Entrepreneurial Insomnia: Why Most Entrepreneurs Can’t Sleep at Night

Running a business is stressful. As an entrepreneur, worrisome thoughts may lurk around in your mind, even when your business is doing well. Things can change. The success you have now may not be as promising when the new competition starts showing up. These are all thoughts that entrepreneurs have to deal with. 

Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs suffer in the process. You may find yourself awake after midnight – either still busy with work, or trying to shut down your brain as you try to go to sleep. Studies show that about 33% of adults are affected by chronic insomnia. Stress and depression are often rated as some of the most concerning factors contributing to insomnia – factors that a lot of entrepreneurs end up dealing with. 

It is important for entrepreneurs to realize what may be the reason behind their insomnia. The idea of finally quitting that nine-to-five day job always seems like a dream for most people. You get to stop working for a boss. Instead, you become your own boss. You start writing your own paychecks, and there are no superiors that you constantly have to report to. 

The problem is that running a business is a complicated process. It takes a lot of time, effort, and even skill to ensure your business can turn out successful. Read more at businessbusinessbusiness.com.

5 Ways to Manage Your Mental Health as an Entrepreneur

Running a business can be an emotional rollercoaster. Between long hours, built-up stress, and a never-ending workload, being an entrepreneur can take its toll on your mental health.

According to a study, 72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health issues compared to 48% of non-entrepreneurs.

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, Cultivate CEO, and Co-founder Casey Clark sat down with Emily Washcovick, Senior Field Marketing Manager & Small Business Expert at Yelp, to discuss the impact of mental health on the small business community and share five strategies to manage mental health in the workplace.

Mental health issues can present themselves in many ways, from stress and anxiety to burnout, fatigue, or insomnia. As a business owner, financial stress, feelings of isolation, and long days can create or exacerbate these symptoms, and the implications of deteriorating mental health are far-reaching. It affects not only the person suffering, but it can impact the lives of family, friends, and even those in your community.  It’s important to learn to recognize these symptoms and take action to alleviate stress, and prioritize your mental well-being. Read more at cultivateadvisors.com.

12 Quotes on Entrepreneur Burnout And Depression, From Those Who’ve Walked The Path

In the early 2010s, a clinical professor and entrepreneur by the name of Dr. Michael Freeman surveyed 242 entrepreneurs about their mental health.

Of the 242 entrepreneurs he surveyed, 49% reported having a mental-health condition.

Depression was the highest-reported reported condition, being present in 30% of all entrepreneurs. ADHD (29%) and anxiety problems (27%) followed close by.

That’s a dramatically higher percentage than the US population at large, where only about 7% identify as depressed.

What do actual entrepreneurs have to say about their experiences with burnout and depression? Read more at medium.com.

How Great Entrepreneurs Think

What distinguishes great entrepreneurs?

Discussions of entrepreneurial psychology typically focus on creativity, tolerance for risk, and the desire for achievement—enviable traits that, unfortunately, are not very teachable. So Saras Sarasvathy, a professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, set out to determine how expert entrepreneurs think, with the goal of transferring that knowledge to aspiring founders.

While still a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, Sarasvathy—with the guidance of her thesis supervisor, the Nobel laureate Herbert Simon—embarked on an audacious project: to eavesdrop on the thinking of the country’s most successful entrepreneurs as they grappled with business problems. She required that her subjects have at least 15 years of entrepreneurial experience, have started multiple companies—both successes and failures—and have taken at least one company public. Read more at inc.com.

Simple Strategies to Overcome Self-Doubt When Impostor Syndrome Strikes

The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are powerful. When impostor syndrome strikes, our inner monologue may sound like: “I’ve only gotten to this point because of luck,” or, “Wait until someone finds out I have no idea what I’m doing!” This self-talk affects our self-esteem, but it also impacts how we present ourselves to others and the risks we take in our lives. Simply put, if we don’t actively work on silencing our inner critic and reframing these thoughts and beliefs, our impostor syndrome can hold us back from unlocking our full potential. 

In this article, the Thrive community was asked to share their tips on dealing with negative self-talk and overcoming impostor syndrome. Which strategy will you try? Read more at thriveglobal.com.

Mental Health Awareness Month

Each year millions of Americans face the reality of living with a mental illness. During May, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) joins the national movement to raise awareness about mental health. Each year we fight stigma, provide support, educate the public and advocate for policies that support people with mental illness and their families.

For 2021’s Mental Health Awareness Month NAMI will continue to amplify the message of “You Are Not Alone.” We will use this time to focus on the healing value of connecting in safe ways, prioritizing mental health and acknowledging that it’s okay to not be okay through NAMI’s blog, personal stories, videos, digital toolkits, social media engagements and national events.

Together, we can realize our shared vision of a nation where anyone affected by mental illness can get the appropriate support and quality of care to live healthy, fulfilling lives — a nation where no one feels alone in their struggle. Read more at nami.org.

Why Entrepreneurs Need To Talk About Their Mental Health

72% of entrepreneurs are directly or indirectly affected by mental health issues compared to just 48% of non entrepreneurs. That’s according to a study by the National Institute of Mental Health. 49% of entrepreneurs deal with mental health issues directly while only 32% of others experienced them. Similarly, 23% of entrepreneurs have family members who face these issues compared to just 16% of others with family members who face these same types of issues. Read more at forbes.com.

