Looking at the stressors in our work lives and finding the positives...
Controversially, if stress isn’t always bad for us, it can actually be the fuel we need to make us take action, stay focused and be productive. In this article I’d like to explore the ways you as an entrepreneurial start-up owner can channel your stress into that positive propellant and use it as a power for good.
Stress: Pressing deadlines
You already know the feelings a pressing deadline or important prospect meeting can invoke – elevated heart rate, churning stomach, the need for fewer distractions. But what made you turn those feelings into excitement and enthusiasm instead of anxiety and dread?
Positive: Focus on the end game
You probably gave yourself a bit of a pep-talk: this is just a hurdle to get over and once you’ve won the contract, or produced the work, you’ll benefit from it. The prize is a happy client, pride in your work or a new signing.
Keeping focus on the prize, is a useful tactic for channelling the stress of a deadline into motivation.
Stress: Unexpectedly losing a client
So, you’ve lost a client which means your income has reduced, your available time has increased and what was an important relationship has dissolved.
Positive: Lessons learned
Without wishing to sound crass, if you consider the loss of a client as a failure, you can learn lessons from that loss. Was it communication, were they the wrong fit for you, did you posses the skills/capacity to manage them, or was it something else that resulted in the client leaving your business?
Perhaps you’re glad you no longer work with them, is that because of communication, type of work, personality differences? Could you have taken control of the situation and instigated the closure, giving you more control? Now you have the time available, you can get out there and find a new client to work with that is a much better fit for your business and working style, or you can enjoy the time you have back and put it to a different use…
Stress: Too much to do, too little time
This is the classic source of stress for a young and growing business. You’ve compromised on your time to take on clients or business responsibilities that fuel the growth of your business and find you have no time to relax at home and do the things your new business promised you!
Positive: Business processes refined
You may need to take advice from a business mentor, but my own advice would be to look at what jobs can be automated, delegated, outsourced or eliminated. Having gone through that process, could it be time to take on an employee or contractor?
Or are you simply trying to do too much too soon? Keep your goals in mind to prevent you from being distracted by the ‘shiny new thing’ and keep your plan in mind to help you stick to the high pay-off activities you chose…
Next time you do business planning (monthly, quarterly, annually), you can play with your goals and activities to suit your business direction, but I’d advise that you avoid changing direction without a plan in place.
Defining a bad day
We all have bad days, I get it! So my final tip on using stress as a force for healthy action, is to look back at a day you felt was bad, and define the reasons – say them out loud, write them down, and then measure those reasons against others from other days. How do they compare, what set them off?
The reason for this exercise is not so you can say that one day was worse than another, but to identify similar triggers. Is there a pattern of behaviour that sets off a bad day? Is it a client, a piece of software or a part of the job? Once you’ve identified the triggers, or a pattern you can consider a way to manage it in advance of a bad day.
And don’t forget to look for the good too! Don’t let one bad thing define the feeling for the whole day.
I hope you, as entrepreneurs and new business owners find this article useful for turning stress into that ‘positive propellant’!
All the best - Mike
Mike Foster
The Entrepreneur's Mentor
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