Face Your Wake Up Call

I had another sleepless night last night. I thought about getting out of bed to write this blog in the middle of the night, since I wasn't sleeping anyways.. oh the irony! As I've shared, sleepless nights have been haunting me lately, and I have tried all of the remedies that I know of to help me. I've stayed away from caffeine at night and started exercising more routinely, but it's not helping. I'm tired, I'm frustrated, and I need some sleep!! My health is going to suffer when I don't sleep, not just physically but mentally. For me, it is mentally exhausting to try and fight the yawning, and push the tired feeling out of my mind. I also get headaches when I don't sleep, which are draining mentally and physically as well. It is just great to have that constant reminder throbbing in my mind :(

I guess it is somewhat of a comfort to know that ALOT of other people have been there and that this is a very common problem, so I'm not alone. It is an even bigger comfort to know that this to shall pass. I have battled, and conquered, sleepless nights in the past.

So when the physical remedies don't work, that means that it is time for self reflection. This is where people get stuck, and the occasional sleepless nights turn into chronic sleepless nights. Isn't that crazy, that we would rather have insomnia than face our problems and do some self reflecting? Well not really, since self reflecting is scary, and often produces things that we have tried so hard to hide. So, I have to take my own advice and do some self reflection. For self reflection, ask yourself three questions, "what do I lay awake all night thinking about?" "What are my biggest fears right now" and "What are my biggest regrets right now?" Usually one of these three questions doesn't apply at the time, but if you are honest with yourself in answering them, you will figure out what is keeping you awake all night. Here goes...

What do I lay awake all night thinking about? For me it's my new business. I lay awake thinking about all of the things that I didn't get done that day. Nevermind the 2 million things I did get done, I choose to focus on the ten things I didn't get done. This is obviously a problem. I also lay awake scheming and strategizing different marketing tools that I haven't tried yet. I analyze in my head if it will work, how it will work, when it will work etc. This problem seems easy enough to fix at least. Schedule some time during the day to brainstorm new ideas. Time? What time? Ahh! Most often though, I lay awake at night thinking about all of the marketing strategies that I'm currently using to grow my business. Are they working? Are they working well enough? How can I tweak them so that they'll work better? How long should I try this strategy before moving on? You get the idea...

What are my biggest fears right now? Money obviously, since I quit my salaried job to start my own business. The second is that I will fail at this. I think every new business owner fears failure. I hear all this stuff about a bad economy and lack of security, tons of negative reinforcement is out there in the world. I know I have an extremely valuable service to offer, and I know this is going to work out in my heart of hearts, but I also know that these fears will be here for awhile. That is part of being a new business owner.

For me, it is clearly the first question that is keeping me up all night. I have to find time to brainstorm during the day. I also have to find peace with myself for the things I was able to accomplish in one day, and remind myself that there is always tomorrow to worry about that.

So now, I challenge all of you to do some self reflection of your own. Come on, if I can do it on a public (!) blog, then you can do it for yourself!