How to Care for Yourself and Thrive as a Busy Entrepreneur

I remember that fateful day in the summer of 2019. It was a beautiful day outside my window. I was sitting in front of my laptop, working as usual. I had a lot on my plate, and I felt like it all had to be done yesterday. Stress. Lots of stress.

While typing, I realized I was short of breath and my chest felt extremely tight. I needed a break, so I stepped away a little bit to let the stress levels go down. Several minutes later, I realized it hadn’t helped. Concerned that I was heading toward a heart attack, I went to the walk-in.

They hooked me up to a monitor and ran tests. I tried to relax and remain calm during the whole thing (at least as best as I could). I remember thinking, “ On the bright side, I get to take a break and don’t have to worry about work right now.”

I don’t recall how much time passed before the doctor returned with the results. Maybe a half hour? Maybe an hour? Regardless, she said my heart was fine. I was having an anxiety attack.

Great news!

All in all, terrible though the experience was, it was probably one of the best things that could happen to me at the time. While I realize that high anxiety is nothing to be trifled with, in comparison to what it could have been, it was a great relief.

My body had sent me a very clear warning. I couldn’t keep going on as I was. Something had to change.

I had to practice self-care.

If you are the entrepreneur like myself, you know what the stress can be like. Let my story be a warning to you, as well.

Self-care for entrepreneurs is serious business. If you are an entrepreneur, small business owner, or coach, self-care at work isn’t just a way to feel good about yourself and enjoy life. It’s about avoiding catastrophic self-destruction.

It’s serious business because you are your business. It’s not optional. Self-care is essential. After all, if you go down, so does everything else.

Today, I want to talk about how self-care is important for your health and give you some practical advice on how you can embrace it in your daily routine.

But before we begin, I’m going to ask you to do something for me…

Breathe.

Yes, just breathe.

Take a couple of minutes to settle in and notice your breath. Pay attention to your body and notice where all the tension is.

Just breathe and become aware of yourself.

When you’re ready, let’s keep going.

Danger zone of self-care fail

“Don’t be a wimp.”

How many times did you hear that growing up? Or maybe you heard about how important was to have a strong work ethic.

These messages from our childhood strongly influence who we grow into. Unfortunately, this concept of a strong work ethic can also lead to significant issues once we become adults.

Quick reminder: Work ethic does not mean you’re on the clock 24/7, 7 days a week.

Along with that…

Reality check: chronic stress destroys lives.

Because you are your business, reducing stress and maintaining health are requirements for running your business. They are not nice bonus options. Let’s look at some reasons why.

Mental health. Have you ever had those sleepless nights when you just couldn’t get work off of your mind? Your body and mind need sleep to function. When it doesn’t get it, it goes off the rails. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, it will adversely affect your working memory and attention, which affects your speed and accuracy. Furthermore, rigid thinking starts to surface and it impairs your decision-making and problem-solving abilities. Last I checked, working memory, attention, decision-making, and problem-solving are all skills necessary for a business to thrive. Not getting enough sleep has a direct, adverse effect on your business.

Physical health. If you want to avoid sick days, you want a strong immune system. Chronic stress undermines that. As it weakens your immune system, side effects can include things like headaches, migraines, exacerbation of breathing problems for those with related conditions, panic attacks (remember me?), high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

Chronic stress keeps the body in fight or flight mode, which over-activates the immune system and confuses it. This can lead to long-term problems such as mental health issues, metabolic disorders, depression, and immune disorders.

Looking at the gastrointestinal system, you can have issues with heartburn, irritable bowel syndrome, and inflammatory bowel disease.

Managing stress and maintaining a vital work-life balance is will not only help prevent having to deal with many of the things on this list, it will also save you the large medical bills that come with treatments. (For more information, the American Psychological Association has a great article on how stress affects the body.)

Burnout. When you started your own business, I imagine it was because you had a vision of what your future could be. More than likely, that did not include working yourself to the bone, even to the point of feeling exhausted and not even wanting to do it anymore. Burnout is hard to overcome. You have to keep your passion for your business alive.

