Adrie's Blog

Sleeplessness

You rarely hear people about sleeplessness - it's almost a taboo as most business people think you have to be strong constantly and not admit to suffering from the occasional bout of sleeplessness or that you may be worrying about your business.

In general, most business men and women do not want to appear to be vulnerable...although I think women find it a bit easier then the guys. I learnt from my great mentor Jan Heij, then Director Payment Services at ING, that you can show your vulnerability and indeed, if you do, it gives you a certain sense of freedom.

Normally I sleep very well - but sometimes I am visited by that ink-black ghost in the middle of the night too, pouncing on me with black thoughts. It's not even necessarily because things are bad with your business, but mostly because you suddenly feel doubt. During your ordinarily busy days, you don't have time to worry about things, or even stop and think about them at any length. You are too busy running around, meeting people, traveling, tweeting, skype-ing, calling etc. and never take the time to take a step back and think about what it is that you are trying to achieve, and why you want to do it. It is these questions that raise their heads in the middle of the night - your mind is seeking compensation for ignoring these important questions during your busy days. Your mind has to balance it out, find answers to queries that are of strategic importance to you as a human being, not only as an entrepreneur. Queries about the What If's? - you think you are doing great, but it is a good thing that you re-live some of these moments that you don't allow in consciously during the day as there never seems to be "time". I am convinced that if we took the time during the day to meditate for half an hour, or at least take a little time out for reflection or "thinking time" - we would suffer less from sleeplessness. We would have dealt with these important questions already, found the answers or at the very least allowed them to surface and just be, allowing us a much easier slumber at night. At 3 am in the morning, in the middle of a dark night - the questions hit harder and seem more frightening then during a bright day.

If I am in one of these situations, and seem to end up in a kind of endless loop with the same question surfacing all the time without an answer, I just get up and read a good book, or watch some television in order to break that spiral. It helps also if you allow time to talk to a coach or mentor during the day to get things in perspective - which ofcourse you can't really do in the middle of the night.

Should you find yourself in a particularly heavy time with your company, good or bad - such as merger talks or cashflow issues - make sure you have a trusted person around you that you can talk to and who will help you keep things balanced. Make sure you get outside enough and play some sports and never go to sleep just after you finished working. Relax before you go to sleep - as you will need all of your energy particularly in these times to get back to work bright-eyed and bushy tailed the next morning!