As an entrepreneur myself, I fully get the stresses that startups undergo, and how significantly this can impact you.

The first thing to understand about stress is that it is an adverse reaction to pressure. Pressure forms part of our daily life and activates us towards action. We need a certain amount of pressure to drive us forward and enable action. For people who are entrepreneurial in their spirit, they are particularly good at being in this state, and in many cases habitually inhabit a world of significant pressure which drives them forward. But the effects of long-term chronic stress when this pressure gets too much is well known to be detrimental to our health.

In this article I am going to share with you the first tool that can be applied to any business, small or large, startup or established.

What are your problems?

It sounds like a simple question, but when it is framed with an understanding of what can increase stress for you it can take a few more moments to consider.

Many of the problems we face in business are similar, some businesses are heavily affected by cashflow issues, some small business owners are literally swamped with work and some are affected by frustration in reaching a target market. When you are undertaking this exercise use the six key factors that affect stress in a workplace environment in order to frame them with an understanding of what can cause stress for you. These are, change, control, demands, role, support, and relationships. Take a few minutes out to write a list of issues under those headings.

You may find that you have a long list of seemingly insurmountable issues, but this is where we can get to the next step in dealing with stress, which will be in part two of the series.