New Business Owner? Do You have the Habits for Success?

An entrepreneur isn’t someone who knows all the answers, it is someone who asks the right questions- Peter Drucker. But questions are just the beginning. We still need to know how to answer them, or we’ll be left with a mere hunch. Do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur? What does it even mean to be an entrepreneur? The short answer is that being an entrepreneur means you’re responsible for the success of your business. You’re the one who brought a business idea into fruition and invested in it. You’re in charge of making your business a success, and if you don’t succeed, you won’t get another chance.  This guide will walk you through the necessary skills for being successful in business. And by the end of this guide, you should have a solid understanding of what skills will make or break your success. Most importantly this guide will provide you with the necessary tools to do so.

Dealing with stress

There are many ways to deal with stress, but the first step is knowing what type of stressor you’re dealing with. If it’s a one-time event or a specific situation, you can find ways to manage that stressor. If your life is filled with constant stressors, such as financial difficulties or a demanding job, then you may need more long-term solutions for coping.

The following sections provide some tips on handling different types of stress:

Acute versus chronic stress

Chronic stress is constant and unrelenting — it’s always there in your life. It can be caused by an unhappy marriage or an unfulfilling job. Your body reacts to this kind of continuous stress by secreting cortisol, a hormone that helps the body respond to danger. Cortisol increases blood pressure and blood sugar levels and suppresses the immune system, leaving you vulnerable to illness. Acute stress doesn’t last as long as chronic stress and isn’t as severe. You may experience acute stress during an exam or when preparing for a presentation at work. Acute stress doesn’t cause bodily damage like chronic stress does; instead, it causes emotional distress that passes fairly quickly

The best way to deal with the stress of life is to develop an attitude of detachment. This means not taking things personally, being more observant, and accepting situations as they are.

If you believe that something will happen, you can make it happen by acting as if it is going to happen. This is called “creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.” For example, if you have a chance meeting with someone important, who might be able to help your career or move your project forward, think of yourself as having already met them and act accordingly. Don’t say: “I hope we meet,” but say: “We’ve met before and I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”

Meditation is a way of learning how not to react emotionally or psychologically when faced with stressful situations. The ultimate goal of meditation is self-realization, that is, knowing yourself fully and completely so that all confusion disappears from your life forever.

There is a multitude of mediation practices and options.  Find the one that fits you and your personality.   If you aren’t sure where to start, you can find local classes or online resources for Guided Meditation, Yoga, Breathe Work, Sound Healing, Chanting, and more.   Start by asking a question,  what is available? and then try it.

Motivating yourself

Motivation is a psychological process that influences your thoughts and actions. Motivation is often defined as the willingness to act in a way that benefits oneself. It can be fueled by emotion, such as desire or enthusiasm, or it can be propelled by a goal or reward.

Motivation is important for driving behavior forward. If you don’t have motivation, there’s no way you can accomplish something. It’s what drives you to get out of bed in the morning and do all the work that needs to be done. Without it, nothing gets done.

There are many different types of motivation, but the two primary ones are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation comes from within — it’s fueled by passion and enjoyment. When you’re intrinsically motivated, you do something because you enjoy it, not because there’s an expectation or external reward for it. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside sources — money, grades, or praise from others. When you’re extrinsicly motivated, you do something because of an external reward.

Motivation is important, but it’s not everything.

Motivation is often thought of as the key to success. We all want to be motivated, and that’s why we buy books on how to be more motivated. So why do some people seem to be so much more motivated than others?

The answer is simple: motivation is easy when you’re doing something you love. But if you’re doing something that you don’t enjoy, then it’s going to be much harder for you to stay motivated.

If you are trying to build a successful business but hate what you’re doing, then it will be very difficult for you to find the motivation to keep going. If you’re trying to lose weight but hate exercising and eating healthy foods, then it will be hard for you stick with your diet plan over time.

If you were forced into a job at an office job that didn’t suit your personality or interests, then it would be hard for anyone who wasn’t naturally enthusiastic about their work environment and daily tasks would find it difficult not only to stay motivated but also enjoy anything that they did in their work life (even if they liked their coworkers).

Developing Emotional Resiliency

In the last few decades, there has been an explosion of research on resilience. Resilience is a term used to describe a person’s ability to adapt and grow in the face of adversity, trauma or stress.

There are many different types of resilience — from physical to emotional — but all involve some combination of two things: skills and mindset.

Here are some strategies you can use to build your emotional resiliency:

1. Stay centered and calm during turbulent times. In her book “The Upside of Stress,” Kelly McGonigal quotes psychologist Daniel Goleman as saying that stress is like sandpaper — it can be useful if used sparingly, but if you rub your fingers against it too long, it will cut them up badly. When we’re stressed out about something, our minds tend to go into hyperdrive and race over every possible scenario that could lead to something bad happening — especially when those scenarios involve other people’s reactions or behaviors. But when we let those thoughts spiral out of control, they tend to become self-fulfilling prophecies: We worry about someone being upset with us, so we act stressed out around that person — which makes them feel even more upset with us,

Stress can be defined as pressure or tension that causes mental or physical strain. It can come from work, school or personal relationships. We’ve all had moments when we feel stressed out, but the effects of prolonged stress can be harmful to your health — both physically and mentally.

