Let’s be honest, when was the last time you took care of yourself? I mean really focused on yourself, your mental health and your physical health? If you’re a business owner reading this, we’re willing to bet it’s been a while. As a business owner, you often find yourself trying to balance dozens of tasks for your business, decisions that need making and important deadlines to be met, not to mention your home life, children, and other family commitments. And with a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, war and a cost of living crisis , it’s all too easy for self-care to slip to the bottom of the priority list. And since it’s world mental health day, we wanted to talk a bit about mental health for business owners.
Becuase self-care should never be at the bottom of the list. Now, more than ever, we all need to be taking care of ourselves. After all, if we aren’t taking care of ourselves, then our business (and our lives) will suffer). And with business owners facing a whole host of extra stresses (on top of the normal stress of running a business), self-care has gone from luxury to necessity, helping keep you healthy and resilient enough to keep your business running through these tough times. Not sure where to start with self-care? We have top tips that all business owners could benefit from.
Look After Your Body
Have you ever noticed that when you don’t eat well or do any exercise, you can start to feel sluggish, low energy and just a bit rubbish? That’s because our bodies need healthy foods and exercise to stay at peak fitness. As business owners it’s all too easy to push out bodies beyond healthy limits in the name of getting things done. Not going to bed when you should, ordering take away just to buy a little more time for that project, or running on nothing but coffee, without actually running. Taking care of your mental health starts with taking care of your body – small amounts of exercise during the day, eating right and sleeping properly are all really easy ways to make yourself feel better.
Say ‘No’
I don’t know how many of you need to hear this, but no is a complete sentence, and you are very much allowed to use it. As business owners, we can often feel as though we have to say yes to everything, especially during uncertain times, when your instinct is to grasp for every opportunity presented to you – even if you have too much on your plate already. So when a new opportunity comes along, be realistic about your time and how many projects you can take on. And learn to say no. And remember, you can’t fill every second of the day with work – you need time to relax as well, which means saying no to a few other things to make the time!
Take Some Time Away
Everyone needs some time to reset and recharge, and that means time away from your business. We don’t necessarily mean a holiday here (especially now, when holidays aren’t even possible). But rather, just any time where you aren’t working on, talking or even thinking about your business. A complete break from everything business, and a chance to focus on the other elements of your life. You could take a long, hot bath, go for a walk in your favourite beauty spot, spend some time with the kids, do exercise, or even just veg out in front of the TV. As long as it has nothing to do with work and everything to do with making space for you, you’ll start to see the mental health benefits pretty quickly.
Ask For Help
For many, this is the hardest part of all. All human beings find it hard to ask for help, but business owners are particularly prone to the pride that stops the words ‘help me’ from ever leaving our mouths. But however much you want to – you can’t run a business alone. None of us can. So there is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for some support when you need it. Maybe you need the people around you to help spread the word about an offer, or you’ve taken o too much and you need to outsource some of your tasks to a virtual assistant. Whatever the need, help is out there. All you have to do is ask for it. And believe us – you’ll feel much better when you do!
At Your Admin Hub, we specialise in taking some of the burdens away from you as a business owner, freeing up the mental and physical space you need to be successful. We have experts in almost every area of business, waiting to help you run your business in the most effective way possible. If you would like to know more, just get in touch with the team today.