9 Ways To Reduce Stress & Be A Rested And Relaxed Entrepreneur
If I were to ask you right now, “What are you currently working on?” you’re most likely going to start ticking off on your fingers (and maybe toes) a long list of all the projects you’re currently working on, including those you “intend” to start working on. It likely won’t be a list of how to reduce stress as an entrepreneur.
While there is no right or wrong answer to that question, you’ll notice most of us are probably focusing only on the big things and pushing the little things (which usually are what matters most) aside.
You know, those little things of “when last I spend time with family?” Or, “When did I just spend the morning lazing around on the bed and having some “me” time?”
I guess the latter questions would not be as readily answered as the first one. Why? Because everyone is busy chasing their careers and business. After all, being an entrepreneur is no child’s play. It involves lots of work!
Why I Threw Away My To Do List And Do This Instead…
I use to be the queen of lists. Lists for family, business, grocery shopping, housecleaning, laundry and all these endless checklists. As a woman entrepreneur, mother, wife and queen of all trades I am driven to maximize my potential to meet my huge goals and I did this with lists. And as time went on, my list of lists grew and I began dreading my lists. In fact, I almost hated waking up in the morning because my lists RULED my life. I felt suffocated and I couldn’t breathe…
It was so bad, one morning I woke up and went into my closet. Why? Because my closet is the most disorganized messiest place in my whole house. It felt good to be away from order and lists! On that day, I sat in my closest, closed my eyes, and sat in complete silence for five minutes. I looked into myself and asked questions. What is the meaning of life? Are the lists worth it? How can I improve who I am as a person? It was simply magical. And that is how it all started.
I began going into my closed each morning for about 5 minutes before I would look at my 1st list. What I found is that I began to draw inspiration from that 5 minutes of letting my mind just sit still. In fact, the inspiration began to flow so much that I couldn’t keep up! I felt inspired to grab a pen and start writing down all my thoughts.
One morning as an afterthought, I picked up my inspiration notebook and noticed that the thoughts on it were entirely different from what was on my list. In fact, the things I had written down as inspiration to do were 180 degrees different than what was on my multiple to do lists. So I tried an experiment one day. I threw away my 7 lists that I was working from that particular day and used my thoughts from my inspiration notebook to began my day. It changed everything for me!