Being an Online Entrepreneur Is A Cluster Bomb for Mental Health

Earlier this year, when I got into my first few months of full time online coaching, I was horrified that my mental health suddenly started to decline. I found myself feeling low, unmotivated and acting in funky codependent ways that I knew from my past but thought I was well free of years ago. It felt extra shameful and ridiculous because the community of online coaches I was part of were all about ‘mindset work’, staying ‘high vibe’ and self care. It only added to what a loser I felt.
Pulling back and getting some perspective, it’s no surprise! Being an online entrepreneur presets a radical mental health challenge and here’s why:
- As a new online coach, you are a field where the bar for entry is extremely low, but the bar for success, very high. It isn’t easy to stand out, it’s even harder to hold attention, and you are constantly being pitched to and told you’re doing it all wrong by other coaches trying to sell you on their services.
- It’s not news that entrepreneurship itself is an industry with appalling rates of mental health. Factors like financial insecurity, isolation, competition and shame over where we are, as compared to where we think we should be, and it’s easy to see why,
- You are spending huge amounts of time online, which is a scientifically proven way to erode your mental health. Even Facebook admits this!
For these reasons, it’s no surprise that in the several months I’ve been playing in the online coaching world, I’ve already seen coaches crash and burn, fall, reinvent themselves, and fall again. And yes, I’ve seen some rise. I like to think that a lot have moved on, and found wonderful happy careers offline.
But what can you do if you’re a coach, who has an online presence but wants to stay healthy and happy?
- You MUST prioritise real relationships. Online relationships can be beneficial, but you need to find people in real life you can connect with and create a support network. This doesn’t have to look a certain way — friends, family, dating and love life all count.
- Drop the comparison game. This can be hard but as much as you can you need to ignore what everyone else is claiming they’ve done or you should be doing and set your own goal posts.
- Practice self care like your life depends on it, because it does. This means exercising, eating well, and whatever else it takes. Meditating, yoga, playing sport or music. Experiment with what helps and do it regularly.
- Work with a coach or therapist to get to know yourself. This does NOT refer to business coaching! Yes, some business coaches will help you with inner work but the purpose of this is to support you as having an important inner world aside from your business.
- Find other sources of self worth and meaning in your life. What is meaningful to you? Time in nature, faith, music, art, travel, hobbies? Cultivating these will be key to your resilience as an entrepreneur and will help you remember you are more than your business as well.
Most people become entrepreneurs because they want a better life, and no one does it to be miserable. Taking serious care of your mental health it will be the best thing you ever did, for your business, your loved ones, and yourself.
