Relaxation for Entrepreneurs
The most underused tool in an entrepreneur’s toolkit.
Relax. It’s a word we don’t fully understand as entrepreneurs. Sure, we know how to take a meeting over a beer (or two or three) but most of us are on go mode at all times. With our businesses on our mind 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it becomes super easy for us to go into overload mode.
We have to remember to relax in order to recharge our enetrepreneur energizer bunny batteries. I’m all for the 20 hour work day and coffee fueled work binges but I realized something after a few years of operating at this level. We’re all due for burnouts. We can’t avoid them, they’re a part of our life as entrepreneurs. That being said, we can reduce the frequency of burnouts and improve our recovery time from them with a few easy tips.
- Turn off. — In our digital age, information overload is all too common and extremely frustrating. As a tech entrepreneur I start every morning checking my twitter (@ucfjuelz), email, phone, and a number of other apps and sites. It wasn’t until going on a cruise where my cell service got cut off that I realized how valuable shutting off can be. When you disconnect from technology whether its for 5 minutes, 1 hour, or a whole day, a beautiful think happens; you can breathe. Try it. Turn off every device and just sit on your couch. The experience is unreal, and I guarantee it’ll get you back into work mode and improve both your creativity and productivity.
- Socialize. — Go out with some friends, visit your family, or take a face to face meeting. Human interaction is extremely important when your days can so easily be consumed by sales calls, emails, coding and countless other lonely activities. It’s important to get out there and remember that life is all about relationships. The expression “it’s lonely at the top” is extremely accurate and we cannot fall victim to loneliness and emotional stress as entrepreneurs.
- Do something fun. — If you’re like me, every time you watch a movie, cook, play a video game, practice the guitar, or take part in some other “time-wasting” activity you immediately feel guilty and think “What could I have been doing during that time?” You immediately feel behind and this sensation is often followed by anxiety and the feeling that you wasted your time. STOP. I lived my life like this for far too long. What I learned is that sometimes no work is the most productive work you can do. When you’re not relaxed and thinking with a clear head you’re merely wasting time. Take a break, do something fun, and don’t regret allowing yourself the time to relax.
Remember. Relax.
