The Effects of Burnout on Entrepreneurs

As mentioned above, burnout is not only felt by workers but is often perceived by entrepreneurs too. If you thought that starting your own business would rid you of the problem, it might shock you to learn that for some people, it can make it worse.

Most people are unaware of the roadblocks and the large amount of work they’ll be responsible for completing as an entrepreneur until they start the business. It can feel like a rude awakening after escaping the workplace for working at home or working from your own business.

The fact is that studies show that entrepreneurs are more likely to experience burnout than the average worker. Learning this fact can go a long way to helping you prevent it in your own business with yourself, your contractors, or your employees.

Entrepreneurs can feel burnout because of:

• Being socially isolated

• Worrying about money

• Doing too much

• Being in a highly competitive industry

• Linking your self-worth to your success

• Avoiding vulnerability

• A lack of mental health support

It is believed that burnout costs the economy over 300 billion dollars annually. Knowing that it’s a huge problem can help you learn how to navigate your business and life to avoid burnout, and if you experience it, recognize it and recover from burnout fast.

As an entrepreneur, you’re in danger of experiencing burnout if you feel so obsessed about your work that you cannot take breaks or enjoy being with family and friends during downtimes.

Many entrepreneurs will claim that they have a lot of passion for their work, but it’s really a dangerous form of passion called obsession that they’re really working with. This type of passion can cause you to forget about your health, your family, and your goals because it’s usually singly focused on making money.

If this is you, you’ll want to try to find a way to be passionate but reasonable so that your passion is about helping your customers and building the lifestyle you desire instead of just chasing money. After all, it’s not just money that will help you achieve the lifestyle you want.

The other thing that can cause problems with burnout is if you are bored with the work that you’re doing. Just because it’s your own business doesn’t mean you’re going to suddenly like accounting if you hated it when you had a job. Boredom also has symptoms that are akin to burnout, such as irritation, fatigue, and stress.

If you find that you’re just not interested in doing the work you’ve set up, you may need to outsource or find a way to mentally reconnect the work you are doing that is boring with the results that you desire. Usually, the answer is to find someone else to do the things you really dislike doing, which brings us to another issue that entrepreneurs often have, and that is they usually have a lot of trouble delegating.

Even if you don’t have the funds to outsource at first, you can help your mind cope with doing tasks you dislike until you meet individual goals that allow you to get help. Once you reach those goals, take that task off your plate, you’ll start to feel a lot more excited about your business. However, don’t be tempted to delay outsourcing because you don’t want to spend the money. That will lead to burnout due to forgetting that you want to build a business, not a job. Building a hands-off business that runs without the need for you to do any type of busy work is going to free you up and help you avoid burnout.

Finally, the other thing that can lead to entrepreneurial burnout is ignoring your emotionally strained state and trying just to keep working no matter what. If you do that, when you aren’t productive, you’re going to cause more problems. If your personal life is being affected by your choices, you must find a way to fix it, and working harder is never the solution.

Avoiding burnout requires that you be honest with yourself about what you like to do, what you dislike doing, as well as fully understanding the impact you want to make on the world. Then using that information to set up your life and business in a way that works best for your goals and life purpose.

Avoiding burnout requires that you understand and define your goals, purpose, values, morals, and principles so that you use them to help guide and align your choices in life and business. If you take care of yourself mentally and physically, the benefits will be enormous. 

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