mikecarlooch
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Hey guys - coming here today with a sensitive topic..
A little bit difficult to write out, but I think this is something that needs to be talked about for entrepreneurs because obviously, our output ability literally determines our destiny and legacy in the world - and to have that kind of focus, we need to be mentally sharp, and it's hard to do that with lots of anxiety and panic attacks when you're on a mission to build a large company.
The panic attacks I'm talking about are the ones that literally - feel like it's the end (of life).
However, great people in history have found ways to get over this and thrive.. From Abraham Lincoln to Nikola Tesla
And I'd be willing to bet there are tons of entrepreneurs who, while struggling with panic, were able to build companies in the billions.
Sometimes panic can throw us off track so much that we don't know what to do.. And start to feel lost - which starts a vicious cycle.
I want to share some things that have helped me so far, but first I want to say if any entrepreneurs on this forum have also struggled with this and still managed to pull through and be productive and make big things happen, I'd love to hear your stories.
Here's some things that have helped me -
1. Flow States
If you want to take your mind off of worry and fear, you need to constantly be pursuing something that piques your curiosity. You must stay in flow or else your mind is going to start drifting back to fear - some kind of task, whether that be doing cold calls, designing a product, or anything.
And you know what's super powerful that I've realized, that changed my outlook on panic and anxiety..?
Recently, I was reading a book called Antifragile (shoutout to @Antifragile lol) by Nassim Taleb which is about things that gain from disorder. To give an example - muscles on the human body are antifragile. When we work them out, they get bigger and stronger.
All of a sudden I realized something - could panic and anxiety be one of the reasons why many successful entrepreneurs build big businesses and conquer earth..?
Because they know that the constant pursuit of goals with directed action will put them into flow, causing them not to think about it.. And therefore excel..? Could it actually be a blessing in disguise?
Inside of a flow state - it's like the panic doesn't even exist anymore. You become ultra-creative, everything starts going your way.. It's pure bliss.
The one caveat to this though is that you must have something to do. If you don't have something to direct your energy towards because you are confused about what you should be working on, it slowly creeps back up on you and sends you down a spiral of bad thoughts.
So stay in flow.. Stay creative.. Know your priorities.. Know exactly what you need to do..
2. Yoga Nidra Meditation (or NSDR)
Coined NSDR by Andrew Huberman, this is a form of meditation that involves listening to a script (you can find them on youtube), that is directing your focus to parts of your body that you would never typically think about (like your left earlobe)
Through this meditation I have found that after doing it, the panic vanishes for hours on end. And within those hours where I am not thinking anything about panic, that is my chance to direct my energy towards something meaningful that can put me into a flow state. Once you get into a flow state, panic will not set in again for as long as you are directing your energy towards that project.
3. Identify Triggers
The smallest things can be triggers. For example you may hear a sound and all of a sudden your mind thinks that, that sound came from the inside of your body, and it sets off panic.
You need to think about these triggers and start to realize just how ridiculous they are. Find a way to laugh at them. One NLP technique that has helped me a bit is the following.. And I urge you to try this any time you're feeling panicked.
When we identify triggers, we start to see that the trigger is attached to a past event, and that event is the root from which all of your panic is built upon. It may the first time you ever experienced panic and you didn't know what was going on, and you haven't been able to throw that experience
in the trash ever since and you keep living it over and over again.
-
1. Imagine yourself watching the event on a movie screen (like you are an outsider)
2. Imagine yourself, watching yourself, watching the event on the movie screen, from the top of the empire state building in New York City through a telescope
3. Now, imagine yourself dragging the event all the way to the end, kind of like a youtube video, and then in your mind, play it in REVERSE.
4. As you play it in reverse, imagine hearing circus music to make it feel less serious, perhaps to a point where you can laugh a little bit.
-
When triggers happen, do not react, continue staying in a forward center of mass doing what you were doing before the trigger happened. You may start to feel it trickling in, but if you react, you are affirming that there is something wrong and it could set off panic.
4. Change your focus from inside your body to outside
Typically when you feel panicked, you're thinking about how something is wrong with your body. You need to get out of your head. To do this easily, put your hand up close to your face for 1-2 minutes straight and observe everything about it. How it looks, all of the scar patterns. If you do this, you'll notice that you completely forgot about the panic and feel better.
-
There is more I could say about this..
But the #1 thing is to ALWAYS be working on something. Stay in constant forward movement. Doing this will distract you positively from whatever it is that you fear. In a panicked state, what do you hear in your mind? All limiting things. And it's HARD to change the limiting thoughts to empowering thoughts in that state.
But when you direct your focus towards something meaningful and start making progress, no matter how small it is, your mind state will automatically shift from limiting thoughts to empowering thoughts that spit out a flow of creativity and optimism about the future.
And if you don't know what to do in order to get yourself into that forward center of action.. Here's a quote I heard that can help you:
"The easiest way to prevent distraction is to have a task so simple that its more painful not to do it than it is to do it."
Again, that is why business is such an amazing thing (if we can direct our focus towards the right actions that give us fulfillment), and why I think people who struggle with this are capable of being some of the most successful people in the world..
-
I really hope someone can relate to this and it helps them, I know this is a sensitive topic, but if anyone would be willing to share some stories from their lives, that would be awesome.
