How to deal with stressful moments as a coach and entrepreneur (4 journaling prompts to calm the mind)
Hi I’m Shikah. Today we are discussing how to deal with stressful moments as a coach and as an entrepreneur. I will be sharing 4 mindset prompts which can change your perspective fast and calm yourself when something unwanted happens right smack in your business journey.
At the end of this post, I hope that you will find these mindset prompts very useful and use them on yourself when you hit stressful moments in your business.
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Let’s go back to today’s topic. Well, we all define ‘stressful moments’ differently. If you are a smaller business owner like me, you are going to worry about different things as compared to a 7-figure business owner.
I feel that it is best not to judge other people’s definition of ‘stress’ because we all have different life experiences, we are at different stages of self-growth, some of us are more sensitive to stress than others. That’s why it’s a very humbling practice to be open and not belittle other people’s business problems.
I say this because 3 years ago I followed a solopreneur in the past who was used to pulling 7-figure launches. She was clearly successful in her field. And there was one launch where she only earned $400,000.
She went into a full blown panic attack mode. I remember that she had to literally lie down and do deep breathing exercises to literally calm her nervous system down.
As a newbie in business at that time, I didn’t understand it. I was thinking “She is earning $400,000! That is more than the average American or the average person on the planet, I dare say.”
But as the years pass, I developed more compassion for other business people and their unique problems. I’m not saying I am at her level. But problems and suffering are relative.
Also, when someone starts earning more money, it’s natural for them to upgrade their lifestyle. It’s human nature for many of us to desire more. To maintain such lifestyles will require money.
And one more thing, big businesses usually have staff to pay and retain. So their problems are going to be different from my small solopreneur problems.
I’m digressing a little bit. Nevertheless, when you are facing a stressful moment in business, it is very helpful to quickly get perspective and remind ourselves that life is much larger than our business.
Life is also about self-growth and I believe that running a business is like taking a crash course in personal growth. Our mental blocks and our limiting beliefs just show up over and over again until we resolve them.
So how can we deal with stressful moments in business?
There are various ways - some people like to take a ‘external’ approach and reach out for external things and activities to handle stress. Such as reaching out for certain kinds of food, hobbies or doing certain exercises.
Another approach is to take an introspective approach to stress.
To do this, I will share journaling prompts with you to reflect on.
How can you use these prompts when you are under stress?
You can choose to set a timer for 5 minutes and write your answers down non-stop on a piece of paper. Or you can record a video of yourself answering these prompts.
Mindset prompt #1 to deal with stressful moments as an entrepreneur: “What lesson did I learn from this stressful episode?”
This is a cliche question but every challenge and problem presents an opportunity for us to learn something. For example, as much as it is difficult for us to think that facing difficult clients is an ‘opportunity’, it actually suggests to us to start looking for a different type of clientele.
If you launched a course and it flopped, perhaps you need to tweak your launch process, or offer courses which people actually want. There is a lesson in every problem or challenge if we look for it hard enough.
2. Mindset prompt #2 to deal with stressful moments as an entrepreneur : “How have I grown as a person after facing this problem?”
As an example, if your sales dropped by 50% this year compared to last year, it can be very disheatening. You may start doubting yourself, your business and even your own judgment.
One way to look at this with perspective and feel calmer is to see how you have become a ‘better’ version of yourself after this problem.
If your sales have dropped drastically, you may feel horrible about yourself, but you may have adapted and grown to be someone who is more grateful for small things in life.
Or you may have grown to be someone who spends money more consciously with that drop in income. Your identity is fluid. Once you earn more, you will grow again as a person and your identity may change again.
3. Mindset prompt #3 to deal with stressful moments as an entrepreneur : “How does this problem highlight what I actually want?”
Using the previous example, if your business income has dropped by a lot and you feel very disappointed by it, it is a simple reflection that you enjoy earning more. You may want to journal why earning more is important to you.
Is it because you want to maintain your lifestyle? Does earning more make you feel validated? Is your self-esteem tied to your earnings? If this is the case, what you actually want is more self-acceptance and more self-worth, not more money directly. If you dig deeper, you will discover your genuine needs and desires underneath every problem or challenge that you go through.
4. Mindset prompt #4 to deal with stressful moments as an entrepreneur : “How can I turn this problem into an opportunity?”
This prompt is not straightforward. You may have to do some brainstorming to see how you can spin this problem be a golden opportunity for you.
For example, if your clients are not renewing their contracts with you, you can use the extra energy that you have to research or create a new offer.
If AI is taking over your business, you can brainstorm to see how you can make your work unique and stand out even more in the sea of AI generated content out there.
My favourite way of transfroming a problem into an opportunity is to share the event with my 9000 email subscribers. When you share your ups and downs with your community, you connect with them emotionally and they remember you.
Connecting emotionally with your followers is very powerful because people remember how you make them feel validated, motivated, inspired.
So if you want to be part of my email list of coaches, you can sign up here. I share mindset and coaching content ideas via email which you can share with your community. Just click here to join my mailing list.
That is all I have to share with you today.
I’m curious to know which of the 4 prompts you like best?
You can leave a comment if you wish.
Thank you and I will see you next time.
Shikah