I’ve written a lot about time management as an entrepreneur, but equally important is management of your energy. This isn’t backed by research, but I would argue that the inability to focus your energy in the right direction is the leading cause of wasted time and unnecessary anxiety.
It’s a road worth traveling, but the toll of running a business on your mental health and relationships is real. When that devil in my head (you know him) is gaining traction, these are my go-to strategies for putting him on mute and managing not just my time, but my energy as an entrepreneur.
Squash your catastrophic fantasies
Have you ever heard of a catastrophic fantasy? It’s when you let your mind imagine the worst possible scenario. And just knowing they exist, has helped me tremendously. When I get to thinking…
What if we lose three clients in the same month, none of the new business in the pipeline comes through and we don’t get paid by our largest client.
….I know I am in having a full-on daymare.
While the anxiety that they provoke is so real, catastrophic fantasies are nothing but irrational thoughts. When I recognize I’m having one, I immediately try to refocus on what I can control, which is my own frame of mind and how I choose to think about a challenging situation. Rather than dwelling on the worst case scenario, I force myself to step back and think about the best case scenario instead. Then, I spend my energy thinking through the role my team and I need to play in getting us there.
Reflect and learn
Good or bad, we’re not going to be able to predict all of the eventualities of our team, clients, business or industry. Everytime something happens — a win, loss or something in between — we take the time to talk it through, analyze and determine what we’re going to do similarly or differently in the future.
Alyssa and I reflect informally on a daily basis and more formally during monthly and quarterly business partner meetings. We’ve done so much reflecting, we could write a book…or this blog about it. As an outcome, we are able to make better decisions about how to spend our time, manage the outputs of our team, structure new projects and grow our business strategically.
Eliminate negative energy
One of my biggest strengths is my ability to suppress negative energy. There will always be naysayers and people who actually don’t want you to succeed. As an entrepreneur, you will also find yourself in more “unfair” situations and short-ends of the deal than you could ever possibly imagine.
If you spend your energy on trying to sway people who will never be swayed or righting the injustices that come your way, you won’t make progress on all of the things that make entrepreneurial life so amazing. Instead, generate positive energy by doing the work you like to do and surrounding yourself with the right people. Your team, clients and family will thank you for it and you’ll ultimately be more happy and productive as a result.
The three biggest lessons here (and trust me I am still learning them): think only about what you can control, learn from your strengths and weaknesses and use your positive energy to propel you forward rather than letting negative energy hold you back.
