Introduction
Self-awareness is not a topic associated with creating a digital business. However, it has an outsized influence on the quality of your online journey and whether you ultimately reach your goals.
In this post, I want to focus on you as a person and as an entrepreneur. Paradoxically, the more you become a better version of yourself, the more you can create a better version of your business.
And everything begins with your emotional self-awareness.
Emotional Self-Awareness
Emotional self-awareness is the ability to understand and control your reactions, emotions, and impulses to life’s circumstances. This is especially relevant given the difficult challenges of creating and growing a digital business.
Your ultimate goal on this topic is to become emotionally resilient and mature. This will allow you to flourish in your digital enterprise and not crumble under the pressures.
The following are three areas where you might have an emotional blindspot:
- Ingrained patterns of thinking
- Fear and its common expressions
- Lack of patience
Ingrained Patterns of Thinking
This category includes everything that you have unconsciously inherited from your upbringing, culture, schooling or religious community. It is difficult to identify and change your patterns of thinking because you don’t know they exist, and because they now form part of your identity.
Low self-esteem or self-worth
The statistics of those who suffer from low self-esteem or self-worth are alarming. The primary causes can be traced back to dysfunctional family structures, especially the parent child relationship.
This is not an article on psychology.
I only point this out because it affects many entrepreneurs.
- They don’t believe in themselves or the worth of their message
- They seek too much approval from others
- They are indecisive and get easily discouraged
- They criticize or blame others as a defense mechanism
Rigid and binary ideologies
Many conflicts, whether personal, national or global, stem from rigid and binary ideologies (political, cultural or religious).
Rigid means that important questions have already been answered and settled. There is no need for further discussion. Binary means that there are only two viewpoints on every situation: your viewpoint, which is right, and the other side’s viewpoint, which is wrong.
Political and religious ideologies are especially adept at framing issues in binary terms, often with moral implications: we are good, they are evil.
A more concrete example that impacts your business is the belief you’ve inherited about money. Perhaps you’ve been told that the love of money is the root of all evil or that the wealthy acquired their money by cheating others.
This is not how a complex world functions. Thus, you should not construct a business of impact upon rigid or binary beliefs.
Insurmountable social traits
Social traits, such as economic class, level of education, and access to opportunities, are often perceived as insurmountable.
The odds are stacked too heavily against you.
In some cases, a biological trait such as race, gender, or ethnicity is perceived as insurmountable. This is not to diminish the historical and cultural injustices that certain groups have experienced or may continue to experience to this day.
But here’s the thing when it comes to your online venture: the market is often indifferent to these traits. So you must find a way to overcome these disadvantages.
Fear and its common expressions
The category of fear comes in different forms, and it kills many online ventures, often before they begin or gather momentum.
These are the most common expressions of fear:
Fear of failure – Many digital entrepreneurs have failed to lift off for fear of failing. Others are paralyzed by inaction for the same reason.
Fear of criticism or mockery – The Internet is a cruel and unforgiving place. Anyone with a connection can criticize your ideas and dreams. Those who are close to you may mock your dedication of time to this project because they do not understand what is possible in today’s digital economy.
This kind of fear is a harsh taskmaster.
Fear of taking risks – We do not like getting out of our comfort zone. Thus, we may hold back on activities that will move our project forward. This is most acutely seen with speaking in front of others, or being on camera.
Fear of what others think – Expectations from parents, friends or society exert an enormous pressure on your activities. Your parents may have ideas of where you should study, or what careers you should undertake. Many entrepreneurs wither under the expectations of others.
Lack of patience
Patience is often described as a skill and not an emotion. However, it quickly crosses over into emotions when we speak of impatience.
When you feel impatient, your body will react with dozens of emotions to external triggers outside of your control. An example is waiting in a ticket line when you are running late for your plane.
Building a successful digital business puts you on a steep learning curve. It requires you to master dozens of skills and programs on top of digesting an enormous amount of information.
This takes time, focused attention, perseverance AND patience.
The alternative is adopting a short-term or shortcut mentality, where the lure of easy money with little effort keeps you buying program after program. In addition, it keeps you from gaining mastery in the few skills or topics you need to finally break through.
Conclusion
Becoming aware of these emotional blindspots is the first step toward developing emotional maturity. (That is a topic for another post.)
In the meantime, you should review the list above, identify areas where you are weak, then begin to deal with them one at a time.
Here’s to your success!