Are you losing your mind due to stress and you’re wondering how to control your emotions as a business owner?
Running a business isn’t quite easy.
Most times the stress can get to you and you may tend to lose balance emotionally.
Interestingly, there are ways to effectively control your emotions as a business owner.
In this article, we’ll discuss some of these tips.
Read through to find out more!
Like most business owners, you probably have to deal with a wide range of problems.
You are often worried, tense, and anxious.
You agonize and lose sleep over your business, afraid that the money and effort you put in will come to naught.
If you want to remain productive and efficient, you have to learn effective ways to manage emotions.
How to Control Your Emotions As a Small Business Owner
Running a business is often associated with a number of emotions.
Some of these emotions are positive.
When the business outlook is rosy, you experience feelings of excitement, optimism, and joy.
On the other hand, many of the emotions you experience as a business owner can be negative.
You experience irritation, frustration, nervousness, and worry.
You experience annoyance, anger, gloom, and disappointment.
Fortunately, you can learn how to handle your emotions better.
You can choose how to feel and react to situations.
You can become better at dealing with emotions and coping with them more constructively.
So before we move on to discuss how to control your emotions; let’s lay down some foundations on the topic.
Learning to Control Your Emotions
It takes a lot of work to learn how to control/manage your emotions as a business owner.
Almost everybody finds it difficult to function effectively in the face of negative emotions.
The job is even more challenging if you run your own business and are primarily responsible for its success.
Controlling your emotions is one of the skills you should try to develop if you want your business to succeed.
Entrepreneurs need to appreciate the vital effect of emotions on business.
A business owner who knows how to appropriately handle emotions has a better chance of success than those who don’t.
As a small business owner, you face a lot of uncertainty.
Many things are not within your control.
You are confronted with unexpected problems almost every day.
When you allow your emotions to escalate in response to the problems that demand your attention, you will find it difficult to make good decisions.
You will find it a challenge to be productive and efficient.
You will find it hard to deliver great work or service.
When you don’t know how to manage your emotions, what you feel tends to compound and significantly impact the business.
When you feel uneasy and insecure, these negative emotions can quickly turn into an unrelenting cycle of being nervous, worried, and anxious.
You find it hard to shake off a general sense of looming failure and disappointment.
As you become more anxious, you feel more inept at handling your business.
You lose confidence.
Your productivity declines.
When you fail at controlling your emotions, your business gets affected.
You start missing deadlines.
You begin dropping the ball with important clients.
Likewise, you fail to see opportunities for networking and expanding your business.
Mistakes serve to heighten your existing emotions and reinforce the cycle of emotions.
As a business owner when your team sees you lose control, they, too, become more susceptible to experiencing negative emotions.
As a result, they become less efficient at their jobs.
Emotions are a natural part of life.
You can’t stop yourself from experiencing them.
More so, you can’t eliminate entrepreneurship stress.
However, you can have a go at effectively managing emotions in the workplace.
You can make conscious and deliberate choices to manage your reactions.
By learning to control your emotions, you can prevent negative emotions from weighing you and your business, down.
Improving Your Emotional Intelligence
Another thing you need to know when trying to gain control of your emotions as a business owner is; improving your emotional intelligence.
It is suggested that emotional intelligence has a significant impact on improving chances for success in any endeavor, including running a business.
So, what is emotional intelligence?
This is your ability to be totally aware and in charge of how you feel and react to things; in other words, your emotions.
When you have high emotional intelligence, you have the ability to recognize your emotions and to harness them
You also have the ability to manage them so that they work FOR you rather than AGAINST you.
You are also able to help others do likewise.
Emotional intelligence is composed of several essential skills
- Firstly, the ability to identify or recognize what you feel
- The ability to control and use emotions for problem-solving and constructive thinking
- Also, the ability to effectively cope with or regulate your emotions when needed and
- Lastly, the ability to help other people do the same.
If you have a high level of emotional intelligence skills, you have a definite advantage as a business leader.
Some of these advantages are outlined below.
- You can “read” the people you interact with, which includes your employees, customers, business partners, and suppliers.
This makes it easier for you to make effective and successful decisions.
- Emotional intelligence skills are associated with resilience, adaptability, and mental agility.
These are characteristics that increase the chances of success in any undertaking.
- Emotional intelligence enriches your emotional language.
It makes you a better and more effective communicator.
- High emotional intelligence allows you to take a rational and constructive approach in dealing with emotions.
