Episode Summary:
Experiencing burnout and emotional overwhelm in your entrepreneurial journey? You’re not alone. In this eye-opening episode, we share personal stories and experiences while diving into the world of business-related trauma and burnout. Discover how my training in Somatic Experiencing has shed light on understanding different types of trauma we encounter in business, and learn how to recognize and address these issues.
We’ll also discuss the importance of aligning your life with your values and questioning the narratives we’ve been taught about success. Explore how the culture of urgency and the desire to constantly move faster can compromise our values, leading to anxiety and burnout. Find out how doing the internal work can help you better understand yourself, make necessary changes to reach your goals, and ultimately create a more balanced and fulfilling life. Don’t miss this essential episode for anyone navigating the challenging world of entrepreneurship and seeking a more enriching path.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Managing Burnout and Trauma in Business (19 Minutes)
We explore the epidemic of fatigue, burnout, and emotional overwhelm that many entrepreneurs are experiencing after going hard in their businesses for an extended period of time. My own experience, as well as the experiences of the clients I work with, are discussed. The two core categories of trauma that I currently study are shock trauma and chronic trauma. We discuss how the body experiences business trauma, which is often chronic, compared to shock trauma and how this causes us to develop coping mechanisms to help us navigate the intense stress of our lives. We also discuss the narrative of always needing to go bigger, faster, and how that is not necessarily true for everyone.
Aligning Life With Your Values (11 Minutes)
We explore the importance of understanding our values and what we want to experience in life as entrepreneurs. We examine how the culture of urgency and the desire to move faster can lead us to compromise our values in the short term and how this can lead to feelings of burnout, anxiety, and overwhelm. We ask how we can shift our mindset to create a life that doesn’t require us to constantly live with fear and stress, and explore the idea of reconciling with the realization that our business may not be what we actually want.
The Importance of Internal Work (1 Minutes)
The importance of doing the internal work to understand ourselves and the changes we need to make to reach our goals is discussed. This internal work is the real work when it comes to life and business and the strategy for getting what we want is explored. We invite listeners to reach out with questions and provide contact information.
Coping Strategies and Entrepreneurial Stress
Navigating Entrepreneurial Stress: Coping Strategies and Developing Balance
Entrepreneurship is a journey that requires a great deal of hard work, dedication, and resilience. As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves grappling with intense stress, pressure to achieve, and a constant barrage of responsibilities. Over time, these experiences can lead to burnout, emotional exhaustion, and even chronic trauma.
In this article, we’ll explore how we develop coping strategies to deal with the stress of entrepreneurship, and how these mechanisms can become ingrained in our personalities and affect our well-being. We’ll also offer tips for navigating entrepreneurial stress and finding balance.
The Development of Coping Strategies
The way we learn to cope with stress is what we call coping strategies. Depending on how much we identify with these strategies, they can become an integral part of our personalities, archetypes, or defense systems. Over time, we develop a chronic sense of who we are and how we navigate the world.
One example of this is common among entrepreneurs and athletes. We start to identify with survival strategies that we developed as a way to navigate the intense stress in our lives. For instance, a business owner going into the online space may need to manage multiple aspects of their business, including marketing, sales, team management, client delivery, and more. This can become extremely overwhelming, leading to the development of coping mechanisms such as constantly achieving, investing in new things, biohacking, or even unhealthy behaviors like smoking or drinking.
The Importance of Finding Balance
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that we need to build capacity to handle more stress. However, this narrative can be detrimental to our well-being. In reality, developing coping mechanisms to deal with stress isn’t enough. To truly thrive as entrepreneurs, we need to find balance.
Finding balance involves prioritizing our well-being, relationships, and personal growth. It means taking breaks, setting boundaries, and doing the internal work necessary to understand ourselves and our values. By aligning our goals with our values and finding ways to cultivate balance in our lives, we can create sustainable and fulfilling entrepreneurship journeys.
The Perpetuation of Success Trap
Are You Building Success or Trapping Yourself in Your Business?
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to get caught up in the hustle and grind of building a successful business. We often hear about the importance of working harder, faster, and smarter to achieve our goals. While this mindset can be useful, it can also lead to burnout, overwhelm, and even trap us in our own success.
