Halloween is a fun holiday. Thanksgiving, though, with its holiday travel or hosting large groups of family members also gets entrepreneurs into the holiday season and that is a lot of stress for many business owners. We have 3 ways entrepreneurs can handle holiday stress, enjoy time with friends and family and not be concerned their business will fall apart.
When I was a fledging entrepreneur, I didn’t give myself enough time to enjoy the holidays and savor time with friends and family. I was so business-focused that I didn’t stop and put strategies in place that would let me enjoy holidays without the stress of my business hanging over my head. I want you to learn from my years of experience and find that you can almost have it all.
3 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Handle Holiday Stress
While I don’t believe there is a true work-life balance, there are ways to step away from work and be with friends and enjoy the holidays. Why don’t I believe in work- life balance? Because when you’re at work you’re working. When you’re home, you’re home. You could have a work-life blend, but balance, not so much.
Here are my tips.
Keep to your regular routine. If you have a plan that works for you, then stick with it. Don’t get off track and shuffle too many things around. Yes, you may want to move some client calls or meetings to take the holidays and time you want to take off into consideration but don’t just ditch all the successful strides you’ve made.
Just say no. No to extra responsibilities. No to additional meetings. Maybe even no to taking on a new client in the holiday season. This is obviously a personal decision and your finances will play a role, but does this new client need to start right now or can he or she wait until the new year? Can you do a soft onboarding and jump in after the holidays?
Give yourself a gift. The gift of time. The gift of a day off. The gift of a day at the spa. Whatever you consider a gift, do that and don’t feel guilty. If you’re giving and giving and giving, it might just be time for you to take something on your own.
Give back. The holidays are a time when pet shelters or homeless shelters and food kitchens really need helping hands. Find some time to volunteer and bring your friends and family along for that experience.
What do you need to, or want to, do differently this holiday season so you can enjoy it? Let me know!
Mindset matters for entrepreneurs and it can literally lead to your success or your failure. If you think you can, you probably will. If you think you can’t, chances are you won’t. Being a success in business does require more than a positive mindset, but a good attitude can get you over hurdles that might drag others down and keep them from succeeding or from achieving the heights of their potential.
Mindset Matters For Entrepreneurs
When I work with entrepreneurs, whether start-ups or long-time entrepreneurs, we discuss their mindset. We talk about that and these other items:
Self assess. To have a successful mindset you need to be aware of whether you have a good one or a bad one. You may not even be aware of the air of negativity or defeatism you’re carrying with you. Stop and do a self-assessment. Are you unwittingly preparing for failure? Always having a back-up plan or not quitting your full-time job until you’ve “arrived” and you don’t even know what that “arrival” looks like. It never hurts to have a safety net, but at some point, you need to pull the trigger and just jump.
Where is your focus? Are you focused? A successful mindset is one that focuses you on a goal and keeps you on the path ahead. You need to be invested in the goals you’ve set and be taking steps to achieve them.
You need to think like an entrepreneur, not an employee. You are your own boss and you have both immense responsibility AND immense freedom.
Believe in what you do or sell. If you’re not confident in what you’re doing or selling, your lack of belief will show through and your clients will question their desire to work with you.
If you have long dreamed of running your own business, why not start now? What is holding you back? Lack of belief in the product or service? Fear? Let us know. We can help.
Surround yourself with positivity. It makes sense, but do you do that? Our parents told us at one point, “the company you keep says a lot about your character.” We agree. In life and in business, surrounding yourself with positive people will keep you happier and could make you more productive.
You have about 40% control over your own mindset. The rest is predicated on the company you keep and your surroundings. If you aren’t in control of your own 40%, you are more prone to pessimism than you are to optimism.
Surround Yourself With Positivity
Step away from it. You need to take a break from your business. You need to make time for yourself and to recharge your mental and physical batteries. Take a ten minute “you” break every couple of hours. Get away from the office and relax and pick up a hobby or indulge in your hobby.
What are you grateful for. You need to count your blessings every day. Even when you’ve had a bad day we’ll bet you can find something that went right. The coffee creamer wasn’t curdled. The lights on your drive to the office were green. It didn’t rain. Find something, anything and write it down.
Push yourself. Challenge yourself. Take the initiative and be in control of your life, your business and your own happiness. It’s been shown that optimists take charge and are in control of their own destiny. Pessimists sit back and wait for things to happen.
