Re:Ask HN: How do you handle your mental lows?
by onion2k on Tuesday December 18, 2018 @05:50AM
(#18705685)
If I take a look at, let's say famous, entrepreneurs on Twitter, for example, most of them seem to know what to do and seem to be very pragmatic.
A quick thought experiment - when the people you admire aren't tweeting do you assume that's because they're busy being successful and getting things right, or because they're also feeling like they're worthless and getting it wrong as you do? If it's the former, why are you assuming that?
When all you see is the successes it's very easy to assume it's like that all the time, but for pretty much all the entrepreneurs (and just people in general) that's not the case. Everyone has periods of low productivity and depression to some extent. A lot of people on social media tend not to share the bad times. That's all.
The solution for me was to realise that there's no rush. If I'm not productive for a while that's OK. I'm better off when I don't stress over how productive I am, and taking the pressure off is actually good for me mentally. Of course, that's not always possible, especially in a start up without a huge amount of capital. I don't have the answer if that's the case.
A quick thought experiment - when the people you admire aren't tweeting do you assume that's because they're busy being successful and getting things right, or because they're also feeling like they're worthless and getting it wrong as you do? If it's the former, why are you assuming that?
When all you see is the successes it's very easy to assume it's like that all the time, but for pretty much all the entrepreneurs (and just people in general) that's not the case. Everyone has periods of low productivity and depression to some extent. A lot of people on social media tend not to share the bad times. That's all.
The solution for me was to realise that there's no rush. If I'm not productive for a while that's OK. I'm better off when I don't stress over how productive I am, and taking the pressure off is actually good for me mentally. Of course, that's not always possible, especially in a start up without a huge amount of capital. I don't have the answer if that's the case.