The only key to unlock success lies in hard work. It is only after the dark phase one gets to see the bright side of life. Jean Paul Schoor’s life has been a roller-coaster journey with a lot of highs and a lot of lows. Born in a village in the municipality of Neunkirchen Seelscheid in Germany, he lived in a house between two cow pastures and there were hardly any neighbours around his home.

Jean says every part of your business has the potential to stress you out and keep you up at night — lack of sales, too much debt, not enough money, issues with employees, problems with equipment and operations. Your brain will constantly be going. All your problems and thoughts will be whirling around, making you tired and anxious. The pressure of constantly finding ways to grow your bottom line in business builds up.  Stress is often the result of high levels of activity over a sustained period of time.

We feel pushed to the brink. We feel overwhelmed and anxious because we’re constantly engaged. To maintain our mental and physical health and be successful over the long term, it’s crucial to find ways of keeping stress from taking hold. Owning a business is stressful, and you can’t really escape it. The sooner you learn business stress management, the better. I know a lot about business owner anxiety and stress. If you are managing your own business, you might envy the entrepreneurs who seemingly have it all and who don’t show any signs of stress at any point. It isn’t that successful entrepreneurs never feel stress, but they are better at coping with it. Interestingly, most successful entrepreneurs have very similar coping strategies developed to ensure they keep stress at bay.

Usually, people are stressed about just one or two areas of their life. If they only took a moment to look at the big picture, they would see that the vast majority of their life is going well. Grab a pen and some paper and write a list of all the stuff that’s going well in your life. Reducing stress should always be at the top of your to-do list to keep you sane — and your company healthy, too. “That’s why it’s important not to feel guilty for stepping back or prioritizing some ‘me’ time,” says Jean Paul Schoor.

Here’s how you can beat stress.

Appreciating what you have

How often do you take the time to stop and list all the things that are good in your life? We often are so focused on the negative aspects of our lives that we forget to be thankful for the things that are good.

It’s important to remind yourself of the good things when you are feeling worn out and stressed. If you are having a bad day and you feel tired, simply jot down the positive things in your life to remind yourself that things aren’t that bad.

Be a self-motivator

Being an entrepreneur can sometimes be a lonely thing to do and therefore it is essential to find ways to motivate yourself. Although you want to surround yourself with friends and family who can lift your spirits, it’s important to be able to boost your own motivation.

You want to remind yourself of the goals you are trying to achieve. Have a clear plan and list of things you want to achieve. If you start feeling like you’re not getting closer to your dreams, find what is holding you back.

Don’t overthink it.

Perfectionism generates unnecessary stress. While you do need to plan for contingencies, worrying about every possible outcome of an action or endlessly assessing your options leads to analysis paralysis and a stress spiral. List the pros and cons of your choices; sleep on it if possible so your gut has time to process the options; then make a decision.