eliminate some of the most common stress triggers.
Journaling will help in this venture. Do you feel most stressed about securing funding for your business? Identifying the right distribution channels or maybe training your employees to deliver a superior customer service?
Once you know which work aspects stress you out the most, you will get to come up with better corporate policies that increase efficiency. Handling operations in a more streamlined way will reduce performance anxiety and give you a chance to focus on other key aspects of running your business.
A Clean Distinction between Your Personal and Professional Life
Are you one of those entrepreneurs who live and breathe their business idea? If so, you’ll get burned out pretty fast. Experienced and successful business sharks know that they have to make a definitive distinction between their personal and professional lives.
In the very beginning, it will be common for responsibilities to take over your personal life. If this becomes a common pattern, however, you’ll enjoy absolutely no downtime during which to recharge your batteries.
Know how much time you need away from the business and which personal activities result in the best relaxation. Setting the boundaries is entirely up to you. Some people can cope with professional engagements 24/7. If you’re not one of them, however, you’ll have to determine when to draw the line.
Keep Your Vision in Mind
At times, it will get very tough to get a breath of fresh air. You’ll have to deal with financial responsibilities, business forecasts, staffing, finding business partners and ensuring the sustainability of the business model.
Such difficult periods can affect even the best of business ideas.
When the going gets rough, you will need to remind yourself about why you started the venture in the first place.
Did you become an entrepreneur to be self-sufficient and to enjoy more flexibility? Are you attempting to ensure a better future for your family? Such a powerful goal can keep you motivated in the most challenging of periods.
Your vision could be small, even insignificant in the eyes of others. Still, it is the one thing that stimulated you to seek change. If it was powerful enough to make you try something new and entirely uncertain, it will also be powerful enough to give you the strength to keep going.
Don’t be afraid of your negative emotions, worries and concerns. Head them face-on. Take some time to understand your worries and your triggers. Having a good idea about what’s making you stressed out will simplify the process of identifying the right solution.
