Let’s face it, today’s business environment is uncertain. It requires lots of innovation, and often we need motivation to even get out of bed.

How do you get out of bed when people you love are hurting? When the world looks like it is about to implode? When ….

Fill in the blank. You get the idea. Right now, for most people, it is stressful. A lot of stress comes from not knowing. If you ask your local therapist, he or she will tell you it is the “unknowing” that is the kicker.

Add unknowing to your business and well … it is not fun. 

What is your plan for dealing with the unknown so you can focus on your business?

Several of my clients this past week showed up with a layer of depression in their voice. Things were “okay,” but when digging deeper, they were not lit up about their business nor their personal life. The reasons were different, but the underlying principle of why they were down was the same.

Too much information was coming in and not enough strategy on how to deal with all the incoming data.

Almost all of us are being plagued with information and Zoom overload. How do you deal with that?

Let’s break down the overload into two categories to help simplify the issue. The first area to look at is your personal life and how that spills into your business.

Personal Lives Spilling into Business

Okay, with COVID-19 being an extremely worthy opponent right now and causing tons of damage on its path, it is almost impossible to not be impacted by it. It is affecting people’s lives, their businesses, their relationships, and their families. Very few people are precisely on the same page, and everyone feels strongly about their side.

A reflection of this can be seen in the conversation I had with my new insurance guy. He is recovering from COVID-19. He told me that he was quarantined for fourteen days with his relatively new girlfriend.

He said: “Although I am recovered, there are a lot of side effects, physical and with my relationship.”

Recovering from all the changes that are currently happening reflects what we all are going through, whether we have COVID or not. There are side-effects from the world not being able to do business as normal. If a business owner is not careful, and not doing their emotional work, unresolved issues, resentments, feelings of helplessness, or anger will have undesired consequences, most likely not only in your personal life but also in your business.

It is important to work through your stresses weekly so you can show up at your work with the ability to focus as best you can.

Take weekly inventory on how this ever-changing war is impacting you and your loved ones. Strategizing on how you are going to cope with the stress can keep the stress from becoming too much.

The strategies you use to deal with the current stress will depend on your issues, your worldview, and your circumstances. But remember, a healthy response is health (Brandon Burchard).

Areas to consider that might be an issue:

            *Grief and loss
            *Family tension both nuclear and extended
            *Circumstances that suck that you have no control over
            *Competing values or worldview with someone you are 
              in relationship with

If you can’t get into a safe place or plan with your situation, seek help or find some way to have support to make sure you are dealing with the situation in the most supportive, compassionate, and healthy way possible.

Business is on Overwhelm
The personal side of life has a significant impact on your business by affecting how you show up, your thinking, your energy, etc. Still, it is not the only thing a business owner or entrepreneur needs to look at.
            Chances are you think you need to:

            Make your business more online
            Have effective tech skills
            Have a blog
            Create a newsletter list
            Utilize FaceBook, Linked-In, Twitter, or whatever social               network the “hottest” trend
            Have a better marketing strategy
            Have a better sales strategy
            Write articles
            Update websites
            Etc.

What typically happens is the entrepreneur hears one thing and starts trying to figure it out, then another, and goes to that, then another and on and on this goes. This person is running from place to place, never really mastering and implementing anything. They become more stressed and don’t get the results they want. And because the economy is doing its shaky dance, the pressure is increasing to not make a mistake.

How do you know if you are guilty of doing the “overwhelmed scatter dance” in your business?

Here are some signs:
            Lots of “to dos” in many different areas of your           
            business.
            A deeper sign …
            You’re working harder and not getting the business                     results you want, like profit.
            Or
            The increased money you are making is not equal to 
            the amount of additional time you are putting in.

There are two big problems here. One is when you make decisions based on what you “should” do or think you should do based on other people’s recommendations; you are putting your business at risk.

There are many different marketing strategies and business systems, and each will work differently with different kinds of business. There is no blanketed one way of doing things for every business. I have also encouraged my clients to not pick from what it is trending, but really get clear what works for their personality, their situation, their clients and to make sure they can commit to doing consistently. It is important to always do a gut check (check inside yourself to see if it feels right), research, and investigate what is right for you, not jump at the next new idea or system.

Second, the problem many are guilty of (including me J) is they keep learning and put off implementing. Implementing is scary. When you implement, you are taking a risk that you might fail. The other reason many don’t implement is they struggle with time management. Implementation is key.

I would love to hear how you are coping in your business with all the uncertainty. What is working? What is not?