-Mike
A little bit difficult to write out, but I think this is something that needs to be talked about for entrepreneurs because obviously, our output ability literally determines our destiny and legacy in the world - and to have that kind of focus, we need to be mentally sharp, and it's hard to do that with lots of anxiety and panic attacks when you're on a mission to build a large company.
The panic attacks I'm talking about are the ones that literally - feel like it's the end (of life).
However, great people in history have found ways to get over this and thrive.. From Abraham Lincoln to Nikola Tesla
And I'd be willing to bet there are tons of entrepreneurs who, while struggling with panic, were able to build companies in the billions.
Sometimes panic can throw us off track so much that we don't know what to do.. And start to feel lost - which starts a vicious cycle.
I want to share some things that have helped me so far, but first I want to say if any entrepreneurs on this forum have also struggled with this and still managed to pull through and be productive and make big things happen, I'd love to hear your stories.
Here's some things that have helped me -
1. Flow States
If you want to take your mind off of worry and fear, you need to constantly be pursuing something that piques your curiosity. You must stay in flow or else your mind is going to start drifting back to fear - some kind of task, whether that be doing cold calls, designing a product, or anything.
And you know what's super powerful that I've realized, that changed my outlook on panic and anxiety..?
Recently, I was reading a book called Antifragile (shoutout to @Antifragile lol) by Nassim Taleb which is about things that gain from disorder. To give an example - muscles on the human body are antifragile. When we work them out, they get bigger and stronger.
All of a sudden I realized something - could panic and anxiety be one of the reasons why many successful entrepreneurs build big businesses and conquer earth..?
Because they know that the constant pursuit of goals with directed action will put them into flow, causing them not to think about it.. And therefore excel..? Could it actually be a blessing in disguise?
Inside of a flow state - it's like the panic doesn't even exist anymore. You become ultra-creative, everything starts going your way.. It's pure bliss.
The one caveat to this though is that you must have something to do. If you don't have something to direct your energy towards because you are confused about what you should be working on, it slowly creeps back up on you and sends you down a spiral of bad thoughts.
So stay in flow.. Stay creative.. Know your priorities.. Know exactly what you need to do..
2. Yoga Nidra Meditation (or NSDR)
Coined NSDR by Andrew Huberman, this is a form of meditation that involves listening to a script (you can find them on youtube), that is directing your focus to parts of your body that you would never typically think about (like your left earlobe)
Through this meditation I have found that after doing it, the panic vanishes for hours on end. And within those hours where I am not thinking anything about panic, that is my chance to direct my energy towards something meaningful that can put me into a flow state. Once you get into a flow state, panic will not set in again for as long as you are directing your energy towards that project.
3. Identify Triggers
The smallest things can be triggers. For example you may hear a sound and all of a sudden your mind thinks that, that sound came from the inside of your body, and it sets off panic.
You need to think about these triggers and start to realize just how ridiculous they are. Find a way to laugh at them. One NLP technique that has helped me a bit is the following.. And I urge you to try this any time you're feeling panicked.
When we identify triggers, we start to see that the trigger is attached to a past event, and that event is the root from which all of your panic is built upon. It may the first time you ever experienced panic and you didn't know what was going on, and you haven't been able to throw that experience
in the trash ever since and you keep living it over and over again.
-
1. Imagine yourself watching the event on a movie screen (like you are an outsider)
2. Imagine yourself, watching yourself, watching the event on the movie screen, from the top of the empire state building in New York City through a telescope
3. Now, imagine yourself dragging the event all the way to the end, kind of like a youtube video, and then in your mind, play it in REVERSE.
4. As you play it in reverse, imagine hearing circus music to make it feel less serious, perhaps to a point where you can laugh a little bit.
-
When triggers happen, do not react, continue staying in a forward center of mass doing what you were doing before the trigger happened. You may start to feel it trickling in, but if you react, you are affirming that there is something wrong and it could set off panic.
4. Change your focus from inside your body to outside
Typically when you feel panicked, you're thinking about how something is wrong with your body. You need to get out of your head. To do this easily, put your hand up close to your face for 1-2 minutes straight and observe everything about it. How it looks, all of the scar patterns. If you do this, you'll notice that you completely forgot about the panic and feel better.
-
There is more I could say about this..
But the #1 thing is to ALWAYS be working on something. Stay in constant forward movement. Doing this will distract you positively from whatever it is that you fear. In a panicked state, what do you hear in your mind? All limiting things. And it's HARD to change the limiting thoughts to empowering thoughts in that state.
But when you direct your focus towards something meaningful and start making progress, no matter how small it is, your mind state will automatically shift from limiting thoughts to empowering thoughts that spit out a flow of creativity and optimism about the future.
And if you don't know what to do in order to get yourself into that forward center of action.. Here's a quote I heard that can help you:
"The easiest way to prevent distraction is to have a task so simple that its more painful not to do it than it is to do it."
Again, that is why business is such an amazing thing (if we can direct our focus towards the right actions that give us fulfillment), and why I think people who struggle with this are capable of being some of the most successful people in the world..
-
I really hope someone can relate to this and it helps them, I know this is a sensitive topic, but if anyone would be willing to share some stories from their lives, that would be awesome.
-Mike
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