{"id":9363,"date":"2024-11-16T21:12:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/9-proven-strategies-to-beat-entrepreneurial-anxiety-for-good\/"},"modified":"2024-11-16T21:12:39","modified_gmt":"2024-11-17T01:12:39","slug":"9-proven-strategies-to-beat-entrepreneurial-anxiety-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/9-proven-strategies-to-beat-entrepreneurial-anxiety-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Proven Strategies to Beat Entrepreneurial Anxiety for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Profit<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

\n

Every week, I receive a message from a client or reader that goes something like this\u2026 <\/p>\n

\u201cCraig\u201d, they\u2019ll say, \u201cI\u2019m dealing with crazy <\/em>anxiety right now and don\u2019t know what to do! Business is good, but I constantly feel behind and can\u2019t sleep at night because I have too many thoughts racing around my brain.\u201d <\/p>\n

And I get it. I\u2019ve been there too. <\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve read any of my previous essays, then you probably know about my \u201cmillion dollar anxiety attack\u201d I had back in 2006\u2026right after making my first 7-figures. <\/p>\n

Despite my successes, my lifestyle was radically misaligned. I\u2019d build my life around my business and the stress of running a million-dollar company<\/a> led to bing drinking and a lot <\/em>of partying. <\/p>\n

Eventually, my lifestyle caught up with me and I spent 6 months battling chronic anxiety attacks\u2013checking myself into the ER twice thinking I was having a heart attack. <\/p>\n

But today, I\u2019m anxiety-free. And, by using the 9 tactics I\u2019m about to share with you, I\u2019ve helped thousands of other entrepreneurs beat their anxiety for good and build the life and business of their dreams. <\/p>\n

1. Use \u201cStoic Objectivism\u201d to Find the Solution\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re struggling with anxiety and don\u2019t know what to do next, it\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You see the challenges in your life as a matter of personal identity <\/em>and, instead of looking at your situation objectively, you allow fear, emotion, and personal attachment to cloud your judgment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, the solution is simple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ancient Stoics encouraged us to detach ourselves from our struggles by asking a simple question:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat advice would I give to someone else in the same situation?\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy <\/em>to give advice to other people. Whenever our friends or family members come to us with their problems, we\u2019re quick to prescribe a solution because we aren\u2019t attached to the outcomes. Our lack of emotionality allows us to look at their situation objectively and clearly see what they need to start or stop doing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a friend is struggling with anxiety, buried in credit card debt, heading for a divorce, or getting sick from overwork, we know <\/em>what they need to do to fix the situation. We know the exact steps they <\/em>need to take, but because we\u2019re so attached to our own challenges, we struggle to see the solutions to our own problems with this level of clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You already know <\/em>the solution to whatever problems you\u2019re facing. You know what you should <\/em>do. But your conflicting emotions are keeping you stuck in indecision. <\/p>\n

So ask yourself\u2026\u201dIf a friend came to me with the exact same problems I\u2019m facing right now\u2026what would I tell them?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once you have your answer, go and take action.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Because that <\/em>is what you should have done all along.\u00a0<\/p>\n

2. Remember: Values and Vision Drive Every Decision\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There\u2019s an old Proverb that says, \u201cWhere there is no vision, the people perish.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

And truer words have yet to be spoken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After coaching hundreds of 7-figure clients and working with thousands of high-performers at my workshops, retreats, and ground coaching programs, I\u2019ve discovered that entrepreneurial anxiety has one <\/em>main <\/em>source\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Misalignment between your values and<\/em> vision <\/em>and your actions.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

If you say <\/em>that you value your family and friends\u2026but you work 70-hours a week, miss every date night, and can\u2019t remember the last time you made it to one of your kid\u2019s ball games\u2026you\u2019re going <\/em>to feel anxious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you say that you value financial freedom and independence\u2026but you live outside your means and go into debt for vanity purchases like a new car or bigger house\u2026you\u2019re going to feel anxious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, if you have a big vision for the future, career, and lifestyle you want to live but aren\u2019t doing <\/em>anything to make that vision your reality\u2026you\u2019re going to feel anxious<\/p>\n

