Loneliness impacts drive and motivation

Thought for the Day 

Public health care research suggests that loneliness in business impacts drive and motivation, and that it is a common problem. Please see Loneliness Poll and post HERE that was conducted before the pandemic, and we all know this challenge has grown even more through the isolation of hybrid working.

There cannot be a more lonely moment in business than when people feel attacked online, but many things leave us with feelings of loneliness and social isolation.

Feeling isolated, alone, working on your own. No matter how loving a family you have around you, no matter how connected you are online, you can still feel lonely. Self employment, starting up a business, owning a small business, all these increase the risk of us feeling alone.

If you have time, read on; I share my feelings openly, so you may find comfort in them yourself - I imagine what I share here is not an isolated feeling at all.

Our #StrongmindStrongBusiness belief is embedded deep in the culture of all that we do at BIP100. Feeling a sense of belonging to a community that cares for you as a friend, shows kindness, a community that is open with one another and seeks to reduce any feeling of loneliness, is a powerful driver for Thomas and I, both online in social networks, and for an offline social life.

Research suggests that some of the effects of loneliness include the inability to share something good or bad with another person, which is known to impact drive and motivation. It impacts various physical and mental health problems including self esteem, self worth and is a deep emotion that can trigger anxiety and depression. I was not aware that I suffered this in business for years after Ecademy came to an end, I only knew that something was wrong and missing in my life.

How could it happen to me, a person with many social connections, and a family that surrounded me and cared for me at home. But loneliness in business is a different set of needs. To feel we are relevant, to be heard, to have deeper conversations than purely a LIKE on a page, or a RT. We seek attention through the online world, and while we believe that might drive more revenue, are we actually seeking something more than that?

I experienced terrible loneliness as a child, the last thing I wanted was to feel it as an adult. When I went self-employed, boy did I feel it; a new mum, isolated by that shift, hardly any social interaction, on top of that I was now self-employed too. A double whammy, in 1992 when the Internet was not part of our daily lives.

My drive for 24 years, since 1998, has been to bring people together, to ‘connect business hearts’.

Those people in the economy that step out and courageously start a business and work alone, learn the skills to run, maintain, build a business and work the hours they do to give the most amazing service to their clients are surely the most important people in the economy. Yet, loneliness and isolation is a huge problem and we need to cure this. It starts with awareness and also knowing you are not alone with this feeling.

My commitment to this challenge, a basic human needs that we all have to feel we ‘belong’, is to create Communities for Business Owners. I believe that a community can be the manifestation of our cultures, passion, purpose and our why.

Increasingly Thomas and I are gathering evidence of the impact community can make on the economic output of a business, we support this belief through our own Community, BIP100, and in the future we will be training and coaching this, so that more businesses can provide ‘community’ and support their customers in a very unique way. 

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