Fighting Depression Is Being An Entrepreneur.

It is estimated by the world health organization that about 300 million people worldwide suffer from a degree of depression, and that number is steadily increasing, that’s 4.4% of our world citizens, and worse, we lose 800,000 of our world citizens per year from it.

Out of experience and in conversation with many alike, i discovered early that depression is fundamentally due to a chain reaction of things, first being the technology at our fingertips; not being in tuned with the full perspective of the lives of our neighbor, but still relating to an Instagram picture or a Facebook milestone as a measuring rod to our own value and success.

feeling of powerlessness and solitude, of not being able to connect with yourself or others. Feeling like we are moving through life without purpose or knowledge of what’s to come, oh and lets not forget the pain. Where? Everywhere. everything.

What if i told you, you are lucky?

When you set out to succeed in something, you weigh what tools are needed. If you have them or not and how you can acquire what you don’t, and utilize what you do have, then-with a hopeful mind, you undertake the journey aware of the hardships to come. You don’t know if what you have is enough, you don’t know if the pain you are enduring is too little or just right, nor do you know what awaits you in the end. This is being an entrepreneur and this is being depressed, the key difference? “Hope”.

An entrepreneur sees possibility in all failures, they see difficulty as a sign that the path is worth taking. When feeling like something within them is being challenged they take the time to use the situation to grow. Investing in themselves so they can invest in the world.

When we are depressed this hope disappears. Failure becomes condemnation of our abilities, difficulty is seen as “typical-always me”, and challenge is only something that kicks you while you are down. And we regard ourselves so little and small, that we don’t bother investing in ourselves, let alone expose ourselves to the world.

I have something unexpected to say; often, the state we find ourselves in when depressed-are due to our own self-hatred. Nietzsche once said:

“Whoever despises himself still respects himself as one who despises”

It means our destruction and our birth start with ourselves. Granted, tragedy occurs in our lives and those are objectively sad and disheartening, this is not a post to belittle, lighten or make light of an illness far to prevalent. But, to walk through hell and stay there is a choice many take too easily, because we think that’s where we belong. If you are walking through hell,don’t stop- keep going.

How do we keep going? Both when trying to battle depression and be accomplished in an enterprise?

How to overcome life’s greatest obstacles as an Entrepreneur and a fighter of depression:

1. Feel your own power/competence

- Power is often connected force or physical strength and even dominant tyranny. But true power is patience, endurance, seeing the end in the beginning and like a seed, first rooting yourself before blooming.

You are the business owner and CEO of your own life. When we realize the harsh truth that no one can make us succeed as entrepreneurs we realize no one can save us from ourselves, and if there is, and they truly love us, they should leave us to forge ourselves on our anvil.

2. Purpose.

- The mindset of purpose was found in the journal of experimental study to be one of the strongest deterrents of upward comparison. These people are less swayed on feedback by social media.

If you are busy saving the world or pursuing a goal worth while, who is dating who and what car you drive will not phase you. You view life on the macro- that all people are created to carry forward an ever advancing civilization. As well as the micro-you have an element, a thread in the tapestry of universal design, weather discovered or specified, you have an innate purpose,

3. Redefine what “Success” means.

- Its funny how so many people are aware to be critical and not fall in the rabbit hole of social dictation, yet the first thing they are inclined to criticize is self worth and their moral beliefs, and rather view those things as weakness. Sawing the branch they sit on its easy to forget oneself when our understanding of the world is shifting, but how about starting with redefining our notion of success. What is it? By whose standard am i following success? Parents? Friends? Social media? And what is it doing to my development?

There is no doubt due to the individualistic western societies most of us live in; success is defined by material gain, not value of character or selfless service. Change this notion within yourself, as we do when pursuing a business. There isn’t failure, there is wins and Lessons, not losses. Then our lives make a drastic shift.

4. Speak out your ills and trials out loud.

-I’m a huge believer in the power of the spoken word. Do you know how sometimes you have a great idea, but once you tell someone it doesn’t seem all that impressive? or when something is bothering you and you share it with a friend, the answer suddenly come to you? That’s the power of the spoken word. Putting our conundrums, sufferings and trials into the world, externalizing and breathing a life to it helps your mind discover the true severity of the issue and the true solution.

Sometimes the answer is right there, and the problem not so bad after all.

5. Why not you?

This one is last because it might be the least popular. Another well known thing to exclaim while encountering resistance and difficulty is “why me?!” I’d encourage everyone to answer themselves “Why NOT me?” This is because there are only two answers. You either believe you don’t deserve pain and suffering, which who is to know if we deserve it or not, and who is to say pain and suffering are always bad things? Imagine Nelson Mandela asking why me and never realizing because he undertook the greatest of purposes and service for his country. Imagine MLK.jr. exclaiming “Why me? why must i be the one to dream!?” If we believe we are truly good people(Which you are!”) and don’t deserve the suffering or pain, we will quickly realize its precisely because your undertaking is so noble and your heart so good, it must be you who carries that cross. But no condition is permanent. Either we succeed in the end, or must re-endure the hammer on the anvil and forge further.

We must avoid entitlement like a plague, because come entitlement- we force ourselves to suffer regardless of our comfort or discomfort.