There are times in your life when things don’t go right. These six signs mean it is time to pay attention.

As an entrepreneur, our mindset and health are paramount to achieving professional and personal success.

We would all love the entrepreneurial journey to be like driving a beautiful car down the freeway, where we get every green light and avoid major accidents, road rage, traffic incidents, overtaking, sudden braking, making a U-turn, or heaven forbid, slowing down.

As we know the entrepreneurial journey is nothing like cruising down the freeway.

Sometimes we realize that we need to make changes quite quickly yet at other times it takes a major life-changing event for us to wake up and pay attention. Here are 6 emergency signs that you need to pay attention to:

1. Your Garden Bed Is Bone Dry

As an entrepreneur there is a high probability that you are far too focused on your priorities, holding on way too tight to specific outcomes and spending every spare second thinking about your business. So really, it should come as no surprise that your relationships are bound to suffer.

Thirty percent of entrepreneurs working more than 60 hours a week, reported relationship problems. You see this all the time with entrepreneurs working 6-7 days per week with no or little time left to dedicate to family and friends.

Relationships are like a garden, you need to constantly pay attention and give love to those around you.

‘Where you tend a rose, a thistle cannot grow’. – Frances Hodgson Burnett

2. There Is No Fuel In The Tank

When you feel low on energy, it stops the momentum required to fuel your business, attract opportunities and effectively maintain your relationships.

When your fuel tank is low or on empty, it means that you are way overdue for a revamp or you seriously need to assess your daily activities.

‘Identify your problems but give your power and energy to solutions’ – Tony Robbins

The longer your fuel tank is low or out of gas, the more challenging it is for you to rebuild the momentum. Adversely, this can also lead to health problems.

3. Your Radio Channel Is Fuzzy

When your radio channel is fuzzy, you are essentially going through the motions, existing rather than living. It means operating on auto pilot.

Often, by tuning out, you also adopt a nonchalant approach to everyday life which means you are missing important details and failing to focus on your priorities.

‘To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist’. – Oscar Wilde

4. The Flowers Have Stopped Blooming

One of the most obvious signs that something is seriously wrong in your life is your health shifts quickly downhill.

Whenever I feel a strong resistance to do something I will get a sore throat and sometimes lose my voice or I will get very ill and require bed rest which is something I seriously detest.

Funnily enough, since I have been an entrepreneur I have rarely been ill.

5. You Missed Every Stop Sign

Your emotions indicate what is really going on for you in your life. Our emotional state impacts our behavior.

When you get furious or upset for no real reason, it means that something in your life is triggering you to move into that state. This happens more frequently when you ignore or fail to voice your emotions.

Our negative emotions then distort our perception which creates different outcomes to when we are in a positive state and seeing things more clearly. When your emotions go completely off track, take time to identify what the ‘real issue’ is.

Dr. David R. Hawkins developed ‘The Scale of Consciousness’. He found that consciousness (human emotions) had a vibration.

As you would expect, heavy emotions such as fear, anger, guilt and shame vibrate at low frequencies whilst peace, joy, love and acceptance vibrate at high frequencies.

There are 5 levels that correspond with specific emotions; 1. Suffering, 2. Getting By, 3. Flow, 4. Pure Tao and 5. Ultimate Consciousness. Those emotions have a number which indicates a low or high frequency. For example: enlightenment vibrates at a high frequency and is therefore in between 700-1,000 whilst at the bottom of the scale is shame which vibrates at 20.

6. The Tsunami Is About To Hit

Believe or not, entrepreneurs are mostly an optimistic bunch. That said, financial issues can develop and feel like a tsunami ripped through your entire life in a few seconds, if your positive beliefs distort reality.

As wonderful as it is for entrepreneurs to have positive beliefs unfortunately, it can cause them to be ‘overly optimistic’ and not realize the ‘reality’ of the situation.

If they choose to keep ignoring all the signs along the way, it is inevitable at some point that they will fall from the Eiffel Tower in Paris or The Empire State Building in New York.

Optimism is an essential ingredient for entrepreneurs. However, it needs to be balanced with a logical, realistic perspective. To face challenges head on and decipher effective solutions to help you move forward.

Moving through a tsunami might be quick, although the rebuilding of one’s business and life is certainly not. It takes time and requires paying attention to the details you missed first time around, learning to balance your optimism with a healthy dose of reality and most importantly taking excellent care of your garden, your relationships and your health.

The keys to longevity in the entrepreneurial journey are simple – a positive mindset and a healthy body will lead you to where you want to go.

 

This article was originally published on Inc.com