The effects of stress on physical health include:  High blood pressure, Heart disease, Stomach ulcers, and Skin problems such as eczema (atopic dermatitis) or psoriasis (psoriasis vulgaris).   You generally know when you are under stress and how your body reacts.  Pay attention to that.

Daily Habits and Routines for Focus and Productivity

The most important thing is to start your day with a clear head. If you wake up in the morning and don’t know where to start and what to do, then you are going to waste a lot of time during the day. You will think about things that you need to do, but it will take some time before you actually get started with any of them.

So how can we avoid this problem? What steps should we take when we wake up so that we can start our day on a good note?

One of the best ways is to create morning rituals in which you set aside some time for yourself before starting work or doing anything else. This way, you will be able to gather all your energy and focus it on one simple task: waking up properly!

Here are some steps that will help you get up in the morning feeling fresh and ready for anything:

• Scheduling time for emails, planning your work day to avoid distractions. This may feel extreme, but it is a huge change you can make right now. Schedule yourselft 2 times each day to look at your email. Yes, that’s right just twice a day! Give yourself 30 to 60 minutes each time. Go through the emails and get them out of your inbox! Either, respond, delete, forward/assign or create a follow up task, but address each one as you come to it.
• Taking a break in between tasks, but not too long of a break. Epic sessions of grinding away may have been a thing in college, but it is not good in the “real world.” In fact, it is usually a sign of procrastination or poor time management.
• Understand what is the most productive time of the day for you. Personally, I am most effective between 5:30am and 1:00pm. I schedule my work day around that and avoid any work after 5pm, whenever possible. I also tend to do all my important tasks during this time.
• My morning routine includes: walking/exercising for an hour, writing or planning out my day with my favorite planner/agenda, and then meditating or drawing for 15-20 minutes before starting the day.

I go through my calendar for the day and check off what I’ve already completed and then prioritize what needs to be done next based on deadlines and other factors such as meetings with clients or potential clients.

Learning to Ask For AND Receive Help. And Learning to Delegate

I am amazed by how many people do not know how to ask for help. They are usually worse at actually receiving that help. Let’s tackle that one head-on, right now!

A few basic principles:

1.  You will need help. In life or business, everyone needs a little help, guidance, training, support, or plain encouragement. NO ONE DOES IT ALONE!
2. People are ready, willing, and excited to help you!
3. Not accepting help can offend, frustrate or take away the joy of someone that truly wants the best for you. It feels good to help, let other’s feel good.
4. Receiving help deepens friendships, connections, and partnerships.

We all have a tendency to take on too much. We get so busy that we don’t even realize how much time we spend doing things that could easily be delegated to someone else.

It’s not just a matter of efficiency and effectiveness, though. It’s also about your own mental health and well-being.

Asking For Help

When we are overwhelmed by our responsibilities as a leader or an entrepreneur, we tend to fall into a pattern of thinking that says “I just need to work harder.” The problem with this response is that working harder only makes us more tired; it doesn’t solve the problem of having too much on our plate.

There are two ways to solve this problem: learn how to delegate effectively or learn how to ask for help effectively (or both

Being able to delegate effectively is one of the most important skills you can learn as a leader or business owner. It will help you accomplish more, grow your company faster and develop a team of people who can accomplish more than you ever thought possible.

But there’s another reason why it’s so important: Delegating gives others opportunities to learn new skills and build confidence in their abilities — which makes them more motivated, engaged employees. And when people are more engaged at work, they do better work!

Delegation is one of the most important skills you can learn as a business owner. It’s also something that many people struggle with.

If you’re a leader, you have to delegate, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that if you’re doing it all yourself then nothing is going wrong. But when you’re doing everything yourself, it means you’re not growing your team and building their capabilities. You’re also missing out on opportunities for increased profits and productivity from your team members.

The first step in learning how to delegate effectively is knowing how to ask for help.

Here’s what happens when people don’t know how to ask for help:

They don’t realize they need help until it’s too late (and then they may blame others).

They don’t know how to ask for help in an effective way that gets results rather than more work (and then they may blame others).

They don’t know how to give approval for someone else to take over a project or task so they can move on (and then they may blame others).

Takeaway: Once you’ve learned these skills, any challenges will seem far less overwhelming.

Starting a business is an incredible challenge – but even if you’re a seasoned veteran in the business world, you’re likely to encounter difficulty. While there is no substitute for experience, knowing how you can prepare yourself for the emotional and psychological challenges will help. Take some time, read this again, sit with it, and see how you can implement some of these changes.

Engage with other members of the community to enlist support, provide encouragement and strengthen relationships.

We hope we could give you some tips that will help you throughout your business career. Even if these tips are quite obvious, taking care of yourself personally, keeping a good mindset and skill set is the key to your success. Keep learning, be happy and never forget: you can do it.