Having a strong sense of self is absolutely essential when running your own business. You are the judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to all decision making matters, so you need a strong sense of self-assurance to help guide you. If you start to doubt yourself and let those doubts inform your decision making, you’ll fail before you even start.
While there are situations that call for and certainly necessitate careful thought and contemplation, there are also going to be times when gut reactions need to inform your decision making. In these moments, your sense of self can either help you or harm you. Having a strong sense of who you are and knowing yourself can be one of the biggest assets you can have on your side. Here’s some insight into why this relationship with yourself is so important, and what you need to do to begin strengthening this relationship.
You have to believe in yourself
You can have the greatest business idea ever with meticulous planning and careful considerations, but if – at your core – you don’t believe that you’ll see the business succeed, it won’t. You are the driving force behind this business, you are the cog that, once kicked into start, sets the rest of the machine in motion. If that voice inside of your head is telling you that you’re going to fail and you start believing it, everything is going to crumble in on itself. You are the cornerstone of the operation, so you cannot allow cracks of self-doubt to form in your very foundation.
You need to be compassionate with yourself
You are not a machine, and as much as you may like to think of yourself as being one, you are only a human. This means that you’re a biological creature who needs to sleep and eat and cannot be continuously productive — allow yourself to take care of your body without feeling as though you’re failing your business. Being human also means that you’re prone to error; when things go wrong, keeping your chin up and owning your mistakes by taking ownership of them instead of letting them beat you down is important. Mistakes happen, and you can’t go back in time to undo them. Therefore, there’s no use and no point in relentlessly beating yourself up over them. Rather, look at yourself as a third party, as you do with everyone else, and extend yourself the courtesy of compassion that you do with others. Instead of playing your own worst enemy, try being your own best ally.