The only <\/em>way to eradicate entrepreneurial anxiety once and for all is to develop a crystal clear vision and rock-solid set of personal values and then align every thought, word, and action with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without strong values and a clear vision, you\u2019ll always be stuck in indecision. You won\u2019t know which opportunities to pursue, how to structure your life, or what to prioritize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even worse, you\u2019ll fall prey to the traps of greed, envy, and comparison syndrome. Instead of feeling grateful for everything you have in your own life and trusting that, with time and hard work, you will achieve all the big goals you\u2019ve set for yourself\u2026you\u2019ll develop a \u201cblack heart of envy\u201d and start to hate other people for their successes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But when you have your vision in place\u2026when you know what you value and what you want to get out of life\u2026your decision making becomes automatic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll know when you need to slow down and when you need to put the pedal to the floor. You\u2019ll know when to hire, fire, outsource and automate. You\u2019ll know when to leave a good position to pursue something great and when you should stick it out at something you don\u2019t enjoy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the great business mogul, Roy Disney said, \u201cIt\u2019s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Become a Leaning Machine\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warren Buffet, at one point the richest man on the planet, is notorious for his insatiable curiosity and commitment to learning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He reads for five to eight hours on any given day, consuming more knowledge in a single afternoon than most people do in a month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While this is an admittedly impressive feat in and of itself, what I find more fascinating than Warren\u2019s obsession with his personal education is the compounding effect this obsession has had over the past few decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What most people don\u2019t realize is that Warren didn\u2019t become a billionaire until he was already in his 60\u2019s. And according to his partners at Berkshire Hathaway, he didn\u2019t \u201chit his stride\u201d as an investor until after age 65.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to his business partner Charlie Munger, \u201cWarren\u2019s investing skills have markedly increased since he turned 65 [\u2026] I can report that, if he had stopped with what he knew at earlier points, the record would be a pale shadow of what it is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re trapped in entrepreneurial anxiety and facing problems for which you don\u2019t have a solution, it\u2019s easy to let your education and personal growth stagnate. You start to view learning as a luxury instead of a necessity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But we forget that we have access to (quite literally) millions of years of cumulative human experience at our fingertips.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the click of a button, you can learn lessons that took someone else decades <\/em>to discover.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re anxious about credit card debt, marriage problems, a floundering business, or health complications there are <\/em>answers. Other people have suffered through the years of adversity to solve the problem you\u2019re facing right now and, if you\u2019re willing to do some digging, you can overcome the challenges in your life faster and easier than you currently believe possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By finding the one <\/em>big idea or the one <\/em>simple solution, you can turn it all around in record time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Warren said, \u201cEveryone learns through failure, it just doesn\u2019t have to be your own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. Treat Yourself Like a Pro Athlete\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Whenever I sit down to work with a client who\u2019s struggling with entrepreneurial anxiety, the first thing I recommend is for them to double down on their self-care practices and make more time for non-work related activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And their response is almost always the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCraig\u201d they\u2019ll say, \u201cYou don\u2019t understand! I\u2019m so overwhelmed\u2026I don\u2019t have time to go to the gym, get a massage, or take a day off!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

