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Entrepreneurship can be a lot of fun and hard at the same time. The stress of entrepreneurship is vastly different from and more intense than the typical office/blue-collar stress. For some, every day is a battle for survival and each moment counts.

Understanding the dynamics of this is key to dealing with it. In this article, we will discuss solutions that you can adopt to avoid entrepreneurial stress altogether. In doing so, not only will you be freeing yourself of the brain-drain, but you will also become more productive and will start enjoying the routine that you otherwise loathed.

 

Be clear about your goals


As an entrepreneur, you might be tempted to deviate from your defined objectives. You might be annoyed by the odd-looking fonts on your company’s new website which leads to you wasting an awful lot of time which could have otherwise been spent on marketing your minimum value product (MVP). That should have been your focus, but you let yourself get distracted and it has cost you a precious commodity, your time.
Set your sights on specific impactful goals that are achievable and constitute the requirement of the company to sustain and be profitable. Everything else is secondary.

 

Take some time off

As an entrepreneur, you automatically assume multiple roles. You are the office worker, project manager, janitor and eventually a leader. The company is your child and you are its mother. You tend to be precise about each and everything. This overwhelming habit can have a totalizing effect on your peace of mind. At the very least, it can be disruptive and before you know it, you will start showing signs of anxiety, anger, and fatigue. Even the littlest of things will begin to annoy you.

So, it is important that you take some time off and register yourself for a weekend away from all the work. If it’s a national holiday, then be sure to utilize it by spending time with your loved ones (or alone if you prefer that away). Take off and be with your family on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Use these days to rejuvenate yourself and restore your personal energy. You will be far more effective once its time to get back to work.

 

Know how to rebound

The curse of entrepreneurial stress can make even the most talented people unresourceful. The blackhole like phenomenon sucks on your energy and slows the pace of work. Less productivity reinforces more stress and then the cycle repeats for eternity (or until you’re bankrupt).
Remember, action beats anxiety. In such scenarios, learn to overcome the negative energies by boasting yourself with self-belief.

And while you are at it, do not forget how physical exercise can be of great service to you.

Go out for a run and experience the psychological and physiological enrichment that your mind and body are capable of. Discover ways that can break the cycle for you. For each of us there might be a different set of activities and habits that can ignite a rebound. Introspect.

 

Learn how to delegate and build a team.

Having a team is completely useless if you’re just going to micromanage them to death.

Micromanagement is the management style where you end up controlling everything in order to make sure that everything goes according to plan. When you’re growing or scaling a business it can be easy to want to do all the work yourself. After all, you want it to be done perfectly correct?

There will come a point where you will need to build a competent team that you can depend on to get things done. Then you must trust them to do so. Constantly micromanaging your team will make them feel less than great which will lead to higher turnover rates and an overall less than desirable employee sentiment.

Yes, it’s difficult letting go of a business you started from the ground up but having the right people who you can trust goes a long way in helping you to do deal with the tension, headaches, and stress of operating a business. Let your team help you take on those big daunting tasks and make your life easier.
After all, you hired them for a reason.

Get Some Sleep

One of the most important aspects to be an effective and less stressed entrepreneur is making time to get good quality sleep. There is this myth that in order to be successful you have to forego sleep and replace it with long nights at the office fueled by endless cups of coffee. However, this is rarely the case. Are there successful people that got to where they are by missing out on “some” sleep. Yes, but not for extended periods of time.

The simple act of not sleeping when you need to raises the stress hormones in the body.

Which means you are naturally stressed before anything stressful actually happens. You see the conundrum here. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs I have met actually prioritize their sleep over everything. Experiment and find out how much sleep you really need to be calm, and mentally sharp, then do your best to hit that mark every night. Your body, your mind, and your business will thank you.

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