Starting a business can be very overwhelming. Securing the bag is certainly the goal but your mental health as an entrepreneur is crucial. Finding a balance between the two can help your entrepreneurial journey feel a little less rocky.
By: Tshegofatso Tube
Peter Drucker once said that the best way to predict the future is to create it. In this day and age, people do not want to follow the leader and comply with what is deemed correct. People want to stand out and do what has never been done before. There are many ways that one can make their mark in the world and starting a business is one of them. A business is not just an entity that you start for profit-making, but it is also a product of your authentic qualities and skills. The business that you choose to pursue expresses your passion and drives you towards your purpose. Many people find the mental process of starting a business quite stressful and overwhelming but there are a number of ways that one can lighten their mental load.
Mental Health tips for aspiring entrepreneurs
Just start
It seems like a very vague statement but it holds a lot of weight. The need to be perfect is what sets a lot of aspiring business owners back. Putting something out into the world can be very stressful and scary but you cannot let fear stand in the way of your success. Starting without perfecting everything allows you to enjoy the journey and not just the destination. Not starting allows doubts and frustrations to flood into your mind and that can lead you to a very dark mental place. So if you’re sitting with that business idea and wondering if it will work, just start. You’ll never know until you try.
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Be consistent
Once you have started the business it is very crucial that you keep the momentum going. Even if you bump into obstacles along the road, you have to keep going. These obstacles are not there to break you but they are there to help you realize your full potential. The obstacles push you out of your comfort zone. The saying ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’ was certainly made for entrepreneurs. Perseverance is a great quality for an entrepreneur to possess.
Be kind to yourself
You are human. If you are starting your first business you won’t know everything and that is perfectly fine. That gives you the opportunity to learn and implement that knowledge into your business. Do not compare your chapter one to someone’s chapter five. Your entrepreneurial journey may not look like everyone else’s and that is the whole point. Your ideas belong to you so it would be odd for your journey to completely mimic someone else’s. You cannot rush your business’s success.
“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms”-Zen Shin
Have a support system
The entrepreneurial journey can get very lonely so having a strong support system is extremely important. Trustworthy family and friends by your side can alleviate a lot of stress. Understanding that two heads are better than one will help you a lot on your journey. As an entrepreneur you have many tasks and responsibilities and being able to divide the load with someone else can create more room for a strong work ethic.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much”-Hellen Keller
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