Damaged relationships. Your family and friends deserve your attention and your love. When work stress takes over, the energy we bring to our relationships changes. Caught up in our own worries, we lose the ability to listen. We forget important occasions and events. Maybe we even start snapping at those around us. Chronic work stress can create a ripple effect that threatens to unravel those relationships that make life meaningful

At the end of the day, self-care for entrepreneurs isn’t just about caring for you and your business, it’s also about caring for those around you whom you love.

Self-care practices for your mind to take care of your mental health

Attention is a premium resource in the life of an entrepreneur. It’s no wonder that topics like flow states are hot right now.

High stress levels disrupt your ability to pay attention to what you’re doing. So, let’s look at some self-care ideas for a mental and emotional reset.

Meditation

Let me say this upfront: Silence is hard. It’s also very illuminating.

When you sit in silence, you can’t help but notice all of the thoughts that run through your head. You start to become aware of the programs that run in the background of your everyday life.

This can be a little unsettling. Perhaps one of the hardest things for a human being to do is take a good look at themselves with all the weirdness we carry within.

While engaging in silence is hard, the benefits of regular silence are amazing. During meditation, you are learning to let go of your thoughts. This is great training to learn how to let go of potential triggers that can pull you away from what’s important at any given moment, which decreases stress, anxiety, and depression.

If you can only do 5 minutes of meditation a day, that’s a great start. But I generally recommend working toward 15 to 20 minutes at least once a day for wellness. The difference is like eating a piece of broccoli a day versus all your vegetables. Your stress and anxiety levels will thank you for it. 

If you want some help, check out meditation apps, such as Calm and Headspace.

It’s a good idea to supplement your meditation with mindfulness exercises. As you sip your coffee, savor the fullness of the experience. Take in the aroma, the flavor, and the warmth. While walking down a hallway, notice the walls, the ceiling, and the texture of the floor. While sitting at your desk, take a few moments to feel your feet on the floor, the seat holding you up, and this air caressing your skin.

Feel gratitude

Research shows you can use gratitude to shift your brain out of a negative mindset. Here’s what to do…

Whenever you feel yourself focusing on the negative, immediately bring to mind something for which you are grateful. Sit with that memory and experience the gratitude for at least 15 seconds. Over time, it can start to rewire your brain.

Calling forth gratitude can be a game changer. By shifting our emotions to the positive side of the spectrum, we radically change how we perceive the world. Rather than feeling threatened, we experience a sense of openness. This new mindset can relativize the stressors we experience, weakening them and their detrimental effects (remember earlier when I mentioned rigid thinking?).

What if you were to start your day off by writing down three things for which you are grateful, sitting with them while you drink your morning coffee? How might that change your day?

Or, maybe you could write a letter to someone telling them how grateful you are that they are in your life. You don’t have to send it if you don’t want to. This might even be a good exercise for your journal.

Which brings us to…

Journaling

Daily journaling is a great way for you as an entrepreneur to start and finish your day. It takes what’s on the inside and puts it on the outside so you can look at it rather than experience it as a hazy noise in the background.

Maybe you want focus your journaling around personal things. What do you struggle with? What’s holding you down personally? What lifts you up?

Journaling about business is a great way to organize your thoughts. As you write things out, you may find insights coming to you. Brainstorm ideas. Scratch out possible goals. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

And of course, it’s always good care to have gratitude as part of your journaling.

Creative outlets

Setting goals, measuring progress, planning the upcoming week, building a strategy, and other things like this all use the analytical parts of the brain. Don’t neglect the creative parts.

Do you enjoy art? Find time to draw, paint, or color.

Do you write short stories? Poetry? Song lyrics? Haiku? Those are totally different ways of writing than what you do when creating a marketing strategy.

Building a business requires a certain amount of creativity. Unfortunately, most of what an entrepreneur, coach, or service business owner does requires efficiency and return on investment for it to be worth spending time on. Make sure you find time to nurture your creative side, because you will need it to create new products, services, and opportunities for your ideal clients.