It motivates you to figure out why you feel the way you do so that you can effectively address the root cause of your feelings.
You don’t simply wallow in your emotions.
Having discussed some vital aspects of what emotion is all about; let’s move on to how you can gain control of your emotions as a small business owner.
Tips On How to Control Your Emotions as a Small Business Owner
Gaining control of your emotions as a business owner is easier when you know exactly what strategic steps to take.
These tips below are some of the effective ways to control your emotions as a business owner.
Acknowledge Your Emotions
The first step towards learning to control your emotions is to recognize how you feel.
In order to understand how you feel, ask yourself these questions
- Do you persistently fret over everything, even things that you have no control over?
- Do you constantly worry over trivial problems, on top of big and major ones?
- Furthermore, do you have racing thoughts even at night so that you can’t get any sleep?
- Do you have to frequently tell yourself to take deep breaths?
- Do you often feel afraid, sometimes irrationally?
- Also, do you find it hard to focus on the things you have to do today because you are worried about things that are still to happen days or even weeks from now?
- Do your emotions manifest themselves through physical discomforts like an upset stomach, headaches, breathing difficulties, or dizziness?
Acknowledge what you feel.
You don’t have to announce them to the entire neighborhood.
You simply have to look inward and acknowledge what you truly feel.
Take A Close Look At What You Feel
Describe what you feel.
Be specific.
By trying to find out what it is exactly that you feel, you become more self-aware.
You also take on a more objective and intentional approach when you “distance” yourself from what you feel.
You get a better chance at controlling your emotions when you learn to take a purposeful look at them.
Find out more about your emotions by doing the following:
- Keep a journal
- Meditate
- Practice mindfulness
- Take a personal development course so you can learn more about how you think, feel, and behave.
Always Remind Yourself That Your Emotions Do Not Define You
When you are able to put some distance between yourself and your emotions, you prevent them from taking over and controlling your day.
It may be hard to achieve this separation at first.
It takes practice.
Furthermore, you have to constantly remind yourself that although these are your emotions, they do not define who you are.
More so, you have to believe that you have the option of choosing how to respond to each thought or feeling that you experience.
Ask Yourself Why You Feel The Way You Do And What You Can Do To Make Things Better
Another tip to help you gain control of your emotions as a business owner is by asking yourself some important emotional questions.
Learn to reduce entrepreneurship stress by tuning in to your emotions.
Identify what you feel and determine the reason why you feel this way.
When you are able to identify the cause of your emotions, you are better able to think about what you should do about your feelings.
Taking a purposeful look at your emotions stops you from going into a panic and blindly allowing your emotions to take over.
Ask yourself to know what you feel exactly?
- Are you feeling vaguely anxious about something?
- Are you experiencing a low-lying suggestion of panic?
- Do you feel uneasy, tense, and nervous?
- Are you troubled with the thought that something unpleasant is going to happen?
Why do you feel this way?
- Is it because you have more work than you can handle?
- Or is it because you are worried that you will not be able to do high-quality work for your clients?
- Is it because you have to do a task that you don’t know much about?
What can you do to make yourself feel better?
- Do you need some time to sit still, breathe deeply, and meditate?
- Do you need to expel the tension by going out for a brisk walk?
- Also, do you need to express your thoughts in writing so you can regain some of your mental space?
- Do you need to vent out your fears to somebody you trust?
- Do you need to prepare a more organized and detailed task list so you have a clearer look at what you need to do?
- Lastly, do you need time to talk with a mentor who can give you some good advice?
Your answers may vary depending on what you are going through.
But when you take the time to sit down and listen to your thoughts and feelings, you stand a good chance of finding out what it is that you need to do.
Create A Routine That Minimizes Negative Emotions And Anxious Thoughts
This is yet another effective way to control your emotions as a business owner.
When you run your own business, you have the luxury of controlling your time and how you run your workday.
Plan out your workday in a manner designed not to hike up your stress levels.
You need some degree of self-awareness to be able to do this.
You need to know what triggers your negative emotions and what makes you feel grounded and at ease.
Use the information to help create a day designed to make you efficient, purposeful, productive, and happy.
Here are some suggestions on how to create a routine
- Plan what you will have for breakfast ahead of time
This saves you time and gives you more mental energy to think about the things that really matter, in this particular case, making your business grow.
