Being an entrepreneur may have driven you out of your home and probably has caused misunderstandings and miscommunication between you and your family. While you may be too focused on doing your business to become successful, you lose your family, friends, and even yourself. Entrepreneurs have a huge burden to carry once they start putting up the company. It can demand so much time and energy that it could eventually drain them. Any startup business will require long hours of work to even bring home some of the tasks for the day.
An entrepreneur is expected to be hardworking, brave, and intelligent. After all, if one has a “weak heart” in facing all the trials in a business, then the company will never succeed. But sometimes, having to deal with the same things over and over can just make your brain shut down from functioning correctly. Thus, you lose the ability to solve problems, reason, and make decisions. It will be difficult for you to see how things really are when this happens. Does it sound familiar?
Should people work to live or live to work? Work-related stress costs the economy a tremendous amount of money in a year where there is an increase in deaths due to workplace stress. Health conditions such as heart attack, stroke, diabetes, anxiety, and depression are the common causes of death.
Stress is inevitable, and we all react to circumstances differently. Therefore, how we manage such stressful situations play a vital role in
Focus is ubiquitous and unavoidable, but we all respond to difficult circumstances differently. How we handle stressful situations plays a massive role in knowing our level of resiliency. Three questions can help you manage stress better:
- How does stress affect you physically?
- Does it also affect emotionally or psychologically?
- How do you cope with stress?
You must identify the triggering factors that cause stress by improving your emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your moods and emotions. Being aware of other people’s moods and emotions will make you more knowledgeable about behaving in front of others. Your ability to make decisions, maintain relationships, remain motivated, how you influence others are all that make up one’s emotional intelligence.
As simple as being embarrassed in front of colleagues can be a very stressful situation wherein your reaction to the case will be carried out throughout the day. You can act differently towards the people around you. Other causes of stress are:
- children
- family
- finances
- illness
- lack of work-life balance
- loneliness
- overcommitting
- relationships
- uncertainty
- work
When we are aware of what triggers us to be stressed out, it makes it a lot easier to get through the day. It only means thinking of ways to get yourself out of that “bad mood.” Also, if you can evade such situations, you won’t get caught in that stressful situation.
Did you ever realize that when a person exhibits a specific behavior, we quickly assume it is just how the person is without knowing who the person really is? It is like we expect so much from others that when they do not go according to our standards, we feel frustrated and, yes, STRESSED.
Common Stress Triggers of an Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurs struggle with chronic stress. It is frequently caused by the fear of failing or losing the business. Entrepreneurs can have such a high level of stress because of the following possible reasons:
- Entrepreneurs tend to be in “all of the place” where they overlook the most essential things with trivial tasks.
- Entrepreneurs tend to have unrealistic expectations of themselves and others.
- Entrepreneurs fail to reflect on what they do each day. Thereby failing to identify what works and does not work and, at the same time, lack time to refine their skills to improve their system.
- Entrepreneurs may have focused more on having to work to live rather than to live to work.
- Entrepreneurs may lack the confidence to leave certain decisions to employees.
- Entrepreneurs would often seek perfection.
- Entrepreneurs fear not having enough capital to sustain the business.
- Entrepreneurs feel that they have to keep up with a “strong leader persona.”
- Entrepreneurs think that 24 hours in a day is not enough.
- Entrepreneurs feel stressed dealing with clients who would not mind calling in the middle of the night or even during vacations.
- Entrepreneurs feel the need to develop a dynamic presentation to entice clients and investors.
- The fear of the unknown. All too often, after a very stressful day, with having to deal with so many company issues, an entrepreneur may just feel all too tired and helpless to the point of doubting his own capabilities.
LEARN TO UNPLUG FROM YOUR WORK. Studies have shown that entrepreneurs have a high rate of mental problems. This is precisely because they are often too preoccupied that they fail to give themselves some time to be free from work. Not having enough sleep in a day and not having a great team that can help you can pull you down.
Life can indeed be simple. It is all in the conditioning of the mind. Consequently, when someone says or does something that turns on your stress button, learn to acknowledge and understand your emotions. Instead of seeing it the way it is, look for other possible reasons why the person behaved that way. Simply put, we cannot always assume that what we think is right- whether they are people or situations that do not go with our standards or beliefs. You can always choose to approach it differently.
When you focus on the more positive intentions of a situation, you lessen your stress level. And when this happens, you will be surprised at how you have changed in perceiving people and situations and have built emotional intelligence and resilience.
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You may contact Armando “Butz” Bartolome for questions and more information.
By email: aob@gmb.ph
FB Page: Armando Bartolome
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franguru/
Website: https://www.gmb.ph
