Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Business owners have always been problem solvers. That's what the free market is designed to do — allow innovative thinkers to create change for others by solving problems. We, as entrepreneurs, are problem solvers and creative thinkers. We must be good at a few core skills to see business success. We must be good at solving a specific problem for a specific type of person. We must be good at finding the right people and managing those people. And we must be good at solving the problems that arise in our businesses from the world's chaos.
We all know that even with the perfect plan, we still face problems. How we deal with those problems dictates the end results in our business. The human mind has evolved to create more comfort for us. We've designed houses, cities, supply chains and much more to solve problems and create more safety and security in an uncertain world. In crafting these types of environments, we create a better world for ourselves and, ironically, a worse one simultaneously.
Related: 3 Ways to Create an Environment That'll Nurture an Entrepreneur
The problem with being too comfortable
The more comfort we create for ourselves, the more we crave that comfort and allow that comfort to satisfy us and lure us into relaxing our pursuit of betterment. Many of us tell ourselves that if we have the Peloton, that tonal or that home gym set up, we'll work out more.
The hard truth is that once we get those things that we tell ourselves will create a successful routine, many of us stay the same. Now we have a new living room ornament and a reminder of the failed promises that we've made to ourselves every day. We tell ourselves, “Tomorrow, I'll use it.” And then another day goes by, and it's unused.
I've been there, too. For five years, I told myself, “I'll quit heroin tomorrow.” And then, the next day came, and I found myself sticking a needle in my arm. Until a day came when the pain of staying the same was bigger than the pain of changing. So, I quit and haven't touched it since. Was it easy? No, but what in life that's worth it is easy? There is not much that I've found.
Related: 8 Ways to Structure Your Daily Grind for Success
Crafting a winning internal environment
Most habits aren't nearly as harmful to our health, relationships and business as heroin. But the continued practice of being comfortable and sitting on our laurels, thinking we've made it because we have a business that pays us a certain amount monthly, year after year, can be nauseatingly comfortable and, therefore, harmful. It's that type of comfort that we get lured into that can cause catastrophic damage when a large problem arises, and we're not prepared to solve it because we've let our metaphorical tools become dull and our muscles weaken.
In business, I've found that we are at war with ourselves and tend to crave comfort over the habit of consistently pursuing success. So, it's not the environment outside that we must cultivate to create success. We must shape and prune the internal environment to create the success we truly desire.
With lifting weights, the last few reps, when we're in more pain, fully exerting ourselves and feeling the maximum amount of strain, create the most significant changes in our muscles and physique. It's also when we feel like giving up, throwing in the towel or procrastinating, starting what we know we should be doing in which we need to change the internal environment and create habits of execution.
Life will get in the way; that's inevitable. Children, headaches, feeling low on energy, needing to get one more thing done at work — the list could go on as to the excuses we could allow ourselves to use to continue procrastinating the things we know we need to do. The true power lies in realizing that we'll never get more time in the day and that we need to prioritize what's most important: self-worth, self-trust and the habit of showing up.
Yes, burnout is a real thing. And we are only capable of doing so much every day. We'll never be able to create more time in the day, so we must create an environment inside, a set of decision-making skills that allows us to be the most effective we can be with our time and energy. That can show up as being willing to let go of control and empowering employees so that we can allocate our time and energy to different and more critical tasks and activities. It can also mean not allowing ourselves to be distracted by social media and motivational content and only allowing ourselves to be satiated by doing the things we want the motivation to do.
So, in 2023, I will create an environment for myself and my business that allows me to stay consistently on the path toward greatness, and I encourage you to do the same. I'm not going to allow my old habits to destroy the person I know I can be and will become, and I surely won't let the outside world dictate how I show up. I hope you don't either.
Janice is a full-time mom who likes to write on a range of topics in her spare time. She specializes in the Home, Garden, and Recycling topics. Janice is our Lifestyle and positive vibe expert. She keeps the office running.
