Dear Tony,
I’m good at sales, but I’m finding it hard leaving my home stress at the door. It’s affecting my working life. Have you got any advice on how to focus?
This is extremely common and very challenging. In one way or another, everyone has home stress, some unfortunately worse than others. I think the initial thing to appreciate is everyone has home stress and you are not alone; its part of life and it must be viewed the same as when we get rejected in sales; its part of the process. If we allowed every sales knockback to affect us, we would never pick up the phone or attend a sales meeting again.
People handle home stress differently; I like to work out and go to the gym and take the stress out by doing a great work out or go for a jog; I find the fresh air and the cardio really helps. Other people like to soak in a bath, read a book and take their mind off things. The lesson here is to do something, take action and try different things and see what works best for you. What many people do is focus on the home stress and worry about it, which of course only magnifies the problem and does the opposite to helping you handle it better.
I suppose you could compare this to challenges that every entrepreneur faces in their business. The way they handle and overcome the challenge is the true strength of an entrepreneur, as opposed to stressing and worrying about it; they view it as an inevitable part of the process and learn how to handle it head on. I guarantee every successful entrepreneur has experienced their fair share of home stress, it’s just they learned how to handle it as part of everyday life.
Don’t be scared of asking for support outside of your home, as I am sure there are people who would be only too happy to help; many people feel it’s rude to ask.
