Stress is an unavoidable part of adulthood. However, when you add the title of “business owner” to your list of responsibilities, it feels as though stress takes on new meaning.
No one strives to be stressed; it is just the natural result of navigating life and business.
There can be immense pressure to succeed as a business owner, especially as you add employees to the mix.
As you figure out ways to reduce your stress, have you ever considered that stress might be a good thing? According to psychologists, good stress, often referred to as eustress, is what keeps us “vital and excited about life.”
That concept of eustress can easily be seen in our actions as business owners when there is a push in productivity, strategy, ideas, and collaboration. Eustress triggers moments of brilliance that can snowball into other aspects of growth within your business when used properly.
The biggest difference between good stress and bad stress is usually time. Good stress can evoke short-term motivation and inspiration, while bad stress can have a long-term impact on health issues and decreased performance.
Bad stress can also be short-term, and it is important to figure out a way to focus that energy in a way that becomes beneficial to you and your business.
While there are many ways to reduce stress, here are a few suggestions on turning your bad stress into eustress:
1. Get Organized: Often, stress can be triggered by chaos. During those moments of stress, take the time to plan, declutter, and reevaluate. Tackle a task that may have been overwhelming to do and focus the energy of your stress on a strategy to complete it.
2. Ask For Help: While asking for help is often associated with reducing stress, asking for help in the form of collaboration is a way to turn that negative energy into a positive one. Take the time to infuse that liveliness into new ideas while allowing others to contribute and help you diffuse bad stress.
3. Focus on Short Term: The benefit of eustress is that it provides a burst of life to a situation, very much like adrenaline. But eustress can turn into a chronic problem when you don’t focus it on the here and now. Allow that surge of stress to help you power through short-term goals for your business, like a campaign or the final steps of a product launch.
The biggest challenge with using good stress to your benefit is making the extra effort to channel it properly. Bad stress is often triggered by fear. When you consciously decide to perceive stress as a challenge instead of fear, you open yourself to the opportunity to use it to your benefit.
Being a business owner is stressful. But remember, you decided to turn something many people fear, entrepreneurship, into a challenge for yourself. That simple change in mindset made all of the difference, and the same can be applied to making good stress work for you.