Self-care practices for physical well-being

When entrepreneurs think of self-care, I suspect they naturally default to mental and emotional health. After all, you use your brain a lot. Planning, writing, creating, organizing, strategizing, and assessing. The list goes on. Yes, lots and lots of brain power. You need to keep that gray matter healthy and in shape.

In contrast, what does the physicality of your day look like? You sit in front of the desk all day long. Every once in a while, you walk over to the coffee pot. And don’t forget that jaunt down the hall to the bathroom.

You don’t need to be in great physical shape to be an entrepreneur. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider care for your body to be a primary concern.

Here are some things to consider when taking care of your body.

Minimum sleep requirement

Your body needs 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. I’ve already mentioned the side effects of not getting enough sleep. In short, sleep deprivation can impair cognitive function, decision-making, and creativity.

I recommend having a regular bedtime. Try to stick to it on the weekends as much as possible.

If you need to, create a transitional period to improve relaxation. Maybe a nice warm bath, callm music, or some mindless TV sitcom. Don’t forget, late late-night journaling is a good idea to help you wrap up your day.

If you struggle with falling asleep because of distractions, consider white noise, blackout curtains, or a blindfold.

Sure, there will be days that you end up having to burn the midnight oil. That’s just part of the game. But in general, do what you have to do to get enough sleep. It really is a non-negotiable for any entrepreneur, coach, or service business owner.

Proper diet

Here’s an experiment for you. Give a young child one to two pixie sticks. Once they’re done, ask them to sit calmly in a chair.

Okay, that may sound a bit silly. You are literally giving them sugar which amps them up. Of course they’re not going to be able to sit still.

Now, think about this: That’s the exact effect your diet has on your body. If you fill your body with junk food, it will drain your energy and put you on an emotional roller coaster. Think about how that affects your ability to run a business day to day.

Try to eat healthily. Prioritize whole unprocessed foods like fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains. These foods supply energy and boost cognitive function, as well as keeping your gut happy. For snacks, go with protein-rich foods like nuts and yogurt.

Rather than thinking about what you eat as a source of fun, think about it as a source of fuel for your body and your brain. The quality of input will determine the mileage you get out of it.

Get moving

Think about how much of your life you spend in a chair.

No, wait. Don’t do that. You probably don’t really want to know.

What you do want to know is the side effects of sitting in a chair all day long.

• Drains energy
• Increases stress
• Developing poor posture
• Weakens muscles through lack of use

You don’t have to have hour-long workouts to take better care of your body. Simply get your body moving. Take a walk during lunch. Incorporate a 10-minute yoga routine. Do some jumping jacks or other calisthenics. Walk up and down the stairs. Those are some very simple ways to move and get the blood flowing. Plus, you are making self-care fun. 

Even light exercise can dramatically boost energy, improve circulation, and release endorphins that combat stress and elevate your mood.

For what it’s worth, when I am writing it’s common for me to use voice to text on my phone, which allows me to walk all over the place while I’m working. This way I get exercise while I’m getting stuff done. (In fact, this is what I’m doing right now while composing this article.)

I realize that taking time to do something physical may make you feel like you are wasting time you could be working. Don’t feel guilty about taking a few minutes to move around. A regular exercise routine (even a small one can have dramatic effects. 

Get out into nature

This is one area of your life you probably forget way too often, but the benefits for mental and physical health are amazing. 

Get outside. Feel the sun warm your skin, the breeze as it glides past you, the grass underneath your feet

Go walk through the woods. Don’t listen to music, but completely unplug. Take the time to experience nature. The sights. The sounds. The smells. 

Be mindful of your surroundings. Continual exposure to nature can decrease stress and elevate mood. 

There’s more to life in this world than your office.  

Self-care routine to maintain healthy boundaries

We’ve looked at how to help maintain physical and emotional health. Now it’s time for something a little harder. This includes managing your relationships and time to help you feel more vital while at work. 

Let’s get started, shall we?

