Anxiety in the New Year & How to deal with it
As an entrepreneur myself for the past six years, the start of the year can be a frustrating time. In my industry, it’s common for many of the decision-makers to take the holidays off. Keeping that in mind, it has made it easier for me to take that time off as well. While blessed, I often have found myself in the first week of the year over stressing and feeling an Anxiety in the New Year.
After the third year in a row of thinking the sky is falling in early January, I decided this had to change. Or more accurately my wife told me this had to change. So, I took steps to identify what was causing my stress and how to address it.
What is triggering my Anxiety in the New Year?
To fix any problem, the first thing to do is to try to understand where the problem is coming from, right?
- First, I realized just because I was excited to get back to work didn’t mean everyone was. I had forgotten the days of being with a larger business when new year meetings are happening, and strategies are being put in place. Sometimes you need to let things breath I remind myself now with each year.
- Realizing that some people suffer from post-holiday depression. Just think back to any long break you might have had. It can be difficult to jump back into a project after a sustained break. People can have a longing for being back home or just not ready to face the stresses of day-to-day life. All these items can be in play for yourself and your contacts especially in those early days of the year.
- Moreover, the holiday season can be expensive. So, when you’re in those first scary years of your business, it can be frightening. At times you are living on the edge, waiting for a deal or hoping with all hope not to lose that big client that is paying most of the bills. Learning how to balance that fear when your waiting for decision-makers to get back into the office can be overwhelming.
So how do I work through anxiety in the new year?
- Experience is the best teacher. I’m not going to lie and say you can trick yourself into having experience. My Experience helped me understand that this is how the new year has started the past 3 years. Nothing is different.
- When it comes to sales don’t worry the numbers will come back to average soon. When you are waiting for that December deal to finish and it’s January 15th just relax this is normal. Of course, having reoccurring customers for a few years helps as well.
- Don’t rush back to the office to annoy everyone. If it’s January 2nd and your expecting updates on all your deals and projects, you are kidding yourself. Yes, you could have a few urgent things, but everyone else is still nursing into the new year.
- When you do get back into the office schedule time to organize your schedule. The 1st week might feel slow but you’re going to blink and the 1st quarter will be over. Take the time to organize yourself and be prepared. Also, you surely don’t want that big deal or long-term client going away because you sent six emails, left 4 voicemails and 6 texts while they were on vacation.
- Once you are scheduled and back in the office make sure you’re not pushing 80-100 tasks just to say you did. I always say, better busy than bored, but make sure those hours count. Don’t take away hours from family, nutrition and working out. You need to be at your best in all phases of life to fully succeed. Take this time to make sure you are eating right and have workouts in your schedule. This is also a good time to make sure your family is ready for the new year. Life is better when the mind, family, and body are all working correctly.
- Don’t skip on Meditation. My wife makes sure we do a ten-minute meditation in the morning to start the day. Taking those few minutes every morning helps get the right energy for the day. When you are working for yourself you can easily get lost staring into the web, especially when you have bad energy. That problem just multiplies with bad energy, and I’ve seen multiple days lost. Get your mind right every day and take advantage of every minute. I would rather get 5 hours of great work in, than 12 hours of useless multitasking.
Overall, take a breath and let the new year come in. Think positively about the sales and deals you have going on. Don’t break your momentum and start trying everything new under the sun. A little patience will pay off and help your anxiety in the new Year. Take the time to focus on having a great new year and know that things will be busy soon enough.