You have worked hard to build up your business, but if you have a high level of anxiety, you might find yourself doubting and second-guessing every decision that you make. While some level of questioning is always a good idea when making a key business decision, if you’ve found yourself being held back from success by your lack of confidence in yourself, you’re probably going to experience problems. If you have anxiety as a business owner, you are not alone. But sadly, anxiety can not only affect your personal life but also your business and your income. The good news is that you can get back in control – here are some strategies to try.
Work With a Good Business Coach
Sometimes, finding a coach or mentor who can help to validate your experiences and feelings, give you a fresh perspective, and pull you out of the rut of rumination and overthinking can be just what you need when you’re trying to run a business with anxiety. There’s a difference between knowing and doing and when you’re dealing with anxiety as an entrepreneur, you might often know exactly what needs to be done but struggle to go through with the actions. Working with a good business coach can help you become more confident in your decisions and provide you with a strong support system.
Be Honest with Your Team
Anxiety can sometimes translate into micromanagement and being hypercritical. Unfortunately, this will alienate the very people you need in your pursuit of success. To prevent small niggles from snowballing into major issues and your anxieties becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, it’s important to talk to your team and be up-front about you are being more critical than usual. Often, employees don’t fully appreciate how much pressure business owners are under. It can help to have a transparent dialogue with them. If you can keep your business relationships on track, the people who work for you may be able to alleviate some of your anxieties, while coming up with useful strategies for the problems you are facing.
Work with the Right People
Be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. If you are an anxious type of person, it’s essential that you work with people who are calm and grounded. They can be the voice of reason when you are being sucked down into a spiral of panic and irrational anxiety. Look for people who are your exact opposite. If you end up with partners who are equally prone to anxiety, it will be a nightmare in the workplace.
Slow Down
Being burned out can certainly lead to a high level of anxiety and stress. If it feels like you have been working forever and you can’t remember the last time that you had a day to yourself to enjoy your hobbies or spend time with your family and friends without worrying about your business, you’re in trouble. It’s vital that you take a step back sometimes. Doing this helps you to avoid being stuck in a loop of anxiety whereby you catastrophize about everything. A bit of time and space can help you to rationalize your reaction and response.
Take Time for Yourself:
Don’t be too quick to reply to emails or instant messages from clients and employees. Be strict about ringfencing your working hours and don’t allow work to bleed into recreational and family time.
Get into a routine where you value your time off just as much as you value your time at work; remember that your business isn’t going to fall apart because you have a 24-hour break. Switch your phone off or set an out of office reply so clients know that you’re taking a personal day and put somebody that you trust in charge while you relax and recuperate.
Get Medical Help:
Depending on the severity of your anxiety it might be worth looking into getting professional help, either with anti-anxiety medication or talk therapy. This is especially true if the anxiety is getting to you in other areas of your life outside of your business or causing you to pass up on opportunities that you would normally take because your anxiety is so high. There is no shame in getting some support, and sometimes, getting over anxiety is something that we cannot do alone. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is an ideal way to start retraining your brain, helping you become more aware of how you think and act on your thoughts so you can learn how to manage your anxiety in a healthy way.
Anxiety can certainly stand in your way of running a successful business. Often, anxiety can be around business failure, but the irony is that it is more likely to do harm than good.