Learn to delegate

Look at who you are and what you bring to the table in your business. I have a sneaking suspicion that it doesn’t include, “the capacity to do everything better than everybody else”. More than likely, it’s going to include a whole bunch of things that you don’t like to do and that drain your energy.

If possible, delegate these duties to someone else. Do you have others who work for you who could pick these things up? If you don’t, have you considered hiring a virtual assistant to do some of the things for you? Is there anything you might be able to outsource to Fiver, such as design work or content creation?

The beauty of delegating goes beyond just getting things off your plate. It’s really about allowing you to focus on what you do best. It allows you to operate in your personal zone of genius so that you can thrive as an entrepreneur.

Learning to say “no”

Is it as hard for you to say “no” as it is for me? I certainly hope not. Because for me it’s really rough.

Learning how to say “no”, however, has been very empowering. Not only does it protect me from entering into a negative mood, it frees me from feeling responsible for the entire world.

On top of that, it gives me more time to do the things that I need to be working on. And that means I spend more time on projects that I find energizing rather than draining.

Time management

When you hear “time management” do you think about getting more done in the same amount of time? That’s not quite what it’s about.

Time management is really about staying focused on doing the right things, those things that have the most impact. Here are some ways it comes into play.

• Batching similar work products so you can make the time spent on them more focused and productive
• Blocking out distractions, such as surfing social media, so you can stay more focused and productive
• Setting aside time for those distractions so you can get them out of your system so when you’re working you can stay more focused and productive.
• Scheduling breaks in order to avoid burnout, so you can stay more focused and productive while you’re working
• Prioritizing work according to overall impact so that your workflow remains more focused and productive

More than likely, you saw a theme in all of those. Time management isn’t about do more, but about making the most of what you’ve got.

Work-life balance

This isn’t just about you, but about those whom you care for as well. You need to be present in their lives. And when you are present you need to be fully present, not thinking about the tasks you need to do in the morning.

If you struggle with this, here are some things that can help engage in self-care around work-life balance.

Set your work hours. Clock in, clock out. Are you going to have days that you stay late and come in early? Of course you are. It’s part of the entrepreneurial game. But for the most part, try to maintain a regular schedule. And when you leave work, leave work behind.

Work only in work zones. If you work from home, it’s a good idea to have an office or a dedicated workspace. Don’t work on your laptop from the couch, because if you do you will be tempted to grab the laptop and keep working at night rather than watching TV with others. Once you’ve stepped out of your workspace, disconnect from work entirely. That includes no checking emails.

Do fun stuff when not at work. Sometimes I think that the desire to go back to work is the result of not having anything better to do. Hang out with friends, pursue a hobby, go camping. Do things that will bring you joy and take your mind off work in a way that makes you not want to go back right away.  When you do finally get back to work you’ll feel much more refreshed.

Please care for yourself: Use these self-care tips and keep your health and well-being a priority

If you are living to work, try working to live instead. Part of the struggle I think goes back to why we all got into business in the first place: We love what we do. 

When you love what you do, it makes is really hard to put it away. But putting it away for a while is exactly what you need to do on a regular basis. 

Remember, for entrepreneurs, coaches, and service business owners, self-care isn’t just about us. It’s about the well-being of our businesses and relationships as well. So, take care of yourself, take care of your business, and take care of your family and friends. 

Sure, self-care will be different for everyone because we are all individuals. But, we all need to engage in a routine that works for us best to maintain mental and physical well-being while we work on our businesses because we are all human. 

Strategize, focus, simplify, and become more productive than ever

Sometimes, one of the best ways to engage in self-care is to implement the right system for your business, one that eliminates the distractions and overwhelm while focusing you on getting tangible results.

I realize there’s a myth out there that coaches, entrepreneurs, and service business owners need to work nose to the grindstone, hustling every single day just to make ends meet. If that’s how you’re living, that’s a symptom of a distinct problem: You have the wrong system in place.

If you want to talk with someone about how we can help you align your business with a successful future with a proven system, one that allows you to clock out at the end of the day to spend time living your life with loved ones and doing what you truly enjoy, then talk with us. Click the button below and set up a free clarity call. We would love to hear from you.