And you're not even close to being the only one facing them.

As entrepreneurs, our mental health is crucial for the success of our business(es). Without a healthy mind, your business is as good as brain dead. It would literally need life support if you tried to manage it with a mental overload. Unfortunately, the constant demands of running a business can easily weigh on our mental well-being, leading to all kinds of mental health challenges that often go unaddressed. If you allow enough of that kind of chronic stress to weigh on you for long enough without addressing it, you're a failed business just waiting to take its last breath.
Such common issues may include stress and burnout, anxiety and depression, lack of work-life balance, imposter syndrome, financial insecurity, perfectionism, poor communication skills and social isolation, among other business brain busters. It's absolutely vital to recognize the importance of these issues and how they can affect us as entrepreneurs so we can take steps towards mitigating their impact before they ripple out from within our own heads.
Hi, I'm David.
Owner of Monumental Coaching.
(See the monuMENTAL part?)
Consider me your head coach.
I get it (kind of).
As an entrepreneur running my own business, handling the marketing, creating the offers, crafting the emails, networking, taking and making the necessary phone calls and sending texts, as well as spending the time with clients AND onboarding new clients, it can challenging getting out of my head. That's just in my business life, too. I've not even mentioned my relationship, kids, personal health, money or other aspects of my life that I create joy in.
Oh...I also have a mental health condition (paranoid schizophrenia). Don't worry, I actively exercise my mental well-being. I have to. (Plus I love the work). I have a coach, a therapist and a relationship therapist, I exercise, eat well, sleep well, think well and do the "thought work" necessary to grow. I have for years. And I've gotten great results. (Not to mention that I've been off of antipsychotic medication, or any medication for mental health for that matter, for the last 5 years).
I had to be proactive about this after I reacted to the onset some decade and a half ago.
Over that time, I've built foundational strategies, opened up to coachable perspectives and became more transparent in what I was struggling with inside. And it sucked. To be vulnerable about something when the world seems to deem me as a "dangerous person" was hard to talk about. Mental illness is STILL stigmatized, disregarded and sometimes, completely unconscious to the person experiencing it. Not to mention outside of illness. If I'm talking about the mental health of entrepreneurs, there's still stigma. People might see you as "weak" and that mental challenges are too big of a problem to discuss. Once we become aware of the mind made challenges, only then can we address them.
Here are 25 specifically that I've either read about, experienced or heard from other entrepreneurs:
1. Stress and Burnout
2. Anxiety and Depression
3. Lack of Work-Life Balance
4. Imposter Syndrome
5. Financial Insecurity
6. Perfectionism
7. Poor Communication Skills
8. Social Isolation
9. Fear of Failure
10. Decision Fatigue
11. Overwhelm
12. Crisis Management
13. Suboptimal Self Esteem
14. Unhealthy Eating Habits
15. Impaired Sleep Patterns
16. Unhelpful Coping Mechanisms
17. Self-Sabotage
18. The Pressure To Succeed
19. Tackling Challenges Alone
20. Overly High Expectations
21. Compromised Personal/Professional Boundaries
22. A Need For Control
23. Loneliness And Isolation
24. Dysfunctional Relationships
25. Secrecy And Silence
(I will expand on these soon).
As a business, mindset and mental health coach, I have spoken to many entrepreneurs that are facing various mental challenges like these in their business. In fact, an article published by Forbes Magazine in October 2020 titled, Why Entrepreneurs Need To Talk About Their Mental Health, link showed staggering statistics that 49% of entrepreneurs are directly affected by mental health issues and that 72% are indirectly affected. That's enormous. Especially considering that there is a reported 31 Million entrepreneurs in the US alone.
Look, all I want to reiterate is that this is common.
You're not experiencing this all on your own.
You're not less than, weak or defective.
You are a human trying to help other humans.
To start a business to help others can be difficult.
It can be taxing, may feel lonely, and even scare the sh*t out of you. It has its peaks, too.
All I'm saying is that maybe, just maybe, you would benefit from support.
Whatever that is for you, what if you gave it a chance?
In the end, we're all just trying to make it.
I look forward to sharing more with you soon.
Until then, be well my friend.
David "Shrink" Boyle
Monumental Coaching
Your Head Coach
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