Successful entrepreneurs come from all walks of life and have a diverse range of traits, strengths, and weaknesses. However, what separates the best from the rest is their ability to tackle negative thinking patterns that undermine personal and professional growth.
The most accomplished entrepreneurs have learned to manage their negative thoughts and emotions so that these personal demons don’t gain the upper hand. Most people have psychological roadblocks that throw them off course, but every individual also has the potential to manage their mindset and take back control.
Why It’s Important to Confront Your Weaknesses Head On
Ultimately, if you neglect your weaknesses, they’ll overshadow your strengths. If you don’t address your weak points, you’re leaving yourself open to criticism and undermining your ability to achieve certain goals. First, you need to acknowledge them. Then, you need to take positive steps to minimize or eliminate their impact on your performance. This higher level of self-awareness allows you to overcome your limiting beliefs and ultimately make more informed business decisions.
The following guide describes seven of the most common inner demons faced by entrepreneurs today and highlights various strategies to overcome them.
The Seven Most Common Personal Demons and How to Tackle Them
1. Fear
This can take various forms: fear of failure, fear of taking risks, fear of being wrong, or fear of being judged. In short, the less you know about the outcome of doing something, the more afraid you are of doing it. Fear is a natural human emotion that can prevent people from trying new things or doing things differently from before. A healthy dose of fear can help you avoid potentially dangerous situations, but it needs to be kept in check.
How to Deal With It
Use fear to reevaluate your decisions, refine your strategies, and minimize potential dangers, but don’t let it stop you. Act quickly and test the waters. Take control despite the fear. You may fail, but you’ll learn quickly from every setback.
Your best option is to embrace your fears and accept the possibility of failure. Remember that even the most successful entrepreneurs succeeded despite failing multiple times along the way. Recognize that failure is a stepping stone to success.
2. Imposter Syndrome
Sometimes, you’ll question your own worth and competence. Imposter syndrome even causes some entrepreneurs to doubt their accomplishments despite their successes. These feelings of self-doubt can cause people to work longer hours than necessary, reject praise, dodge tough decisions, and avoid taking risks.
How to Deal With It
In business, you’re inevitably going to encounter situations that are outside your comfort zone. This is normal. There are a few steps you can take to overcome this feeling:
• Accept that you can’t know it all. Challenge your underlying belief that you should always know the answer to every problem. You shouldn’t, and won’t.
• Reach out for help more often and accept advice from others.
• Start to make a list of all your achievements, however small. When you start to doubt yourself, look at your list of actual accomplishments.
• Understand that just because you feel inadequate, it doesn’t mean you are inadequate.
• Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone. It will prove to you that taking risks can pay off, which will ultimately boost your self-confidence.
3. Distrusting Others
Many entrepreneurs find it difficult to trust others and delegate certain tasks. When you’re running a business, it’s tempting to try to tackle everything single-handedly. However, taking on too much can be counterproductive, leading to stress and burnout. It can also cause you to pay too much attention to trivial things.
What’s more, if colleagues feel that you don’t trust them, this will decrease their motivation levels and increase workplace tensions.
How to Deal With It
Recognize that even the most talented entrepreneurs need a little help sometimes. You can’t do it all, and you shouldn’t have to. At the same time, it’s crucial to help employees take ownership of tasks. Encourage honest communication and continuous collaboration, and be more tolerant of mistakes.
Even if you’re not sure whether you can trust someone, you’ll never find out if you don’t relinquish some control. Respect the fact that other people have different approaches to accomplishing tasks. Be honest about your expectations.
Then, if you’re not happy with a certain outcome, you can say so. However, you might be surprised at the results when you learn to trust others more.
4. Procrastination
Not having a regular boss can give you a sense of freedom that other professionals don’t experience. However, if you don’t manage your time effectively, you can end up working too many hours or ignoring important tasks until the last minute.
People procrastinate for a number of reasons, including fear of making the wrong decision, fear of failure, perfectionism, a lack of knowledge, and poor motivation. This can lead to indecisiveness, missed business opportunities, poor decision-making, and reputational damage.
How to Deal With It
Here are a few strategies to help you deal with procrastination:
• Tackle the most difficult tasks first; you’ll often find that you overestimated the challenge. This will also make everything else seem less daunting.
