The Stress Factor: Impacts on Women Entrepreneurs and How to Cope

#LeadandLift | Episode 105 | Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath

Stress is a topic that’s relevant to everyone, but especially women in business. In episode 102, I discussed six strategies for surviving stress. (Go to leadandlift.com/stress to download the free ebook.) In this episode, we’ll talk about the 10 ways of how stress impacts women entrepreneurs and what habits we can apply in our lives to manage and mitigate these effects. 

Let’s start with defining stress. Stress in psychology is defined as the body’s response to any demand, pressure, or situations that are perceived as threatening or challenging. This response can manifest physically, emotionally, or mentally. 

Understanding the emotion that comes with stress will help you manage the stress whether that emotion is anxiety, overwhelm, or guilt. For example, the actions you will need to take in order to manage your stress if the source is anxiety would be different if the source is exhaustion. 

I love this quote by Wayne Dyer: “You can't always control what goes on on the outside. But you can always control what goes on on the inside.”

Worries often stem from things that we can’t change or circumstances that are out of our control. The quote from Wayne Dyer reminds us to focus on the inside and not on the external. Listen to your emotions, assess yourself, and come up with how you could manage your stress.

Ten Ways That Stress Can Impact You 

Stress can be very impactful. You, as a woman, are the mom, the wife, the caregiver, and also the CEO. When you become overwhelmed with stress in one area, all the other areas become affected as well. I have observed ten different ways that stress affects our lives. 

First is that it impacts our health. Chronic stress will lead to a wide range of health issues including anxiety, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, and a weaker immune system. If you find that you are sick very often, it might be because of a pattern of constant stress in your life. 

The second thing that stress impacts is decision-making. Stress clouds your judgment, making it difficult for you as a business owner to navigate complex business challenges and seize good opportunities. Entrepreneurs are in the business of solving problems for other people but when we become stressed, our ability to recognize and create solutions becomes impaired. 

The third is that it impacts your work-life balance. Balancing your career, family, and personal life is already a challenging task. Stress unbalances your life to the point where it could become unmanageable. It is an unnecessary drain on your energy, and it also introduces negative feelings of guilt and frustration. 

The fourth impact is on your business performance. Stress will cause you to lose focus, making it hard to meet deadlines and maintain a high quality of work. This can lead to missed opportunities and decreased productivity. 

The fifth impact of stress that I want to share with you is your physical and your emotional well being. Stress negatively affects your quality of life. It can lead to strained personal relationships and unsatisfactory leisure time. Whenever you are filled with stress, it gets hard to rest. Your mind will tell you that you are wasting precious time that could be spent on working. 

The sixth is that stress impacts your long-term sustainability. Chronic stress is unsustainable in the long term because it will eventually lead to burnout which would force you to take an extended break. 

The seventh impact of stress is communication breakdown. When people are in a stress state, they often lose the ability to communicate clearly and properly. Important details get lost in transmission and both the giver and recipient of the message become frustrated. This lack of clear communication might lead to unstable relationships, which would cause more stress in the workplace. 

The eight impact of stress is weight gain. Constant stress makes it difficult for people to lose weight. The increase in cortisol levels in your body encourages your body to store more fats. Stress-eating is also something that many people resort to when undergoing a lot of pressure. This coping mechanism can become a habit and when it becomes a habit, it becomes very dangerous for your long-term health. 

Number nine on the impact of stress is decreased intimacy. After a hard, long, stressful day at work, you're drained by the time you get home. There is no energy, motivation, or desire left to be intimate with your partner. It also becomes difficult to be present with your partner or spouse because your mind will keep going back to that stressful work-thing that you have to do whether it be a meeting, presentation, or proposal. 

Number ten in the impacts of stress is damaged personal relationships. This is the disaster waiting at the end of the long road of chronic stress. Stress undermines the foundation of trust, it creates interference in the communication between you and your loved ones. You might become irritable because of stress and that will impact the quality of your relationship. It would make it difficult for your partner to support you.

Five Habits For Managing Stress 

“The ability to effectively manage stress is not just beneficial, it's essential for long-term success and well-being.” - Chabidaye Jaglal Ramnath

If you’re an entrepreneur, especially if you’re a fellow women entrepreneur, then implementing strategies for surviving stress is crucial for you to maintain your health, your resilience, and your productivity. By prioritizing stress management, you safeguard your well-being, enhance your decision-making, and sustain creativity so that you can pursue that entrepreneurial goal.

Here are five personal habits that I want to share with you that I've personally implemented to manage stress:

1. Walking. If I'm in my office, the minute that I feel stressed about something, I get up,I leave, and I walk. The change of scenery helps me process my thoughts. It helps me realize that I’m stressed and it makes it easier for me to recognize what I am feeling in the moment. 
2. Pray. Since most of our stressors come from things that are outside of our control, it is a good practice to lift these external factors up to God and trust God with the outcome through prayer. 
3. Write. Open up your journal and write down your thoughts. Writing helps you reduce the messiness of your thoughts, it gives you clarity. Writing things down in your journal will shed light on it. Background negative noise in your mind, once written down, will be less of a subconscious energy drain. 
4. Exercise. Movement gets the energy flowing. When you exercise, your focus and energy becomes increased. That focus and energy helps you see the different options that you have in addressing that problem or situation that’s causing stress. 
5. Seek clarity. Pause and make a list of options. Identify which is the next best action to take and create a path to resolution. By doing this, you’ll be able to quickly decrease the level of stress that you’re feeling. 

If you want more help in managing your stress, go to leadandlift.com/stress to download the free ebook that talks about the six strategies for surviving stress. 

Managing stress is not a luxury, it is a non-negotiable for you to create a life and business that you love. It will make you feel empowered and fulfilled. Managing stress will help you achieve success on your own terms. 

Stress will always be there, you can’t ever completely get rid of it. Our world is full of deadlines, expectations, responsibilities, and challenges - and  those things are very stress-inducing. However, by creating good habits, you’ll be able to bounce back faster. Create a strong foundation of good habits that will help you when you encounter stressful situations!

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Links mentioned in this episode:

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• Chabidaye Website