Reflecting on Stressors

When you reflect on your stressors, remind yourself that it’s normal. Rake a step back and reflect on the root of the stress and how you can address it objectively. Seek support outside of the family system.

When you think about women in family enterprise and when you think about all of the stress that exits in life, you have to remind yourself that all of that is normal. It’s a part of living life the way that – families are complex, businesses are complex, family businesses are complex, family businesses and families are complex. SO looking and understanding at the complexities and understanding how normal stress runs through that process is critical to helping you be able to navigate that stress. So what you want to think about is step back from it, step back from the emotion of it. And when you are a woman in family enterprise, and you’re dealing with both the family component and the business component, think to yourself, is the issue that is being put in front of me one that is that predominantly dealing with the business? Or one that’s predominately dealing with the family? Is it one that is bumping across that border, which they always will, and is the bumping into the border one that’s going to be fatal to that important border between the family and the business, or is it part of the elasticity of the border that’s always going to exist when you have a family and a family business? Think about what the root of the stress is, where it’s coming from and then think about, objectively, how you’re going to handle that. Maybe write it down and then put it aside and think about it three days later, or two days later, or 6 hours later. Think about talking to somebody who is not in your family system about what it is, and think about whether or not it wouldn’t be a good idea to continue to be educated.