Entrepreneurs need to create a mental health plan, the same as you create a business plan. No matter how great your business plan is, you will not succeed without a healthy mind.

In order to succeed in life and business, every entrepreneur needs a mental health plan. Why, because your thoughts influence your emotions, which influence your behaviors, which in turn influence your outcomes.

The healthier your mind, body, and soul connection, the better your business will develop and the better your relationships will be.

It is difficult to manage your mental health and well-being while running your own business. There is an intersection between business and mental health.

Every entrepreneur needs a mental health plan to avoid burnout. Factors contributing to mental health challenges, hitting a wall, or becoming burnt out throughout entrepreneurial journeys include:

High achieving mindset

Perfectionism

Isolation and loneliness

Don’t delegate soon enough resulting in burnout

It is the cumulative impact of running a business without taking care of yourself. Self-care is a complex concept, especially for high-achieving, busy women.

Listen to Episode 126 with Sara Palmer.

There is a baseline level of activation in our nervous system that makes us who we are and to have the ability to handle the stresses we are faced with. We all have a baseline level of tolerance and if we are always at the top level of this tolerance when life gets overwhelming, we peak over our personal level of tolerance. This results in burnout.

Every entrepreneur needs a mental health plan that includes inexpensive and easy-to-accomplish and repeat self-care ideas:

It is important to be able to regulate our level of stress to keep it within our level of tolerance. An idea for self-care to keep you in a positive mental state and be able to handle stresses that arise is to set a timer for every hour. When the timer rings, stand up, stretch, and look out the window.

Micro-moments of self-care and regulation of the nervous system are powerful.

We all need small doable things that we can do repeatedly.

Stimulate creativity and focus with self-care activities

When you take a moment to enjoy the world around you, you not only reset your nervous system and mindset but also stimulate your creativity. This will also help us focus on tasks ahead.

Listen to episode 171 with Alex on creativity.

Steps to create, implement and adhere to a mental health plan

Similar to the key performance indicators you have in business, there are lead and Lag indicators for mental health. Lag indicator

Impact, effect, or result of lead indicators

Lead indicator

Tasks and strategies you implement

Recognizing lag indicators – signs and symptoms – that reflect something going on in your life or business yesterday, last week, or cumulatively over time

Examples of lag indicators

Inability to sleep

Panic attacks

Difficulty focusing

Inability to make decisions

Examples of Lead indicators

High-stress level

Lost a client

A dip in revenue

Lag indicators help you identify how you are doing well or not doing well with your mental health.

Lead indicators are your self-care practices

For example, if you are used to running every day but haven’t run this week, and you notice that all of a sudden you feel more anxious, aren’t sleeping, etc, you realize that you haven’t run and that has caused the additional anxiety.

Identify your lead indicators, the things that make you feel good, and do a check-in regularly.

Look at the results you are getting with the efforts you are putting in. How are you feeling today, what have I been doing, and what has led me to feel this way, good or bad? This insight will help you do more of what is making you feel good and less of what is making you feel less than good.

Your thoughts create your feelings

Fifty percent of people’s distress is caused by what they tell themselves. You can alleviate this by doing a weekly review of how you’ve felt. For example, if you lost a big client, you can associate that with not feeling good, being anxious, or being down.

A lead indicator is something that happens that affects your mood or feelings.

Tips for getting back to who you are at the core

People are unique and what works for one person may not work for another.

Therefore, it is necessary for you to look at your lead indicators and identify what soothes your nervous system, mind, body, and spirit, what nourishes your nervous system, and what discharges thoughts and feelings.

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Are you ready to take action to alleviate anxiety and develop a healthy mindset? Yes? Download the free eBook, Alleviate anxiety to develop healthy habits for a healthy mind.