As an entrepreneur, you know the importance of a detailed and well-executed business plan. Having an understanding of the who, what, where, when and why of your business is a pivotal part of creating something sustainable and successful. Most importantly, your business will reflect who you are and your clarity and commitment.
But what about a plan for ensuring your own peace of mind?
Even if your business is thriving, if you’re stressed to the point of unsustainability, then what’s the point? Success is more than making money. Success means thriving and that includes your state of mind, and ultimately your inner peace.
It’s no secret that running a business can be stressful. Most people haven’t been taught how to cope with high levels of stress. The number one leading cause of chronic stress amongst American adults is too much pressure at work, and when you’re an entrepreneur that pressure is all the more present. Modern research shows that chronic stress is linked to the top 6 leading causes of death.
But there’s good news, with the right knowledge and planning, you can feel empowered with strategies and solutions to better cope with stress and overwhelm. You can train yourself to reframe your reactions when things go “wrong” and start responding to challenges from a place of calm.
Enter what I like to call an Inner Peace Plan, a combination of practices and techniques you can use to go beyond creating a successful business and create a truly successful life.
A Plan to be Calm, Cool and Collected Even in the Midst of Chaos
Intention, is powerful, and when you set the intention to have a productive day, you’re much more likely to achieve that outcome than you not setting an intention.
Setting intentions is all about planning and directing your energy in a focused manner. Intention makes that which you intend worthy of manifesting come to life. As a leader and entrepreneur, you must be aware of all the possibilities and set the intention to remain focused, present, mindful and calm.
In business, there will always be ups and downs, things that work and things that don’t. Maintaining a successful business is a process of constant refinement. You can allow the ebbs and flows of your business to pull you along with them, or you can set the intention to remain stable and collected, even when the ideal outcome isn’t met.
Practice: On your Inner Peace Plan, make a list of typical events that would set you off and how you can practice responding instead of reacting.
Ex. A client doesn’t show up for a meeting and offers no explanation. You can consciously feel your emotion and let go and use the newfound time to accomplish your objective or create something new and innovative.
The Elements of an Inner Peace Plan
The most important part of your inner peace plan is the intention behind it. When you write a business plan you intend for your business to be successful, when you put together a plan to ensure your emotional well-being is kept in check, that’s a potent step towards making that intention a reality.
Mission and Vision
Whatever your mission, vision, and purpose is for your business, take that and infuse an element of personal balance and well-being.
Ex. Your mission is to inspire change in the tech industry by creating easy to use analytics software. Your vision is to create the most sought-after analytics software in North America.
The peace part comes into this by setting the intention to follow through towards your goals while maintaining your mental and emotional well-being. If at some point you realize that you’re reaching your business goals but you’re on the verge of burnout, you can go back to your peace plan and remember that balance is also an important aspect of your aspirations. Your business will reflect your vibrational, energetic and mental state.
Integrate your own need to maintain peace with the mission and vision you have for your business.
Strategies in Situation Analysis
Situation analysis in business is an overview of your objectives, strategy, and execution among other things.
Applying situation analysis towards ensuring peace of mind in all circumstances, solidifies the stress management strategies you have in your arsenal, for dealing with the unexpected in a way that it embodies mindfulness and doesn’t throw the rest of your life off balance.
A few ideas for stress reduction strategies include…
- Focusing on the breath in moments when your mind is scattered.
- Release tension through exercise and movement practices.
- When you’re triggered by something someone said, try to not take it personally and practice letting go.
- When overwhelm sets in, take a look at your time management practices and refine them where needed.
- Practice clear communication at all times, if something feels fuzzy, reach out for clarity and deeper understanding.
- Remember to practice gratitude, even when things aren’t going your way.
- Practice self-care in regards to the thoughts you have about yourself, the food you nourish your body with and the time you take to just BE.
- Visualize the outcome you desire.
- Spend plenty of time with family and friends.
Strategies and Action Plans for All Predicaments
Someone didn’t pay their invoice…
You didn’t get approved for the business loan or grant…
One of your employees has been stealing money…
You fell way short in achieving your goals for the last quarter…
There’s always going to be something trying to grab your attention and raise your stress levels. But you have the choice to react or to respond.
If you set the intention to respond in a calm mindful way, and use the strategies you put in place to help you experience more inner peace you can ensure that even if your business fails, your mental health won’t. Maintaining inner peace is like insurance on your most valuable asset, YOU.
When you expand your inner peace, raise your vibrational frequency and integrate your unresolved emotional content, you’ll expand your ability to meet each challenge and see them as opportunities instead of setbacks.
Track Your Successes
Just as you track everything in business, do the same in your personal ability to cope with chaos. Look at the events and circumstances that arise in your business every month and analyze whether or not you met those events with hostility and stress, or peace and acceptance.
The truth of the matter is that whether you view something in a negative or a positive light, it doesn’t change what happened, but it does change your state of mind and peace. You can grow in understanding and choose to learn from what went wrong, strengthening your ability to experience peace in any circumstance.