5 Strategies for Stopping Unhelpful Behaviors

Does any of this sound familiar? You hit “play next episode” on Netflix (for the third time in a row) even though you know you are staying up too late and have to work the next day. You check your social media and surf the web for “just a few more minutes” even though there are other things you know you should attend to. You have “just a few more sweets” even though you are quite full. You check your phone continually even though doing so takes you away from fully engaging in important things that you could be attending to.

Why is it so difficult to stop something that feels pleasurable, even when you know it isn’t what is best for you in the long run?

For the human organism, reward-based learning (seeking what is pleasurable and avoiding what is painful) was a helpful evolutionary strategy for the human species. Pursuing things that felt good (such as sex or good-tasting food) and avoiding pain (e.g., getting bitten by a snake, or getting sick from a poisonous plant) helped our ancestors survive. This is hard-wired into our biology. Read more at psychologytoday.com.

4 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Boost Their Mental Health

Starting and building a business is outrageously difficult. It demands long hours, deep research and analysis, and more blood, sweat and tears than a body should ever be capable of. One moment, you’re riding high on your latest successful breakthrough. The next, you’re plunged into the psychic underworld of failure.

The ambiguous nature of business goes hand-in-hand with uncertainty, stress, anxiety and even crushing depression. Why? There’s a myriad of reasons.

Recent research shows that entrepreneurs are 30 percent more likely to suffer from depression than those who serve in the lower levels of an organization’s hierarchy.

Entrepreneurs are in a position of leadership; in many cases, the livelihood of others depends on their success. There is an immense amount of pressure that comes with that dynamic. As a leader, they often feel compelled to act as a support system for others, even when needing support themselves.

Additionally, business owners typically have the bulk of their savings invested in the business; failure could spell financial catastrophe. Many entrepreneurs sacrifice their physical and mental well-being by skipping meals, not getting enough sleep, and burning the candle at both ends by working 100 or more hours a week. Read more at startupnation.com.

Entrepreneurial Mindset: 5 Characteristics to Cultivate

Entrepreneurs help bolster economic development, create jobs, and invent products or services that can make the world a better place. Being a successful entrepreneur requires outside-the-box thinking and larger-than-life ideas. Anyone can come up with a new idea, but building a successful business around it is the entrepreneurial challenge. The entrepreneurial mindset is unique in that one must be creative, communicative, and highly motivated to succeed, yet open to risk and failure.

It’s not a big idea alone that paves the path to ultimate entrepreneurial success. Oftentimes the success or failure of a business comes down to the characteristics of the entrepreneur themselves. It takes a unique aggregate of characteristics to meld one big idea into a fully-functional thriving business. Is there a certain amalgam of skills and traits which allows some entrepreneurs to become wildly successful?

Suffice it to say that there is no magical formula to succeed in business (if so, Harvard Business School would have patented it). However, there are certain characteristics which all aspiring entrepreneurs should cultivate to dramatically boost their own odds for success. An entrepreneurial mindset, if you will, may mark the difference between a lucrative business and one which shutters the doors before the first year is over. Read more at aofund.org.

What is an entrepreneurial mindset? 

A way of thinking that enables you to overcome challenges, be decisive, and accept responsibility for your outcomes. It is a constant need to improve your skills, learn from your mistakes, and take continuous action on your ideas.

Are You An Entrepreneur?

en·tre·pre·neur

ˌäntrəprəˈnər/

 noun: entrepreneur; plural noun: entrepreneurs

1. A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Ditch These Five Habits If You Want Entrepreneurial Success

If this is the year you go all-in on achieving your entrepreneurial dream, it’s time for a little tough love. Wanting to become a successful business owner or startup founder is an admirable goal, but wishing and dreaming will only get you so far. You’re going to need to make substantial changes to your daily life if you hope to attain even a modicum of success.

One of the first things you need to do if you want to become a successful entrepreneur is to rid yourself of the bad habits holding you back. Commit to changing your life and letting go of bad habits, and you’ll be amazed at how much quicker you can reach your goals. Read about the top five habits you need to ditch at entrepreneur.com.

Rohn: How to Stop Listening to the Negative Voice in Your Head

Why are we so frequently inclined to do the things that are least important but so reluctant to do the essential things that success and happiness demand? What is the voice that whispers to us: Just let it all slide. Why worry about all that discipline nonsense? It is the voice of negativity, a voice that has grown increasingly stronger over the years as a result of being around the wrong influences, thinking the wrong thoughts, developing the wrong philosophy and making the wrong decisions.

Part of the solution to quieting the voice of negativity is learning to listen to the still, small voice of success, which resides inside each of us. The voice of success is constantly struggling to be heard about the loud promptings of the voice of failure. Our own free agency allows us to follow whichever voice we choose. Every time we allow ourselves to succumb to the voce of the dark side of life, and are persuaded to repeat errors instead of mastering new disciplines, the voice of negativity grows stronger. Conversely, each time we listen to the urgings of the voice of success, and are persuaded to turn off the TV to pick up a book, to open our journals and record our thoughts, or to spend a quiet moment pondering where our current actions might be leading us, the voice success responds to these new disciplines and grows in strength and volume as each day passes. For each new discipline, another step forward. Read more at success.com.

6 Steps to Discover Your True Self

To truly know yourself is the most important skill you can ever possess. When you know who you are, you know what you need to do, instead of looking for permission from others to do what you already know you ought to do. It allows you to bypass tons of frustration caused by putting time into the wrong things. Yes, life is supposed to be full of trial and error, but this lets you find the best areas for you to experiment with in the first place. Once you know yourself, you will become more confident, you will understand your purpose, and you will begin making a bigger impact on the world. Read more at success.com.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle