What's something you're struggling outside of entrepreneurship?
EH
10 replies
We're all quite busy developing our ideas, products, and professional relationships, but I'd love to hear what kinds of challenges you're facing outside of our entrepreneurial hustle.
*gets personal*
I haven't always enjoyed the strongest relationship with my mother. The fact that we live on opposite sides of the country doesn't help; I usually only see her once a year. I recently made the decision to become a bit more.... "aggressively loving" towards her.
I'm downloading iOS games that we can play together (Words with Friends and WordDomination are her favorites so far - open to suggestions!), I'm sending HER "chainmail" for once (really just NIH studies that I think she'll enjoy) and I'm generally trying to invest more time and energy into being a positive presence in her life. It's hard though, since we have a lot of history to contend with.
What kinds of challenges are you facing? The more personal, the better :)
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![Abadesi](https://ph-avatars.imgix.net/269621/original.jpeg?auto=compress&codec=mozjpeg&cs=strip&auto=format&w=36&h=36&fit=crop)
Abadesi@abadesi
Oh how the struggle is real! I personally struggle with striking work life balance. I'm prone to feeling bad/guilty about almost everything I am connected to or responsible for, especially when I feel I have not done enough or am not giving something enough time. But there are only so many waking hours in the day.
My responsibilities include my job at Product Hunt, running my side hustle I founded three years ago, and also being a great partner to my partner, a great friend to my friends, a good daughter to my parents, a good sister to my siblings, a good godmother to my goddaughters etc. It's easy to feel like one is not doing enough.
My antidote to the struggle is making a daily practice of gratitude and reflection. It's incredibly grounding. It doesn't necessarily alleviate the thoughts but it reminds me to be kind to myself which always helps!
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@eve_hammond that's very kind of you to say, Eve, thanks 😊
My biggest challenge is email writing. If I need to send the information my mails will be short, too precise and boring. To solve it I started to write a book. The book is too simple but It helps to express my thoughts a little more poetically :)
@anna_panchenko this resonates with me on a deep, deep level. I also use writing to feed my inner creative. That, or photography. Do you share your writing publicly?
@eve_hammond no, no way :-)
Thanks for sharing, Eve!
For me, I'm struggling to get organized and to prioritize, and it's a losing battle that I nonetheless have to fight every day. I keep installing new apps in the hopes that they will magically make me organized. But it's become time for me to realize that the problem is me, not a lack of project management / email / planning / notetaking apps! I can't even remember what half of my installed apps do.
*gets personal too*
I'm also coming to terms with the fact that I'm really very oversensitive and self-critical. I so often admire founders and makers for their attitude and the way they receive constructive (and not very constructive!) criticism with grace and and a willingness to accept responsibility and to improve for the sake of the people they are committed to serving. Meanwhile, if I were in their position, I'd be too wrapped up in thoughts of "Ahhh! Woe is me! I have no value and I'm so misunderstood!" Which is why they are building successful products and services, and improving people's lives, and I'm still here, not launching.
I stand to gain so much from overcoming these personal limitations. And to face the fact no shiny new project management app (or whatever) is going to help me take charge of my life, emotions, and organization, until I have a good plan for personal growth first.
@donovan Ah yes, I've been there. That situation where your relationship with the world becomes temporarily vague and you continue to look for "quick fixes" in the pursuit of clarity and forward motion. It's a tough spot to be in. My relationship with "clarity" has always been pretty bipolar, to be honest :p.
Thanks for the raw disclosure. I can see the self-criticality in your description of being self-critical! I'm not sure if this means much, but from my perspective, you're not "here, not launching." You're "here, testing out the various ways that you can interact with - and provide value to - the world around you, carefully uncovering the way that suits your unique little constellation of values and motivations." I hope I haven't overstepped any boundaries by offering my unsolicited input; I just know what it's like to feel relatively low on the value scale and any encouragement or reframing has always felt neutral or positive to me, so I thought I'd drop my perspective.
@donovan The second point is close to me as well. I always considered that the reason is self-confidence. Some people are very self-confident and sometimes it doesn't depend on real achievements. As a rule, they are great speakers, can lead people "across the Red Sea" like Moses. And that's great. For other people, I think it's helpful to keep in mind a higher goal or mission. Just, for example, when started my own start-up I have much more disappointing things than I worked as an employee. To avoid procrastination I remind myself my project can help maintain people's health and it's more important than some failures. Maybe finding a similar guideline will help you as well.
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