The Danger of Only Focusing on One Strategy
Many entrepreneurs develop a strategy that helps them move out of pain and into success. However, if we only focus on one strategy without taking a step back to assess how it’s affecting our lives, we can quickly become blind to its impact. We must start by defining what success means to us, what it looks like, and how it feels.
The Trap of Success
We hear stories of successful entrepreneurs who have built incredible businesses, but many of them feel trapped by their own success. They’re bogged down by responsibilities, team members, clients, and obligations. The freedom they sought to create has turned into a trap, limiting their ability to live a fulfilling life. This challenge is especially prevalent in the entrepreneurial space, but it can occur in any area of our lives.
The Importance of Finding Balance
To avoid this trap, we must learn to define what success means to us and find balance in our lives. Creating a successful business is important, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of our happiness, health, and relationships. Taking breaks, tending to other areas of our lives, and doing internal work to understand ourselves can help us better align our goals with our values and create a more fulfilling life
Reevaluating Values and Relationships
The Power of Community: Learning to Value Relationships Over Positioning
For many of us, the path to self-discovery and growth is a winding one. We may start out with a set of values and beliefs that change over time as we experience new things, meet new people, and face new challenges. In this article, we’ll explore the journey of learning to value relationships over positioning and building community.
The Journey of Self-Discovery
In our early adult years, we may feel like we need to do everything on our own and can’t depend on anyone else. We may have a lot of distrust for others and feel like we have something to prove. However, life has a way of forcing us to lean on others and build community.
For me, the transition into motherhood was a turning point in my relationship with community. I realized how much I depended on family and friends to support me and how much I valued those relationships. Through the process of re-evaluation and reconstruction, I came to understand that the relationships with those who are always there for me were what truly mattered.
Valuing Relationships Over Positioning
In our early 20s, many of us may value relationships based on what we think they can do for us in terms of positioning or authority. We may prioritize impressing others and building a certain image. However, this narrative can be limiting and prevent us from establishing genuine connections with others.
As we grow and evolve, it’s essential to recognize and embrace our true values. For some, that may mean valuing independence and autonomy. However, for many of us, it means recognizing the power of community, family, and friendships. These relationships provide us with a sense of belonging, support, and love that can be transformative.
Embracing Our Values and Building Community
No matter what values we prioritize, it’s crucial to recognize that there’s no right or wrong answer. What matters is that we embrace our true selves and build connections based on authenticity and mutual respect.
To build community, we must be intentional about fostering relationships with those who align with our values. We must also be willing to give back and support others in their journeys. By doing so, we can create a network of people who lift us up and provide us with the love and support we need to thrive.
Defining Personal Values and Priorities
Understanding our values and what we want to experience in life as entrepreneurs is essential. The culture of urgency and the desire to move faster can lead us to compromise our values in the short term, leading to feelings of burnout, anxiety, and overwhelm. We must ask ourselves how we can shift our mindset to create a life that doesn’t require us to constantly live with fear and stress, and explore the idea of reconciling with the realization that our business may not be what we actually want.
In today’s fast-paced world, we’re constantly bombarded with messages that tell us we need to work harder, go faster, and do more. Over time, this can lead to chronic symptoms of living in a state of hypervigilance, always needing to be bigger and better. However, it’s essential to recognize that this pattern is not sustainable in the long run
The Slow Process of Re-Negotiation
It’s essential to recognize that changing deeply ingrained patterns takes time. If we’ve spent our whole lives living in a certain way, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to change overnight. Instead, we need to take a slow and intentional approach to reworking these patterns.
Think of it like building a muscle. If you’ve only ever focused on building your upper body strength, it’s going to feel foreign and uncomfortable to start working on your lower body. However, over time, you’ll build the strength and balance necessary to support growth in all areas of your body.
Episode Keywords:
Burnout, Trauma, Somatic Experiencing, Business Trauma, Shock Trauma, Chronic Trauma, Coping Mechanisms, Urgency, Anxiety, Overwhelm, Values, Mindset, Internal Work, Reconciliation, Strategy, Life, Goals
