Belt Drive Betty's Blog

When life happens to a small business owner: Strategies to Cope

It is extremely challenging to run a business and it's made even more challenging when life strikes three people who contract to you all in the span of a few days. 
 
Three of the people who contract to my business found themselves with life changing issues before them causing one to have to move and take herself right out of the equation.  Juggling and rebalancing workloads still hasn't fully taken place, and I have been struggling under the work load, although as I review and ditch stuff, it is getting more manageable again. 
 
Then add a surgery into the mix and a personal life where in I have had 6 friends die, and 3 children of friends commit suicide. It's been a rough 9 weeks. 
 
Then there are all of the political minefields that cause so much emotional upheaval. 
It's tough now a days trying to figure out the truth. 
 
Depending on what media outlet you listen to, depending on your personal values, ideals and politics, there are a lot of issues that are driving a lot of people, myself included, around the bend. 
 
I am struggling emotionally. And the struggle is very real. 
 
While I understand that nothing in life is certain except death, taxes and change, I am not a terribly happy woman with a lot of the changes I see. Our veterans are told that they ask too much when they ask for the supports they need to survive and thrive, and yet, we welcome all sorts of people into our country ILLEGALLY and because there is no well thought out plan to deal with the sheer volumes of people we are opening our borders to, well there is financial burden and hardship placed on the provinces.  Quebec <a href="https://www.immigration.ca/quebec-bills-federal-government-146m-for-illegal-border-crossers" target="_blank">billed the federal government for $146 M</a> to deal with illegal border crossings, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ontario-demands-200-million-from-ottawa-to-cover-cost-of-resettling/" target="_blank">Ontario $200 M</a>. 
 
We bail out the media industry with $585 million dollars over 5 years, but we can't give our veterans the care they deserve.  In just these three issues the feds have spent 1 billion dollars. 
 
Here in Alberta our oil patch is land locked but instead of building refineries and selling our own gas, we are flogging the dead horse of pipeline and rail cars. It disgusts me frankly. 
 
The world wide political scene is like watching a bad B movie that you can't get away from. 
I have been working at refocusing myself in an attempt to reduce the stress I feel. 
 
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DJIZnf38a2L8r5z5xOfKO3S73-U7XvUl4JJwVhmBqMg1P0LwvE9Y76f8dBGs3yw8zncdkYwQJQ-yPy-aEOTfbSgpowlvwtETPWKJ40KSyzUotQglzKmxt4Qe9KqUboax32GT/s1600/tree-736885_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1280" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_DJIZnf38a2L8r5z5xOfKO3S73-U7XvUl4JJwVhmBqMg1P0LwvE9Y76f8dBGs3yw8zncdkYwQJQ-yPy-aEOTfbSgpowlvwtETPWKJ40KSyzUotQglzKmxt4Qe9KqUboax32GT/s320/tree-736885_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a>Here are a few of the things I am doing: 
 
Meditation: I had gotten away from doing that, I am unclear as to why, but I find it calms my mind. 
 
Doing this again, is helping at least for a while every day. 
 
Exercise: I am doing light work outs up to twice a day.  The minute I feel the electrical charges building up in my body, you know the ones, those prickly little beggars that make you feel uptight, anxious and angry....I get on my whole body massager and crack out the 5 pound weights for ten minutes.  Often I plug in the earphones and listen to ten minutes of positive affirmations. 
 
I am taking vitamins B & D, and amino acids L-Theanine and L-Tyrosine for mood. 
 
Sleep: I have been going to bed at 7:30-8:00 PM every night. Getting up around 4:00-4:30 AM. 
 
Eating: I have been working at eliminating sugar from my diet - that's been tough, but I am down significantly and that seems to help. I am also working at losing weight, from having quit smoking. 
I had gained about 60 pounds, and am down by 35 or so. I plateaued for a bit, but finally I seem to be loosing a little again and if nothing else I am toning up nicely. 
 
Socializing: It's not something I have ever had a lot of time to do, but I am having to trim what little I have been doing down to all but none. I go out for lunch with select people who I know don't stress me out by talking about things that are upsetting. 
 
Ditching/Changing social media: There's the big one for me. 
 
I used to love debating politics and political view points, but that was back in the day, about 10 years ago, before everyone forgot how to speak civilly to each other. 
 
I was part of the debate team in high school and we were taught how not to take anything personally. but back then, no one called you a mindless minion or a stupid F'in C%$& for your opinions or ideals. I find that it's hard to take comments like that as anything but personal, but I am working on it. 
 
Still, I don't want to associate with people who are going to treat others that way and so, I have blocked so many people in the last while that it became exhausting and I decided for my own mental health to just opt out for a while. 
 
That break did me good. 
 
The unintended but positive consequences of blocking so many who are hurtful in their dialogue? 
I find is that my newsfeeds are filling up with funny videos of animals doing quirky things and that change has been welcome. I am learning to laugh a little again! 
 
I am on LinkedIn a lot more these days and am enjoying a far more divergent group of people and topics. 
 
So tell me, how do you manage the stress of life and being in business? 
 
On Monday I will be writing on the topic of reducing the stress during the Holiday Season - Thanksgiving, through to New years Eve.... 
AND we have the MOST AMAZING gift guide going and I will unveil it on Monday too! 
 
Until then, if you are blessed to live in a warm climate where you can ride a motorcycle, please remember to ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you , and put a few extra miles on for please. 
 
Belt Drive Betty, 
Editor & Rider