Anxiety. That feeling that makes you feel unprepared, keeps you up at night. The feeling that doesn’t allow you to shut off your thoughts, makes you think that you are missing something.
For me it’s like a daydream gone wrong. I am stuck in a string of thoughts that will not go away, no matter how much I say this is not going to happen. Telling someone to stop thinking those thoughts, is like telling someone who is having a seizure to stop seizing. It is a feeling of spiraling out of control. So how in the heck do I run 3 successful businesses while managing my anxiety.
Carefully. The answer is carefully. Ha!
Here are my top tips to managing a business while managing your anxiety:
1. Seriously, tread cautiously.
Take your time and make your plans! Set monthly and weekly goals to help keep yourself on track! Make your goals attainable and know that if you don’t complete them, you always have tomorrow. The best part about managing your own business, is just that, you are managing your own business. You are your own boss, no one is going to yell at you for not completing a task. Get done what you can and if life gets in the way just breath and save it for the next day.
2. Start your day off positively
Stop getting up and immediately checking your social media or checking your email optin rate or checking your sales. If you see something you don’t like, like your following dropped or you didn’t get any overnight sales then your day is automatically started on a negative note. I like to start my day off with either notes of gratitude or saying what I am thankful for that day. Or looking up a good quote of the day! That way I have started on a note of positivity and coffee, coffee helps too.
3. Don’t think, just do.
I know this one seems a little contradictory to the first point but hear me out here! Once you have set your goals and made your plans and you have been fragile with yourself, now put it into action and don’t you dare overthink all of the outcomes! I know you want to but you put your new idea out there with confidence and say this will succeed. By doing just that, telling yourself it will succeed, is probably going to bring success with it. And if it doesn’t; evaluate it, rethink your plan, what was good about this plan? What needed some tweaking? And try again. Be delicate with the process and be your number one fan!
4. Don’t forget to breath.
I don’t know about you, but when the anxiety sets in, the breathing patterns stop. Take a minute and count your breaths, to 20 and back down. If your mind wanders, acknowledge it and continue on.
5. Dwell on the positive, ditch the negative
Okay, duh. This is for everyone, but specifically people who suffer from anxiety and own a business, it is so easy to get caught up in; why did that person unsubscribe from my email list? Or, why didn’t I get a lot of views on this post? They must have hated it, what if everyone hates it, what if my idea wasn’t a good one? Maybe it was a mistake, should I check in? STOP. It is absolutely okay if someone has decided to stop following you. Chances are they didn’t fit into your niche and that is okay. Keep yourself a little folder of positivity to refer back to, so in times like these you can go back to the positive moments.