How happy are you? What can you do to be more positive and in control of your destiny and your happiness? Take some time today to write down what you’re grateful for. Write down the goals you have already achieved in work and in life. We’ll bet you have more going for you than you ever imagined or gave yourself credit for.
Is stress a part of your daily life? As an entrepreneur, you may have more stress than others, but you don’t want to let stress rule your life or your health — and your business will suffer. During my business coaching calls we cover stress and how it impacts a business owner. We talk about it from a “setting a business growth path” view, but it helps keep an entrepreneur sane and the business growing.
How can you tackle your stress? Here are tips:
Get away from your desk and get out into nature. Walk around your office building. Stepping away from the screen can be liberating. When it gets to be too much for me I climb mountains!
Look for the silver lining. Spend time counting your blessings!
Many people work virtually now and have little to no human interaction. If that is your situation, you should get out of the office — even if it just means having a meeting at a coffee shop. A change of scenery will do you good.
Don’t let stress lead you down a path of eating processed, unhealthy foods. Healthy foods fuel you better.
Get a hobby. Get out on the golf course, climb a mountain, read a book. Rediscover a hobby and make time for it daily.
To be an effective entrepreneur you need to find ways to manage your stress.
How often do you find yourself leaving your office, walking into another room and then not remembering why you were in there? It happens to the best of us. We can “blame” age or too many things in our brains or too much stress, etc. Whatever the reason, keeping your brain sharp will help you in your business life and in your personal life as well. I mean, really, don’t you want to stop walking into a room and forgetting why you’re there!?
What can you do to increase your brain’s capacity for remembering? Here are a few steps to take and you can start today:
Do something every day that scares you! You don’t have to ride a roller coaster or run in front of a speeding bus, but you can try a new food, take a different route to work, attempt to complete a task in a completely different way. If you keep doing things in the same way, it all becomes routine and doesn’t give your mind a chance to react or interact.
Take up a new hobby. If you’ve always wanted to learn to play the saxophone — what’s stopping you? Learn to knit — many people find that when they knit or crochet, they tend to pay more attention to what’s going on around them, especially if they’re in a meeting.
Learn a new language. Go online and look for programs that will teach you to speak a foreign language from the comfort of your home.
Get out of the comfort of your home! If you work from a home office or if you telecommute, you need to get up, get dressed and interact with new people. Stay connected — in real life — not simply on the computer.
Read a book. When is the last time you’ve spend time with a book? If you typically read non fiction, shake it up and read fiction.
Interact with people who are not in your industry. If you’re continually talking to and spending time with people who do what you do, you’re not opening yourself up to new experiences or new knowledge.
Volunteer. Take time out of your busy week to give back to the community or to a group that you feel drawn to.
Make a date with a friend and attend a poetry reading or view the new exhibit at a local art gallery.
Travel. Whether you’re a world traveler or if you want to visit a different state in the United States, make a plan and make it happen. Even going to a new state will be a learning experience and help boost your brain power.
Complete a cross word puzzle or Sodoku
Keeping your brain agile is something that everyone (not only business owners) need to do. This will help everyone as they age and keep your mental acuity sharp.
Stress happens. Not to be flip or cliche, but in every life, whether you’re an entrepreneur or not chances are you will experience stress. How you deal with that stress can make a difference in your overall health and productivity.
Here are my tips for dealing with stress in both work and life:
Take a hike. I love being in the out of doors — away from electronic devices and work. I hike the mountains, clear my mind and come back refreshed. Additionally, exercise helps you maintain overall physical and mental health.
Breathe deeply. If you can’t get away from it all and take a walk, push your chair back from your desk and take some deep breathes. When you’re stressed, you tend to take shallow breaths and this leads to muscle tension.
Eat a healthy diet. Eating potato chips when you’re in a stressful situation, won’t help alleviate it. Eating an overall healthy diet, though, can cure a lot of ills and can help boost your immune system and may help you deal with stress better.
Get involved in a hobby. Whether you read or swim or crochet or do woodworking or pottery, having a hobby that you love gives you something to focus on and helps relieve stress and tension.
Stay connected with your friends. When you’re in a highly stressed state it is tempting to isolate yourself. Staying connected, getting out of the house and having coffee at a coffee shop is much better than being alone. Pick up the phone and connect with a friend who is far away. Ask for support if you need it in a stressful time.
At the very least, I recommend taking a ten minute break every hour or two to simply reconnect with yourself, take a walk around the house or the office. Relax. Recharge.