Beware of Self-Sabotage! A Warning for Entrepreneurs

Do you sabotage yourself? Think about this: Isn’t planning too much and over-extending, a form of self-sabotage?
As an entrepreneur, you are interested in many different areas but if you continue over-committing, you will hurt your business and your health.
Do you over-commit, because each pretty, shiny new idea sounds soooooo good? Then, when you fail to accomplish all of it, do you beat yourself up about it; feel like a failure, or at the very least, think of yourself as not very good at what you do?
You have created this stressful situation.
If you don’t take care of yourself, if you let the stress of trying to do too much continue, you will not have a healthy life or business.

Here are some examples of self-sabotage:

• You decide that you need to start networking more. You begin accepting every invitation, to every event going on in the area. You are frantic once you start doing this, and do not relax enough to truly get to know anyone at any gathering. You get tired, because you are driving somewhere every day, and other commitments are suffering. You moan, “Networking is too much work! I am not good at this!”
• You have a project. You decide that you will commit the morning to it. The phone rings, and you answer what turns out to be a very long call. You finish the call and you have lost your focus. You throw up your hands and cry,” I will never get this done!”
You need to re-prioritize.

It isn’t a matter of re-prioritizing the “to-do” list. It is a matter of re-prioritizing your life list.

1. List what is important to you.
2. Put these items in order of importance.
3. Look carefully at your top three. Are these the items that support you financially and emotionally? (Health should be included as one of the top three, because if you don’t take care of this, everything else will suffer.)

To successfully stop the self-sabotage, you will have to change the way you have ordered your life up to now. Whenever you need to make a decision concerning the expenditure of your time, look at your life list. Will the activity support those items?
You need to recognize the fatigue and the crankiness that are symptoms of overload and stress. You must constantly re-evaluate and re-focus. Change takes time. You start with changing your thoughts, and this will lead to changing your actions.
One final note: Do not let yourself speak negatively about yourself. Remind yourself that you are an entrepreneur with many interests. That’s not a bad thing to be!