Business Aspiration vs. Stress Avoidance
Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us invigorated. But unreasonable workloads can lead to stress, which undermines performance, is costly, and can make us ill. Stress is the adverse reaction people have when excessive demands are placed on them.
The thought of achieving your dreams is a great motivator. The desire to accomplish as much as possible in one’s lifetime and leave a legacy for one’s offspring is understandable. For this, countless people work every hour imaginable with the goal of developing huge piles of wealth and acquiring the trappings of luxury.
However, on the other side of the coin, when we hear innumerable stories about executive stress and burnout, the question has to be,
“Is at all worth it?”
A family worth supporting will surely be one that almost certainly would prefer to have you fitter and healthier for longer.
What’s the point of working 90-hour week, to be able to afford a palatial mansion, top marque cars and an exotic holiday home, if you have little time for their enjoyment and when you do, you’re too whacked out to appreciate all these acquisitions? Studies also show that people who work more than 55 hours a week are far more likely to have a stroke than those who put in shorter hours.
A few tips on coming through
When you’re your own boss you have tremendous freedom and flexibility to work in a way that best suits you (well… that’s the theory). Sure, you’ll sometimes work into the evenings and maybe a weekend, but that doesn’t mean you’ll never see anyone outside work, you have the power to schedule in the good stuff.
Regularly keeping those close to you in the loop with business progress helps them understand your current state of mind, making it easier for them to know what you’re going through, allowing them to give you support.
Take regular breaks, coming back reinvigorated will make you much more productive. A good diet with regular, strenuous exercise also plays an important role in all of this. Exertion stimulates the body’s ‘feel good’ hormones, helping to improve your mood and the positive mental attitude needed for success.
Stay in regular contact with your friends, social interactions will keep your spirits up, helping you avoid feeling isolated. Do make sure you block in immoveable dates to maintain a healthy social life. Have a good friend who can act as a mentor to discuss ideas and strategies, maybe he can give you an objective point of view on the plans and decisions you are thinking of making.
A balance has to be met between responsibility to oneself, the business, and to family. Letting go of some of your obligations and duties and spreading them across a wider, wisely chosen workforce seems a simple, not always obvious, but effective way to deliver the goods, resulting in less personal stress and more time to enjoy the rewards.
Take your foot off of the pedal and ease up, it could be helpful to release the desire to capture the biggest chunk of the cake; it’s not a difficult theory to understand that a larger cake is achievable by a group of well trained experts than by one shot to pieces individual.
