Are You Ping-Ponging between Concern for the World & Struggling to Get Work Done?
Are you dealing with Covid uncertainty and ping-ponging between concern for the world and trying to get work done? This is more common than you would think. FOMO. It stands for: Fear Of Missing Out (just in case you aren’t up on your acronyms). There are so many of us struggling with it right now.
If you are anything like most of the entrepreneurs I know, you are spending each day ping-ponging between being concerned for the welfare of your friends, family and the world and the fear that you are missing out on doing exactly the right thing to utilize this moment in time.
With everyone screaming, “Get online now,” a lot of entrepreneurs are working double time to learn as quickly as they can and get up to speed fast on what it means to be online. While others are struggling through cooking 3 meals a day, taking care of sick family members and generally wondering how we all entered a Stephen King novel without realizing it.
The pressure and angst of it all may be getting to you – as it is for everyone.
That’s why I wanted to give you some suggestions for keeping it sane as we move into the next 3-4 weeks of self isolation.
First, remember that if you weren’t online prior to this whole thing starting – or you weren’t online consistently – then you must be patient with yourself.
It will take some time to get comfortable on camera. For more support on being patient with yourself in this process – see last week’s article on patience – it’s a goodie.
And you’ll need to give it some time before people start to find you.
I suggest writing down a schedule for yourself that you keep to each week.
Perhaps you are doing 1 video a week and 1 Live a week.
Or 1 video and 3 Lives. Or any other combination thereof.
A schedule will allow you to be patient with yourself when you see everyone else doing these amazing things and that little voice comes up in your head that says, “You aren’t doing enough.”
Second, remember that this time is different for everyone. Some of you have lots of family at home. Your time is being spent with them. Others are spending more time alone than ever before.
It’s important that you don’t make unrealistic demands of yourself or try to do everything. It’s next to impossible to run a business full time while taking care of family full time.
What’s important is that you are intentional with what this period is about. Whether you want it or not – some of you have to make family a priority right now because of a lack of childcare or other reasons. Many of my clients feel terribly guilty about this. I encourage you to take a deep breath and accept what it is in the moment.
If your business is taking more of a back seat right now, know that it’s not forever. Situations will shift. And there may be something wonderful that comes from actively choosing family right now instead of resisting it.
Some of you are choosing to use this time to take a much needed recovery after a busy couple of years. As long as your cash flow can handle some lower months – there’s nothing wrong with that. As long as you can do it without guilt.
The key is to write down your intentions. Intentions like:
“I am actively choosing to enjoy this extra time with my family.”
“I am choosing to use this time to rest without guilt.”
So again, when those voices come up that say, “You should be doing this” or “You should be doing that,” you have a written intention that you can refer to.
And third, there are those of you who are itching to act during this time. Perhaps you do have more free time and you are excited about adding new online products and services to your business (amidst reeling from the uncertainty of the world around us).
For you, I highly suggest that you get very clear on between one to three initiatives that you are going to create over the next 3-5 weeks. See more about this in my Pivot article from a few weeks ago.
Then you’ll need to learn what you don’t know.
Hire support and mentors to guide you.
Create your materials.
Put the products/services out to market.
I’m in this category myself and am in the midst of huge learning! I’ve also hired some coaches over the past few weeks to help me dive into new elements of my business.
The key here is to move quickly enough that you can get products out to market while they are relevant.
But it’s also important that you don’t overwork. Since we are at home, there are no natural stopping points. Be sure to keep to a realistic schedule so you don’t wear yourself out.
No matter what you’re doing over the next few weeks – I advocate intentionality. When you are dealing with uncertainty here are steps you can take. Write down your video schedule. Write down your intentions. Write down what you are launching during this time. That way you’ll be able to tell that worrying FOMO voice in your head, “Not only am I not missing out, I’m clear about what this time is bringing me. And I’m working with it.”
Here’s to us honoring the ping-pong match we are playing right now between worrying and working – and finding a few moments of peace between games.
flickr, JaulaDeArdilla
