This entrepreneurship journey can be a little bit of an emotional up-and-down roller coaster, can’t it?

In today’s video, I want to talk about what to do when you hit those rock-bottom moments, where you just feel like you want to give up.

First and most important thing I want you to know and remember is that you are not alone. What you see other people achieving online, whether it’s me or other entrepreneurs, is a highlight reel.

People are putting things out there that are strategic… and also nobody’s going to share things when they’re feeling like crap.

So, if you’re caught in a trap of looking on Instagram and comparing yourself to other people, and you’re really hard on yourself about where you thought you would be at this point in your business, I want you to take a deep breath and understand that we all feel your pain.

Here are five things that I do whenever I am in total and utter despair…

STEP #1 – WHAT ARE YOUR LIMITING BELIEFS?

Whenever I hit rock bottom, it’s because I’ve got a negative thought pattern that’s reinforcing the way that I’m feeling. Whenever you’re feeling like crap, there is a thought pattern that is causing or inflaming that emotional feeling. Catching these limiting beliefs is a lot like finding fireflies at night. They’ll light up for a second, and you got to make sure to capture them at that moment or else they kind of disappear into the darkness. This means paying attention to your thoughts as you’re having them.

What are the thoughts you’re currently having that are telling you what’s not possible or why you’re never going to achieve what you want to achieve? What is the reason that you’re giving right now for not having what you want? These limiting beliefs are there, because they served you at some point in the past, and that’s fine. The thing is that they’re just not serving you anymore, and it’s time to let go of them. I’m not sure if this is going to make you feel better or not, but facing limiting beliefs is a lifelong journey. You’re going to have these same things come up again and again and again, as long as you’re pushing the limits and reaching for higher levels of success.

STEP #2 – HOW CAN YOU SHOW YOURSELF SOME COMPASSION?

The second thing I do is show myself some compassion. Us ambitious people are very hard on ourselves. We expect a lot from ourselves. So it’s important to take time to just let yourself do nothing. What is it that you feel like doing right now? Is it binging some show in TV and just taking a nap? Is it taking a bubble bath? Is it going to get your nails done? Is it ordering out a pizza or making some tacos? Give yourself an afternoon off to just do whatever you feel like doing, even if it’s crying about all of your problems and feeling self-pity.

Now, the truth here is to set a time limit for this, because you don’t want to get down a cycle of just doing nothing and getting lazy and lackadaisical about your life. So, give yourself an afternoon, and then tell yourself when you’re going to stop doing that thing, and then it’s time to start doing things that bring you joy or help you feel more control over your life. And that brings me to my third step, which is to find a small win.

STEP #3 – FIND A SMALL WIN

Now, look, I really hate doing anything that’s detail-oriented or administrative type of work. I’m a big-picture, creative thinker, and I could just journal and write and imagine things and create things all day. However, if I do that, and I neglect the administrative part of my life like meal planning, grocery shopping, paying my bills, doing my budgeting, answer my emails. I wind up getting really stressed out because those things pile up over time and then it becomes more of a big impossible pile of stuff to face. So what I do is make a list of all the things that are stressing me out or making me feel overwhelmed and just making a list often makes me feel a lot better, and then I start tackling each item on the list.

STEP #4 – HOW CAN YOU START BEING A “REAL HUMAN” AGAIN?

Okay, now, it’s time for step number four, which is to start being a real human again. I am all about wearing yoga pants and staying inside for five days straight without leaving the house. However, this can also cause you to start feeling isolated and depressed, and you start to kind of lose perspective on what’s real and what’s not. This is especially easy to do in the cold, dark winter months, and so, you’ve got to make an effort to go outside and do something. I find that great things to do or just to go outside to go for a walk, even just going to the grocery store doing something really close by just to get out of the house.

I give myself a rule that I have to leave the house at least once every day, even if it’s just literally walking outside, walking down the street and coming back in. Some other things that have helped me are having a weekly workout class that I attend and RSVPing to go to networking events, so that I have something to do that is not on the computer. In my course Yay For Clients, I always tell my students, “If you’re stuck, engage.” It’s my motto throughout the entire program, but I think it’s a really good motto for life.

If you ever feel stuck, if you ever feel like nothing’s working, nothing is going your way, it’s time to get up and move and do something else. Change environments. Go to a coffee shop. Go buy yourself something. Just go window-shopping, if you want.

STEP #5 – DO YOU NEED PROFESSIONAL HELP?

Step number five is that if all else fails, and you’re just feeling terrible for more than a couple of weeks, then you need to get some professional help. Now, I am no mental health expert. What I do know is that most people who have depression or anxiety tend to suffer in silence, because we think that were weak if we can’t figure out the situation by ourselves.

So, if you’re someone right now who knows that this is you, I recommend going and seeing a professional, so that you can not take all the burden of dealing with your issues by yourself. There have been multiple times along my entrepreneurship journey when reaching out to a therapist or a coach has been monumental towards helping me to see the other side of the thing that was stressing me out in that moment. You might also want to reach out to friends or people in communities you’re in, online and offline, or if you’re in a mastermind, that’s a great place to reach out as well and be vulnerable as long as you have people there that you trust.

Okay. So I know this wasn’t the most fun topic in the world, but I also know that this is something that comes up all the time. I know this because of the students in my course Yay For Clients constantly our hitting points where they feel like they’re not cut out for success or entrepreneurship, or they should just give up, because they’re the only ones suffering. I know from watching it happen again and again and again, that it’s not true. Yet, we all seem to suffer in silence. So, I would love for you to post a comment below and just let me know, what’s one thing that causes you to feel overwhelmed, and which one of these steps do you think will become a great go-to for you the next time that you fall into that pit of despair?

I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please make sure to leave that comment below, come subscribe to my channel right here, and hit the like button so that you’ll get notified every time I release another video. I can’t wait to see you next time, and have a great day.