My response is equally predictable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overwhelm you\u2019re experiencing is exactly why <\/em>these self-care practices are non-negotiable!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listen\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you want to perform at the highest levels in life and business, you <\/em>must be performing at the highest levels physically and mentally. When you\u2019re sleep-deprived, malnourished, burned out, and anxious, bad decision making becomes inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just ask Dov Charney, the Founder and former CEO of American Apparel\u2013at one point a multibillion-dollar company and one of the biggest apparel brands on the planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dov was notorious for his relentless commitment to work and, at one point, he even built a small bedroom inside <\/em>his office\u2026sleeping on a cot on the floor and often going for days without sleep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His lack of intentional self-care eventually destroyed his abilities as a leader and resulted in the bankruptcy of his company (not to mention a $20 million personal debt to a team of VC\u2019s).\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Dov had understood the power of self-care and prioritized sleep, recovery, and leisure, the story could have turned out much differently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To break free from anxiety and avoid this sort of break down in your <\/em>life and business, you must treat yourself like an elite athlete and prioritize your personal performance and well-being above temporary gains and quick financial wins.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get at least 7 hours of sleep every night. Go to the gym three times a week and spend at least 30-minutes walking outside on your rest days. Get massages, eat the best foods you can afford, invest in high-quality supplements and performance-enhancing gear (like a standing desk, blue light blocking glasses, and a nice mattress).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Protect yourself like the invaluable asset you are and your anxiety will slowly start to disappear.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. Get the Lego Pieces Out of Your Head\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A few years ago, I bought my business partner Matt Smith a 4,000 piece Lego Death Star for Christmas. And to this day, he will still jokingly tell me how much he \u201chates me\u201d for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2026the set looks awesome <\/em>on the box. But when you dump 4,000 tiny plastic bricks on the floor, anxiety becomes inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same is true of the cluttered \u201clego pieces\u201d in your head.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even when you know your vision, it\u2019s hard to make sense of all the pieces you need to put together to bring it into reality. Because, unlike the lego set I bought for Matt, you don\u2019t yet have an instruction manual for achieving your big goals and dreams (something I specialize in at my group coaching workshops).\u00a0<\/p>\n

To clear the clutter, eliminate anxiety, and clearly see the big picture, you need to get all of the pieces out of your head and dump them on the floor\u2026or in our case, onto a piece of paper.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By writing down all the things that are causing anxiety in your life and looking at them objectively, you can regain control of your thoughts and see your situation for what it is. When all of the pieces are out of your head, it\u2019s easier to see how they all fit together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To help you with this, I encourage you to build the habit of a daily \u201cbrain dump\u201d immediately after you finish work each day. The practice is simple. During the final 15 minutes of your day, pull out a piece of paper and write down everything<\/em> that you need or want to do over the next few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From here, you can begin to eliminate tasks and obligations that don\u2019t serve your vision (more on this later), schedule the things that matter, and get clarity on what you need to do and why. You can figure out which projects to prioritize, which ones to let go, and what new opportunities you can pursue to achieve your goals faster.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When combined with a regular journaling practice (to help you make sense of your emotions, frustrations, and desires) and a tool like my 90-Day Blueprint\u2013click here to download your copy today\u2013you can eliminate the clutter in your head, get crystal clear on the steps you need to take, and end anxiety for good.<\/p>\n

6. Remember: It Will All Be Over Soon<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The ancient Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius had a \u201cweird\u201d practice he would use in times of stress and anxiety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead of focusing on everything that was going right in his life or even focusing on the problems in his life, he would sit and quietly contemplate the inevitability of death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our species has a \u201cweird human trick\u201d of forgetting the fact that the survival rate on planet earth is 0%. No one, in the history of humankind, has ever beaten death. Sooner or later, we\u2019re all going to die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As counterintuitive as it might sound, this is actually one of the most comforting facts you can accept.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you realize that we\u2019re all going to die, when you truly <\/em>accept that your failures and successes will matter very little (if at all) in the grand scheme of the universe, you release the pressure to be perfect. You realize that life is, more than anything, meant to be enjoyed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Five hundred years from now, no one will care if your business generated $10,000 a month, $100,000 a month, or went completely bankrupt. They won\u2019t care about the 15 rejection letters you received for your book or the $50,000 of debt you carried with you through your 30s. And neither will you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only thing that matters, when it\u2019s all said and done, is that you enjoyed the ride. That you made a positive impact on the lives of others and left the world just a little better than you found it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anxiety only arises when we give events more meaning than they deserve. And by developing a healthy relationship with your own mortality, you will keep perspective on your problems and remember, as I like to remind myself\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

