Creative Entrepreneurs - How To Use Anxiety To Your Advantage

You're passionate, innovative, and a born transformational leader. You don't even mind putting in the extra hours and shrugging your shoulders at the naysayers. What you don't read or hear anyone even coming close to mentioning is the mountain of stress, the sweaty anxiety, and the migraine headaches that creative entrepreneurs running the show fight to hide every day. You can't help that feeling of your stomach dropping as if you're about to go down a hill on a roller coaster during the prelude of an important decision or even hitting publish on your next blog post. Getting sweaty at the wrong moments and then worrying if anyone will notice so you just keep your sweater on when its way too warm in the room during an exhibit at a gallery or an art show. Worrying if you're targeting the right audience or if your marketing campaign is going to be profitable changing your mind on minuscule details that end up not being as big of a deal as the entire picture.....does this sound all too familiar? I can completely relate! I will be very honest, I have had to work really hard to overcome my anxious personality. I'm not writing this to suggest that you face your fears but to inspire you by using your uncertainty and antsiness to better serve your business decisions and appear as if you meant to do half of the stuff you didn't plus how to use the restlessness to your benefit.

-This post may contain affiliate links. These are links that when clicked and a sale is rendered I receive a small commission at no additional cost on your end.

Channel the nervous energy into a reusable positive force

As promised, this is not about facing your fears. If you are able to develop a compassion for your own fears, that is completely different than facing them. Facing them would require me to tell you that they are not rationale and also require that I have a medical degree which I do not believe nor am I a doctor. However I am a creative entrepreneur, and I do believe that fears are very real. Everyone on this planet fears something that is deeply rooted. Every single one of us! Of course, not everyone fears the same things. Some will admit it to it, and others let it ruin their day.

You were not made to let it ruin your day. You are here right now reading this post that I wrote and you are a strong individual with a force that drives you farther than most people attempt even on the autobahn. We are the people who wear many hats and have our planners filled writing on the sides of the page because the squares are overfilled, its the passion inside that fuels the fire. The roaring flames that ignite the fields of others lighting up their eyes as they wonder what you've been up to lately as your phone keeps buzzing and you keep on working.

Write it down

If you think of something that is bothering you but its not urgent or something so far ahead that it doesn't need immediate attention at the moment, write it down in this free printable worksheet that I created for you. The worksheet should help you get back on track with more positive thinking. At the end of the day if you still are worried repeat more things that you are good at in your mind or a think of a strategy to impede the worrying. If you are having social media anxiety, as I also do, keep repeating to yourself the Nike slogan, "Just Do It". Think about it later or revamp your post or sales publish if your still not sure and after you have viewed your statistics to verify that an edit is necessary.

Break it up into smaller parts

If at all possible, break up into smaller bite-sized morsels that you can concentrate on that will form an awesome whole once put back together. For example, I'm not Vincent Van Gogh I cannot finish a painting within a few hours and have it ready to publish to my website or ready for a commission to be shipped. I don't pretend that I do this however, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around how Van Gogh did back in the day. I start off in the morning around 6am and work on 3-4 paintings that are at different phases in between writing the next blog post that I promise to my readers by 10pm and being a mom to a wonderful little 4-year-old boy.

If you fail at anything use it as a moment to improve

If you didn't receive as many views on your last blog post or sales or marketing campaign as you had forecasted do not wait a week before you restructure your approach. Wait maybe 12 hours at the most, if your statistics have not registered any engagement then change a few things to the way that you are marketing all of the above. Small simple changes can make a huge difference, many times its trial and error even when using SEO correctly. Think of it this way, there are billions of people in the world, if each person in the world is searching for something on the world wide web at the same time hypothetically half of them are searching for something in 1-1000 broad genres not including niches and anything specific while the other half are already at their destination before moving on to another website. Search traffic constantly changes nothing ever stays the same nor is anything actually 100% permanent and set in stone.

Take all criticism constructively

When you hear negativity that starts the second-guessing, take it with a grain of salt. Most of the time when someone says anything negative that isn't constructive it's usually a reflection of something they themselves lack or perceive as a threat. Before you react to anyone whether online or in person stop and think about why this is triggering you into a defensive stance. I like to believe that others are just on autopilot most of the time. Purposeful ignorance is bliss. Do not react to their impulsiveness. Let them get to the point of reacting while you observe!

I hope that this post curbs those anxious feelings and gets your mind out of the fear that was starting to form a cloud over the creative entrepreneur that you are! My newest original painting, Broken, goes with this topic. Take a look and add me on Twitter!