As an entrepreneur, you are expected to respond to numerous
pressures with grace, confidence and a smile. That’s the psychological
roller coaster of being an entrepreneur. It has lots of scary turns and
drops, but the fun moments make you feel totally alive. I’m working on
my third company, and I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Many things can, and will, go wrong. Computers stop working during a
presentation, new products do not function as planned, multiple days go
by on the road with little or no sleep. Many people can relate to these
hardships, however, many aren’t responsible for making payroll,
borrowing against their home’s equity to keep the lights on or deciding
the company’s future.
The bottom line is you need to establish ways of thinking and
activities that help you deal with entrepreneurship’s psychological
burden.
Let’s discuss the ones you know but fail to implement:
Sleep. If Thomas Edison had slept more, he may have
made fewer mistakes. Edison and many prominent thinkers in history have
encouraged work over sleep. Our brains need sleep, though.
Neuroscientists debate why this is true, but many good reasons come to
light. During sleep, we consolidate memories, make new connections,
conserve energy and unconsciously chip away at problems.
Multitasking. With so many demands on our time and
attention, it’s tempting to try to do it all at once. However, our
brains are optimized for task switching, not task stacking. When we
switch tasks, our brains must halt processing the current rule set and
load a new one for the next task. This happens quickly, but halting,
unloading, loading and restarting take a toll on brain resources. This
is why you feel like having a drink at day’s end.
Health. Booze, lack of sleep and exercise, and
eating junk food all fit into this bucket. Drinking too much alcohol
affects your sleep. Sleeping too little increases your need for
caffeine. This leads you back to thinking you need a drink to relax.
This cycle taxes your health and your value to the organization.
Now some less obvious ones:
Connections. Your action items list will always be
long. Don’t let that stop you from connecting with others. A growing
body of research describes the brain as a social organ. Many brain
functions are designed to process social situations and relationships.
However, as our to-do list expands, it becomes harder to connect with
others. Not only is this psychologically draining, but it affects the
people you need help from.
Vulnerability. Do not equate vulnerability with
weakness. Vulnerability is where you’ll get your strength. As an
entrepreneur, being emotionally honest with people at work cultivates
relationships and a culture of people who are willing to do anything for
one another. It also is so liberating when people know you are human.
Mental models are the lenses through which people
see the world. They bring meaning to an event, fill in information gaps,
influence how we react to others and represent how we see ourselves,
other people and our organization. A flawed mental model leads to
misunderstandings, incorrect assumptions and unintended chaos. The best
thing we can do as entrepreneurs is become aware of our flawed mental
models and work to replace them with healthier perspectives by
connecting and being vulnerable with others.
Finally, make time for yourself. If you don’t help yourself, you
won’t be able to tend to the people and the business you care so much
about.
Credit: Michael Vaughan.
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