8 Surefire Ways to Overcome Work Anxiety
By A.W.W. Barry
Just because you aren’t pumping out income from a brick-and-mortar location, doesn’t mean that your small business work anxiety isn't real. It's hard overcoming work anxiety. In fact, the Age of Resignation and subsequent boom in small business has shown many experts and remote entrepreneurs that it comes with its own unique set of obstacles and stressors. Continue reading to learn some ways to overcome work anxiety!
Why you might be experiencing work anxiety
Starting off, entrepreneurship can be a tough sell from a rational standpoint. There’s never any guarantee that you’ll take off or find sustainable success, so there’s a lot of uncertainty and leaps of faith. As such, it can be a trial just to maintain a positive attitude, say nothing of the perpetual criticism from family and peers along the way. Just in its self overcoming work anxiety is not an easy journey.
Then once you get into it, there’s really no clear-cut path to speak of – what services you need to operate and maximize efficiency, whether to enlist employees, how to market yourself organically – a list of to-dos that never seems to end. All the while, you’re forced to wade through a cacophony of online business coaches, social media experts, PR firms, self-help books, and business podcasts.
You’d think with the flood of small businesses, the path to success would become more defined – but instead it has produced an overload of information, with every self-important CEO and so-called business experts selling their secret sauce for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. And even then, finding the resources and advice that’s applicable to you is a numbers game.
On top of all this, there’s the anxiety of money, stagnancy (the “there must be more I could be doing” mindset), self-motivation, impostor syndrome, isolation, and the list goes on. Working remotely, doesn’t make the associated anxieties any less real, nor its symptoms - risk of mental illness or worsening thereof, panic attacks, spiraling bouts of depression – not to mention a weakened immune system and a higher rate of physical deterioration.
Anxiety test: figure out if you are experiencing work anxiety
If you’re unsure, you can even try taking an anxiety test here.
Point is, don’t sell your anxiety short just because you don’t have to schlep yourself to an office every day. It has real consequences that require real solutions in order to overcome. After all, not every entrepreneur has the disposable income for spa treatments and new-age therapy.
How to hold off your anxiety
Here’s a few techniques for overcoming work anxiety that anyone can use, even from the comfort of home:
Practice meditation
Practice regularly whether it be to organize your thoughts or escape them momentarily. Meditation can take many forms, from Yoga to Tai Chi, and there are a slew of meditation apps and other resources that can help as well.
Self-help
Calming music
Music is a great tool to help overcome anxiety. To optimize focus, listen to music without lyrics and a calming melody, such as lo-fi (highly recommend YouTube live streams – unending music streaming 24 hours per day - my personal go-to being LoFi Girl).
Breathing techniques
Breathing practices are an essential building block of anxiety prevention, whether you work from home or not. It’s not about the technique, but rather focusing on your breathing. Personally, I was taught to inhale through the nose for 6 seconds, then slowly exhale through the mouth until your lungs are empty, or 8 seconds. Then repeat.
Schedule time for yourself
Don’t feel guilty about doing the things that bring you joy. For success and optimal mental health, life can’t be all about work. Granted, it can’t be all about play either, but it’s still imperative to your well being to organize time for you to take for yourself. Yet, even with these methods of reducing stress, they’re only a temporary fix to anxiety – coping mechanisms if you will. For more long-term results, here’s a few ways to reduce work anxiety as a whole in your life:
Share the burden and the dream
If there’s room for employees in the business plan, don’t be afraid to share the dream – or the burden. Having a business partner can lighten the load while introducing a social component that makes the dream seem more real. And even just employing temporary freelancers can work wonders for overcoming work anxiety.
Hyperfocus on the best advice
There’s a lot of contradictory advice and doubters out there, even among family and peers. Home in on one to three voices that you think represent the best advice for cultivating personal and professional growth. Fade all others out.
Take things day by day
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Wake up every day and put in the work, emphasizing consistency, and maintaining a solid schedule. Then once you’ve done everything you can do, it’s important to give yourself a break. Have patience with yourself and the process you’ve set in place. So long as you’re doing everything you can and putting in the time, success will come naturally.
Remember: if the stress is too much, Barryscourt is here to help carry that burden.
Click the link to fill out the questionnaire, to see how Barryscourt can help you turn your visions into stories. Also, check out this blog on why it's important to know your target audience before launch.