Starting a business isn’t always a joy ride. I know it hasn’t been for me. People will always disagree with you. You’ll inevitably have to work ridiculous hours with no immediate reward in sight. Things never go EXACTLY as planned…shit happens. So what can you do to keep your head up when you feel like throwing in the towel?

1. Take a chill pill. First and foremost, you’ve got to calm down. Try and rid yourself of that overwhelming feeling by clearing your mind. Breathe. Go for a walk, rest your eyes for ten minutes, or do something you enjoy that will take your mind off of the situation at hand so you may return to it with a different, more positive perspective.

2. Remind yourself. Read your mission statement. Read your end goal. Read the dreams you’ve written down in the past (you do have them written down don’t you?). Sometimes we lose sight of what we’re in this game for to begin with and we just need a simple reminder.

3. Re-focus your energy. After you’ve calmed down a bit, re-focus your energy on things you can accomplish right away. If you look at all the things you have to get done before the end of the day, or week, or month – you can get overloaded. Get a piece of paper out and write start a task list, but only write one task at a time. When you’ve completed it, come back, cross it out, and write another one. This way you wont be thinking about too much at once and you can get things accomplished. Once you do a few tasks you’ll be feeling better and like your old self again.

4. Might as well learn from it. Look at the bright side of things. Ask yourself what the challenge that you faced today taught you, despite how it stressed you out. Learn from it. Make a mental (or physical) note of what you did to overcome it so that you can use that method again in the future when you feel like giving up.

5. Follow their lead. If you can’t seem to snap out of it, it may be time to seek some third-party motivation. Check out www.score.org and try to get in touch with a mentor. It’s a free service and they can really offer some valuable information and point you in the right direction. Talk to someone who’s always supported you and be honest about your frustrated frame of mind. Chances are they’ll continue to support you as they always have and give you the self esteem and motivation to continue.

These are just some things that I do when I find myself down in the dumps and ready to quit. We all get brain cramps from time to time, and with all the stress that goes along with owning your own business, sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the reason you started in the first place.