• Set artificial deadlines, sooner than the actual deadlines, for every task.
• Break large tasks down into smaller, more manageable parts.
• Figure out when you’re at your most productive and prioritize urgent tasks for these times.
• Delegate some of the less important tasks to employees, colleagues, or other third parties.
• Promise yourself a reward for each task accomplished.
5. Perfectionism
Perfectionism refers to the personality trait of setting unrealistically high standards and being excessively critical of one’s own performance and the performance of others. Perfectionists are repeatedly dissatisfied with themselves or others when their standards are not met.
They set unreachable goals, which often result in poor decisions, decreased productivity, turbulent working relationships, and low self-esteem.
How to Deal With It
Try to accept that perfection is unattainable. Your service, product, or marketing campaign will never be perfect, and you will always want to improve it. With this in mind, set more realistic goals for each task. Even if the end result is less than “perfect,” you’ll realize that it’s not a major problem in the grand scheme of things. What’s more, sometimes you have to make mistakes in order to learn from them.
If a task seems too large or complicated, break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. In every situation, rather than chasing perfection, use what you know now and do what you can – there will never be a perfect time.
6. Feeling Overwhelmed
Do you regularly wish you had more hours in the day to get things done? Feeling overwhelmed is a common issue for many entrepreneurs. This can lead to negative thoughts and feelings such as anxiety, stress, depression, and self-doubt. For the sake of your physical and mental health, these feelings need to be addressed.
How to Deal With It
Feeling overwhelmed is due to a lack of prioritization and also perfectionism. There are a number of strategies you can use to conquer this feeling:
• Write a list of everything you need to get done, in no particular order. The act of writing things down can help to clear your head.
• Keep a to-do list of short and long-term goals. Be honest about what is important and set deadlines that are achievable.
• Every day, make a list of the most important tasks that need to be completed and describe how you will achieve each task. Prioritize tasks that will bring you the most benefit, even if they’re more time-consuming. Deprioritize everything else.
• Avoid multitasking. Focusing on one task at a time increases productivity and heightens creative thinking.
• Break up your day into a series of mini-projects, setting aside fixed times for rest and relaxation.
• Accept that you won’t always be able to complete everything on time, and keep reminding yourself that perfection is an unattainable goal.
7. Impatience
The daily stresses of running a business often result in feelings of frustration. You might struggle to complete certain tasks, or other people are regularly failing to live up to your expectations. When you’re hungry for success, it’s tempting to want to see instant results. However, this can intensify feelings of frustration.
Impatience can cause you to make bad decisions and overlook opportunities. It can also harm working relationships and damage your self-esteem. Sometimes, being impatient can be a good thing – it motivates you to get things done. However, you shouldn’t let it cloud your judgment and interfere with every critical business decision you make.
How to Deal With It
Take the time to review your accomplishments, however small. Sometimes, when you’re too focused on a long-term goal, you forget to appreciate how far you’ve come. Going forward, start to measure and track your progress.
Set goals and key performance indicators for each week, month, or quarter. Seeing the results will give you a sense of fulfillment and help to limit your frustrations.
Accept that success cannot be rushed, and practice being more patient. Focus on what you are capable of accomplishing at this point in your journey. If you need help, don’t be afraid to ask. The most successful entrepreneurs don’t do it alone; they seek help from partners, mentors, and business coaches.
Face Your Demons to Unlock Your Potential
As an entrepreneur, there will be times when your inner voice interferes with what you want to accomplish. You might doubt your own competence, worry about making the wrong call, or feel unable to handle all the tasks that need completing.
Remember that it’s normal to have these negative thoughts. You’re not alone, and you can take positive steps to overcome these hurdles. Sometimes, you just need to start thinking differently. Sometimes, you simply need some guidance and support to unlock your full potential.
If you’ve tried all these techniques and you’re still finding things difficult, it might be time to get help. Many successful entrepreneurs today turn to business coaches when they feel they need extra support.
A business coach can offer an outside perspective, help you identify where you’re going wrong, and offer practical advice and strategies to tame your negative thinking and overcome your biggest challenges in business.
