Business Overwhelm and How to Move Past It
Life can be overwhelming at times, even under the best of circumstances. But if you are an entrepreneur, business overwhelm may be something that you were not expecting. Let’s discuss how you can face this situation head on and change the way you approach what you are trying to achieve in your business.
You probably started your business in order to have more of a choice in the way you worked. Perhaps you had previously worked for a corporation or had a career you had prepared for over many years, and at some point that lifestyle was not serving you. In my work with newer entrepreneurs I find that the possibility of earning more income was not as important a factor in their decision to start their own business as was the goal of having more free time, choice of when and where to work, and the dream of making a difference in the world through the new business and other ventures.
But here you are at some point down the road, and the idea of working fifty or sixty hours a week for someone else does not seem so bad. In fact, you might yearn for the days when the final responsibility of running a business was not left entirely up to you. If this describes your thinking, then stop it right now. You are simply suffering from business overwhelm and need to get back on track to enjoy what you have created as an entrepreneur.
Most likely this business overwhelm stems from the fact that you have too many ideas, you are trying to focus on too many things at once, and you feel like you must do everything yourself. Remember that you are in charge of what happens and must take full responsibility for everything that occurs in your business. This also means that you are in control, so keep that in mind as you move forward.
Don’t be afraid to say no to people and projects that do not fit into your schedule. Maintain a calendar so that you know what you are working on at all times. Each day you must work on income producing activities first and foremost, before you accept tasks that are not crucial to the survival of your business. Just as they tell us when we fly to put on our own oxygen mask before assisting others, the same is true of our business. Help yourself before helping others and you will have achieved a balance that will serve you well.
Set your priorities and goals for your life and for your business. Maintain a to-do list that helps you to decide what activities can be delegated to others, which ones can be eliminated, and which must be done only by you. You will be amazed at how effective this is in minimizing your business overwhelm because you are only good at a few things. That means you only have to do those things.
For example, I am only good at writing, teaching, creating products, and mentoring entrepreneurs. There is very little else that I do in my business because the other things are best done by the people who will do them in the way I like for them to be done. If you try to do these tasks and activities you are taking them away from others who enjoy doing them.
Karyn Greenstreet has an excellent post on dealing with overwhelm for entrepreneurs that you should read. She gives forty-four tips on how to move past this feeling.
Take a deep breath. Know that business overwhelm creeps into the hearts and minds of most entrepreneurs. And know that you can achieve everything you intended to by thinking first and then taking action in the proper direction each day.
I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. And please be sure to check out my Internet Marketing Six Pack training course.
