How I Deal With Entrepreneur Guilt

If you regularly read my blog or follow me on Instagram or YouTube, you might have noticed that I’ve basically been MIA for a few weeks now. I am well aware of it, and I have mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I’m fine with it, I needed to take a time out because I had other priorities to deal with for a while. But on the other hand, I feel like I’m totally failing my business.

Let’s unpack that.

Sometimes you have to take a step back to come back stronger

As we have established many times before on this blog, building a business from scratch takes time, effort, and energy. As discussed in this blogpost: entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint.

Sometimes you have other priorities to take care of in your personal or professional life, or both. And that’s ok.

It’s ok to take some time off or cut down your business hours because you have to deal with life’s events. It’s ok to step away from over-delivering content on social media because you don’t have the mental capacity to do it. It’s ok to do just the simple tasks for your business to keep growing while you’re taking a step back if you need a breather.

It’s ok.

We talk a lot about taking care of ourselves while growing our business around here, and there’s a good reason for that. I used to subscribe hard to hustle culture, and I’ve had more than my share of burnouts in this life. I don’t need another burnout. And I don’t need to give up on another project because I’m asking too much of myself and not giving myself room to breathe.

Related blogpost: I Won’t Subscribe To Hustle Culture Anymore

So now I just listen to myself. I listen to my needs, and I answer them. No questions asked, or at least I try to, I’d be lying to you if I said I was perfect and succeeding at that every day, so let’s look into it.

Dealing with entrepreneur guilt

I should be able to take care of other areas of my life without feeling guilty for not showing up for my business every second I breathe, right?

Or I shouldn’t feel like a failure because I haven’t written a blogpost in a month, finished the admin tasks I said I’d get done last week, or took two days instead of one to answer an e-mail, right?

Intellectually I know these things, but sometimes, emotions take over and I spin out. I start to think “I’m not doing enough”, “I’ll never be successful if I keep going like that”, and “Why am I so lazy” (this one astonishes me when I think about it with no emotions attached to it), or “Is it even worth continuing?”. And when I go down that road, I know there’s nothing good at the end of it.

So how do we deal with entrepreneur guilt? How do we deal with all this negative inner dialogue we carry around as soon as we’re not being “productive” or feeding our social media channels?

Well, here’s what I do: I give myself grace.

That’s it.

I call upon self-compassion and kindness, and I try to treat myself as well as I would treat a friend or a client dealing with the same issues, and I let myself off the hook.

And it works.

It works because I have learned to say “f*** it” and move on and take care of myself. Over the years, I have seen that when I give myself time and space when I need it, I usually come back stronger.

I come back with fresh eyes, a fresh approach, and I come back with excitement and eagerness to get back to work.

And that’s exactly what the past few weeks have been about, and it feels great.

Overcoming the guilt of not showing up every day or being perfect is for me one of the keys to building a strong foundation for my business and career. Being kind to myself, answering my needs, and taking the space I need to live life while I am building my business, is my answer to avoid another burnout, not give up, and eventually see results.

As I am writing this blogpost, I am truly enjoying myself and I am excited to share it with you, but I also know that I am not ready to make a full comeback and that’s ok.

I started drafting the next steps for me to take over the summer to grow my business, and I am excited for it, but I am also happy to kick it a few more days or weeks before coming back, without feeling guilty about meeting my own needs…

I hope this blogpost can help you on your journey of finding balance in your business development journey and your life journey. Leave a comment below and share your experience if this resonated with you.