While we all like to think that success is a straight line, we also know that it is not. There will be set backs, disappointments, road blocks, and struggles.
Starting and growing a business is hard. Being an entrepreneur comes with so many struggles. And some days will be downright depressing.
That is why we have to take proactive steps as entrepreneurs to take care of our mental health. Today, I have two resources to help you, one for long-term happiness and another for a quick pick-me-up.
Free Course – The Science of Well Being
Have you heard of Dr. Laurie Santos? She’s a professor of psychology at Yale. She had an opportunity to live on campus, and what she found was that Yale students, with all their advantages, were still unhappy and depressed. And getting worse off by the day.
So Dr. Santos dove into the science of happiness. She then developed a course for Yale students “Psychology and the Good Life.”
Dr. Santos’ class sought to answer such questions like “What actually makes us happy?” She was worried that the class would be a handful of students trying to fill their schedule. Instead, it was overflowing. The class became the most popular class and everyone wanted to take it.
Instead of keeping this just for Yale students though, Yale and Dr. Santos made an online version on Coursea and here’s the good news – it is FREE! You can take this class, and I highly recommend it.
In the Science of Well-Being, you’ll learn things such as why our expectations are so bad and how to overcome our happiness biases.
I’ll give you a hint: those glasses of wine and the spa time are not what make you happy. It’s community and helping others.
The total course is about 19 hours, but I recommend that you break it up into several different chunks so that you can process all the information that Dr. Santos has to share.
How Music Can Help Improve Your Mood
Dr. Santos’ course is about long-term happiness and well being. But sometimes, we just need something right now. For a quicker pick-me-up, you can try music.
Some data scientists got together and wanted to figure out how music can improve your mood when you are feeling frustrated, sad, or just emotionally exhausted. And what business owner hasn’t been frustrated, sad, or emotionally exhausted?
These scientists took a look at prior studies and reports and found 988 songs that gave people emotional reactions. They then studied these songs and figured out which of these songs would improve your mood.
The researchers found that it wasn’t happy, upbeat music that did the most good. Instead, it was often the “sadder, slower, less intense and more instrumental” songs that would give you better results. Go with the acoustic versions over the highly produced versions of songs.
And to help you, they posted all 715 songs on Spotify.
Pick out a few from this playlist to add to your personal playlist. Then, whenever you just need a boost of feel good music, you’ll have them ready to go.
What are your preferred methods to stay happy?
Let us know if you have tips for other entrepreneurs on ways to get and then stay happy. How do you deal with the mental health aspects of the struggle of entrepreneurship?