It will all be over soon.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

7. Be Realistically Impatient\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Even though we\u2019re all headed to the same destination (death), most of us have a lot <\/em>more time left on this planet than we realize.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re under the age of 50 and you\u2019ve taken care of your health up to this point, it\u2019s likely that you have another five to six decades <\/em>left to fulfill your vision and create the life you\u2019ve always wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And most of our anxiety results from forgetting this fact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The small setbacks and failures you\u2019re facing today will not only be forgotten in 500 years\u2026you <\/em>will likely forget them in the next five!\u00a0<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got a long life ahead of you (remember, Buffet didn\u2019t hit his peak as an investor until his mid 60\u2019s!) and you have plenty of time to overcome whatever challenges you\u2019re facing today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As such, I encourage you to be \u201crealistically impatient.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, success loves speed and delay kills dreams. Yes, you should move as fast as you can and try to achieve your big goals sooner rather than later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But you need to temper your ambitions with a dose of realism.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average American millionaire is 62 years old. The average self-made billionaire didn\u2019t make their first million until 37 and didn\u2019t make their first billion until their early 50\u2019s!\u00a0<\/p>\n

It might take you five or ten more years before you have the business you really <\/em>want. It might take you two to three years to lose the extra weight (after all, it likely took two to three years for you to gain <\/em>it in the first place). It might take you a few years to get out of debt and achieve financial freedom.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s ok.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Change doesn\u2019t need to happen overnight. If you don\u2019t become a millionaire until your 40\u2019s, you\u2019re still ahead of more than 80% of the population.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So relax. Slow down. Embrace the long game. And remember\u2026you have time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

8. Script Your Plays, Script Your Days\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The best of the best always <\/em>script their plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can you imagine what would happen if you went to see Phantom of the Opera <\/em>at Broadway\u2026 and the actors and production workers improvised the entire performance?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or if a team of Navy SEALs was sent on a mission without a plan or any idea of who they were fighting or what their objective was?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or if The Rolling Stones <\/em>sold out a concert without agreeing to a setlist or planning their songs ahead of time?\u00a0<\/p>\n

It would be chaos!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, as obvious as this sounds inside the context of a musical, military mission, or rock concert, it isn\u2019t as obvious inside the context of your life.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

If you want to get more out of yourself and beat entrepreneurial anxiety once and for all, you must <\/em>have a plan for every quarter, month, week, and day. Period.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Without a plan, you are setting yourself up for failure. You will waste time, prioritize the wrong tasks, and compound your anxiety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the <\/em>fastest ways I know of to beat anxiety and reclaim control of your life is to commit to daily and weekly planning using my Perfect Day Formula <\/a><\/em>and 7X7 Perfect Week Grid.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

By taking 2 hours every Sunday to map out your week and 15 minutes every afternoon to script out the following day, you will gain a massive advantage over your competition and ensure that you\u2019re spending every second in the most effective way possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, \u201cFailing to plan is planning to fail.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

9. Practice Systematic, Automatic Elimination and Delegation\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Finally, to eliminate anxiety, you must practice systematic, automation elimination and delegation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When you waste your days distracted by social media, email, and busy work (that seems <\/em>important but does nothing to drive real progress) anxiety is inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Similarly, when you try to \u201cdo it all\u201d and be the CEO, CFO, CMO, assistant, and janitor in your business, anxiety is inevitable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To solve these problems, you must get crystal clarity on the distractions, temptations, and busywork that are preventing you from performing at your best and doing the important work required to build your empire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luckily, I\u2019ve developed a simple tool to help you do this.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I call it \u201cThe Billionaire Time Matrix\u201d and it works like this\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pull out a sheet of paper and create a grid with four squares. Inside of those squares write\u2026 <\/p>\n