- Wake up earlier to do your physical workout routine
When you do your workout first thing upon waking up, you don’t have to fret about fitting it in with the rest of the things you have to do for that day.
- Write in your journal
Journaling gives you the opportunity to reflect and become self-aware.
It allows you to vent out any worrying or distracting thought and clear your head for the day ahead.
- Enjoy your commute to and from work by being mindful.
Take a walk to and from your office if possible.
Try to notice things you see along the way.
Being present invigorates your mind.
- Devote a good percentage of your time to do actual work (the deliverables) for your clients.
Give client projects the priority that they deserve.
Minimize meetings and calls unless they are really necessary.
- Avoid multi-tasking.
- Avoid context switching by batching tasks.
- Turn off email notifications so you don’t get distracted when you work on projects that call for focus and concentration.
- Do the important tasks that you dislike first.
Get them over with so they don’t hang over your head the entire day and cause you to fret or become anxious.
- Notice the things that go right and express your gratitude for them.
- Put aside some time to do yoga and meditation in the evening.
A few minutes of these exercises can make a lot of difference in how you feel.
When the tension begins to overwhelm you, go for a walk.
Acknowledge your emotions.
Identify and process them in your head.
When you still feel overwhelmed by them even after you do all these, head out the door and give yourself a break.
It doesn’t always pay to grit your teeth and plow ahead.
Sometimes, the best thing to do to control your emotions as a small business owner is to let things be for a while and go for a walk.
The simple physical movement of walking gives you something else to focus on.
It takes your mind off the pressure.
Focus on your breath.
In other words, take slow deep breaths until you feel the tension ease up and you feel calmer and ready to get back to work.
Get Help And Support
“Help” can come in various forms.
It can come in the form of
- Reading inspiring, meaningful, or practical books
- Registering for a personal development course
- Getting the services of a life coach
- Seeking advice or assistance from a mentor or someone you trust and admire
- Getting support from family and friends.
It is always good to reach out to people you trust.
Sometimes, they don’t have the answers for you.
Talking to them, however, can help clear your mind so you are able to come up with the solutions yourself.
Don’t make decisions when you are emotional
You make the best decisions when you feel positive and fully energized.
When you are tired, pressured, or emotional, your brain does not function as well as it should.
Learn how to separate emotions from work.
This is so you are able to make objective evaluations and incisive judgments.
Be Realistic
When it comes to controlling your emotions as a business owner, being truthful to yourself is very important.
No business is exempted from mistakes, frustration, or even failure.
Even more, all businesses go through the same obstacles.
Accept that you have to face difficulties and challenges in the same way that you will achieve success.
Be Patient With Yourself
Working on how to improve your emotional self-control is hard work.
It requires self-awareness, acceptance, and practice.
Furthermore, you have to try different ways to find the ones that work best for you.
When you find yourself failing to get a good grip on your emotions, cut yourself some slack.
It takes time to learn how to be in control of your emotions as a business owner.
When there are days that you feel so emotionally worn out that you don’t make it to half of your appointments, let things be.
Don’t spend the night putting yourself down.
Start anew the next day.
Take Some Time Off
Taking time off is another effective way of trying to control your emotions as a business owner.
There will be times when you feel sorely tempted to spend more time working to make your business succeed.
When you are tired and overworked, however, you tend to become less efficient.
Similarly, fatigue undermines your emotional and mental state.
The quality of your work decreases.
Also, you’ll experience job burnout.
If you can’t get away for a short vacation, explore other options to unwind and take your mind off your business every now and then.
Spend quality time with your family.
Additionally, hang out with your friends.
Pursue interests that have nothing to do with your business.
Indulge in soothing self-care routines.
Spending time away from your business alleviates stress.
It energizes you.
Even more, it enables you to come back refreshed and eager to continue where you left off.
Lastly, it helps you work with greater energy and enthusiasm.
Conclusion On How to Control Your Emotions As a Small Business Owner
Running your own business is not for you if you are faint of heart.
The challenges can make you emotional and lead to stress and burnout.
When you have emotional control, however, running your business can provide amazing opportunities for success and self-fulfillment.
Manage the adverse effect of emotions on business.
Use these tips as a guide on how to control your emotions as a small business owner.
Controlling your emotions puts you in a better position to make sharp, insightful decisions and plan astute strategies to grow your business.
Don’t ignore the other articles that have been linked to this post; they are also as informative and helpful as this one.
So, please check them out.
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