What Is Entrepreneurial Burn Out And How To Overcome It?

If you are an entrepreneur, the chances are that you have experienced ‘Entrepreneurial Burnout’ at some point.

Being someone who got into the world of business reasonably young, I have experienced my fair share of it and still to this day.

Making a business isn’t easy, especially when you aren’t seeing the results you were expecting.

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What Is Entrepreneurial Burnout?

Entrepreneurial Burnout is when someone starts experiencing stress and doubts about the future of there business. 

It’s very similar to Occupational Burn Out, which is essentially the same and comes with the symptoms. Some of these include:

• Fatigue
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Stress

That often occurs in the start-up stage of a business when you are still getting things up and going.

You are likely working hard at this stage but seeing very little back as your business is essentially a baby.

Now burn out happens to anyone at any stage so all it takes is one thing to go wrong and it can spiral from there.

So it doesn’t necessarily have to be before you have seen the success you can be getting it and still struggling with burn out.

But the good news is there are things you can do to pass by these phases more easily.

If you are familiar with the process of starting a business.

You may find it more comfortable as you aren’t as sceptical as someone completely new.

That is because you need to understand that there is no such thing as an overnight success.

So if you are new like I was years back and making $0 but still putting in countless hours of work, you are likely to have so many doubts circling.

At times it felt like damn I’m never going to make this work and that my time was being wasted.

However, as soon as I changed my mentality to a long term one and also started to think positively, it got much easier.

That will help you, but today I want to go through some advice I can give you and some tips to avoiding burn out.

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The Importance Of Balance

Most people would think lets put in all the time and effort in and hopefully, that will be enough.

That is true; however, you must find a balance between work and time to just have breaks.

As important as your business may be and as desperate as you are to make it work.

This can have a negative impact on you if you are constantly thinking about results.

You are thinking about work and results so much that it is driving you crazy.

That is a factor that is crucial as it can determine whether you will last the distance.

It can be impossible to keep it up when 100% of your time is being put towards it, which is why this factor is one of the main reasons for burn out.

You can work as much you want but if you can’t find that right balance between that and rest you will struggle.

I used to do this and call me crazy, but sometimes I would skip nights of sleep because I was struggling to sleep.

I thought it would be better (because I was working into the night) to just carry on working into the next day.

Now let me explain this because its all linked.

I was struggling to sleep because I was consumed by my business which made me want to work more.

So there’s the first problem.

That then caused me to be frustrated; I didn’t see instant results.

And yep you guessed it I was burned out.

Not only would you not last doing that, but it’s just not healthy. I also don’t think it’s possible to perform like that.

That is one of the lessons of making an online business that I learnt the hard way

It took me a few years to understand that I was going about it was wrong.

All those late nights, normally working until 4 am which while I was completing tasks was doing more bad than good.

So do make sure you are taking breaks, eating correctly, getting fresh air so that you can have a healthy mind towards building your business.

Once you have implemented balance in your life, you will be amazed at the positive effects on your business.

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Stop Thinking Short Term

That applies more to those who are new to marketing is that starting a business isn’t some quick fix.

You can’t start one and see results within a day or two. In most cases, you may see nothing for several months.

Like what I mentioned earlier, I didn’t make money for at least six months.

When the money did come in, it was literally a few dollars.

So I would say unless you have experience and have done numerous businesses before.

It’s unlikely you will see anything at the start just as I experienced it.

That is normal.

If it was possible to do a business and make money straight away, everyone would be doing it. 

But the fact that you are here now tells me a few things. That you are interested in learning about entrepreneurial burnout or are currently experiencing it and what to get past it.

Either way, you are likely to have a desire to become a successful entrepreneur; otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.

My advice is to keep at it, as cliche as it is Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your business. 

So stop thinking short term and believe in everything you are doing, that it will work.

Wake up each day with the mentality that today I am going to do some work that is going to help my business in the long term.

So you need to keep plugging away and realise that success will come as long as you stay consistent.

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Start Thinking Longer Term

While it is possible to achieve fast results with a business, most take time to build up.

That means if your not in it for the long run and aren’t prepared to go through then burn out will be likely.

However, if you remember the whole purpose behind your entrepreneurial endeavours and where you want to be in a year.

It will keep get you through these droughts.

This took me a while to realise the importance of short and long term goals.

You need to understand that achieving your goals will get you where you want to be in the long term.

I would often feel overwhelmed because I would feel like there is so much to do to get me from A to B.

I had the wrong mindset.

What I should have been thinking is that every task I do today that is going into my business will benefit me in the longer term.

Not doing work and checking back the next day to see if anything as changed.

It doesn’t work like that.

But I’m sure you would guess that by doing this It would causing me to get massively frustrated because I would check stats like analytics and see nothing.

Creating an overnight business isn’t possible, so if this is the way you think, then you may not get past a week.

For me, it became a never-ending cycle, as whenever I checked these details, the rest of the day would be unproductive, and my frustration would result in hours of procrastination.

I did all that work yesterday, and here I see nothing.

So to finish off you need to be thinking months from now, I know some of you will hate that.

But if you want any chance of succeeding, you will need to change your mindset.

If your end goal is to create a passive income, e.g. don’t think about how you don’t have it today.

But how what you are doing right now will help you get there in time.

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Conclusion

Being an entrepreneur, you won’t be able to eliminate burn out altogether however, there are ways to combat it and deal with it.

You will have good days and bad days, but ultimately its 

Ultimately its a mindset problem that can be fixed.

Think about this how do you think all these companies exist today

So hopefully this post has shed light on how to go about it.

If you change your mindset and also bring some balance into your life as I spoke about earlier, you will find the journey is more relaxed.

These vital aspects I talked about helped with bringing balance but changing my mindset to how I approach everything with my business.

Now while I still get burn out, it isn’t anything as bad as it used to be because I know how to cope with it.

Do you get burned out? Have any strategies for overcoming that I haven’t mentioned but as helped you?

Speak soon,

Josh