10 Habits Entrepreneurs Have that can Lead to Depression and Anxiety- Part 2
In today’s post, I share with you the last 5 habits entrepreneurs have that can lead to depression and anxiety. I’m sharing this because being in business can be like a roller coaster and can be really lonely. The loneliness comes when there doesn’t seem to be others that understand what it is to be an entrepreneur. Often times there is no family or friend who understands your business struggles, so I wanted to be a support for you.
The final 5 habits are:
Blowing things out of proportion to the truth of what they really are.
Blowing things out of proportion to the truth of what they really are. This is also known as catastrophizing. For example, if you entered a business pitch contest and you didn’t win, you say to yourself that because you didn’t win, your business will never be successful and because your business isn’t successful, it’s a failure and you are a failure. The flip side of this is minimizing. Let’s take the same example of the pitch contest and you didn’t win. Minimizing would look like brushing off that you didn’t win, saying that it’s their fault that they didn’t see a good thing and then using the same pitch without corrections in another pitch contest.
Allowing your emotions or mood to dictate your thoughts and actions
Allowing your emotions or mood to dictate your thoughts and actions which can lead to procrastination, feeling overwhelmed or anxious. This is truly the roller coaster feeling of entrepreneurs when one day you’re up and the next day you’re down and not having a steady enough mood to stabilize your business and what needs to get done. Being on this roller coaster ride will make it hard for you to do what’s needed in your business and make it hard for others to work with you because they’ll never know which version of you to expect.
Allowing your inner critic to tell you what you should be doing.
Allowing your inner critic to tell you what you should be doing. Allowing the shoulds to take over puts you in a position of not living up to your own expectations which causes guilt, shame and a cycle of anxiety because you feel like you aren’t getting done what you know you “should” be getting done. When the should way of thinking is placed on employees or others doing business with you, it shows up as resentment because they are not meeting the expectation of what you feel they should be doing. Breaking this way of thinking can reduce your levels of anxiety.
Having a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset.
Having a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. For example, I’ve never made enough money to support myself in my business and I never will versus, I have not made as much money in the past, but my goal is to earn enough money to replace the income from my job.
Seeing things as your fault or taking business tasks that are out of your control personally
Seeing things as your fault or taking business tasks that are out of your control personally which can cause feelings of inadequacy and guilt. For example, if you’ve shipped several items to customers, but certain packages were delayed or destroyed because of weather, you beat yourself up about it. You tell yourself if only you had mailed the packages out a few days earlier, you would have missed the storm and you then spiral down from there. Essentially, this habit is beating yourself up over things you can’t control.
Do any of these habits ring true? Did any from the last email sound like what you do? If so, email me and let me know which ones.
I discuss these habits and more that can impact your mindset, impact your productivity and can lead to burnout, anxiety and depression and how to prevent them and adjust your mindset in my upcoming workbook / guided journal: Take Control of Your Mental Strength: Learn to Reframe, Retrain and Rewire Your Brain for Business Success.
