Being at the top of your game in your industry might feel like smooth sailing all the time. But entrepreneurship can take a big toll on your mental health.
When you’re managing multiple teams, supporting clients and contemplating important business decisions, there’s a strong chance you might reach your breaking point from time to time.
While improving your mental health can seem overwhelming, there are myriad ways you can feel in control of your mental wellbeing. In this blog, we examine how entrepreneurship affects your mental health and how you can find a work-life balance that meets your needs.
How Entrepreneurship Affects Mental Health
Now matter where you are in your entrepreneurship journey, you’ve probably had days where you’ve wanted nothing more than to walk away. According to a study with 300 entrepreneurs, 63% experienced burnout while 59% dealt with anxiety.
Entrepreneurship can cause a number of people to experience stress for their finances and future, a struggle to maintain work-life balance, as well as day-to-day stresses. To cope with everything happening all at once, some entrepreneurs might overwork to feel like they’re making up for lost time. However, this only contributes to poor mental health.
When you’re constantly overworked, you can feel more fatigued, your mood can change dramatically, and your immune system can become weaker. When all of this is in play at once, it might make things feel like they’re spiralling out of your control.
Feeling like your life and mental health is out of control can be detrimental to your business. For instance, if you’re feeling non-stop fatigue you might forget important pieces of information or feel too distracted to hone your attention on something specific. Or you might enter wrong data into your system because you’re not fully focused.
Finding Balance In A Busy Life
Striking the perfect balance between work, life and good mental health can be a challenge, but there are ways to make it feel less overwhelming.
You can start small by reaching out with your family, friends and entrepreneurial peers. Opening up about your mental health struggles to those closest to you allows them to understand your position and listen to you when you have a bad day. It also creates a safe space to share stories of dealing with mental health and recommend specialists who might be able to help you.
Talking to a therapist and seeking regular counselling can also steadily improve your mental wellbeing. Psychologists can help get to the root of your mental health struggles, be it an ongoing issue or a recent problem for you. They can guide you through exercises on how to best manage your specific mental health problem. The process may take months or years, but the long-term mental health benefits are well worth the wait.
Delegating and outsourcing is a practical way to spread the workload and improve your mental wellbeing. You’re only one person, so doing everything on your own isn’t feasible or effective for good business. While sharing your work with others might seem daunting at first, it will reduce your chances of burning out significantly.
Learn More In November
If you want to explore options to manage and protect your wellbeing, then you can participate in our wellbeing workshops at SME&E in Auckland this November!
Book your tickets today for two days full of networking, learning, sharing and partying with a community of established entrepreneurs. See you there!
