Coach-Soch: When founders feel an emptiness

Feeling of being in a vacuum.

No new ideas.

No sense of urgency to react or to act on various stimuli. Be it meetings, mails, decisions awaited from you.

Well, once in a while, the founders go through this type of Vacuum patch too. The feeling of emptiness.

This could happen for a variety of reasons - medical condition (physical/ mental), being bored, depression, insecurity, stress, and even not relating to what you do. If the vacuum patch continues for long time, check with your physician for an assessment.

Most of us, as working professionals or entrepreneurs, sometimes wake up with the feeling ‘there is no important reason to get up today to even go to work’. Such an emptiness feeling is something almost all of us see from time to time. To overcome such a feeling is important. It is okay to feel so.

Some people succeed in overcoming such a feeling by taking up something new to experiment - writing, painting, cooking, gymming, outdoor sports, travel, meditation, etc. many succeed by simple taking up a routine.

Sometimes the feeling of emptiness seems haunting or worrisome. You might feel that there is nothing to look forward to. But there also lies a solution. If you can find out something worth working towards, even if it’s a minor hobby or goal, that can pep you up. Many have found greater energy boost with winning a video game or a personal goal to complete certain number of kms to run or to cycle. Cherish those smaller joys. Celebrate every small step. Be it that of your completing a 7 km run or the deep cleaning of your wardrobe that you have been postponing for many months or that simple post dinner walk that you went with your family after ages. In smaller joys are the deeper impact.

As humans, we end up missing the smaller and simpler joys of life, in the name of chasing larger personal and professional goals. You want to build an enterprise, but forget that you are the Hero for your children — and you keep missing their school events where they await showing off their skills to you.

Sometimes, you might find yourself staring at a situation that you have tried solving or changing. Once you realise that it’s not worth attempting any more or that you don’t want to try any further, make that acceptance wholeheartedly. The only time to step out of the situation, be it at work or in personal life, is when you don’t have any more passion towards the situation you are trying to resolve. If it’s something you are passionate towards, it’s worth trying even 10,000 times even if you failed each successive time.

Sometimes you might not able to crack an idea or even get through that individual investor who is not supportive. Whether it’s feeling ineffective in your role or organisation, despite your designation, feeling of emptiness and helplessness is okay. Yet you might be forced to maintain that facade of normalcy, for the others in your team or family derive comfort and inspiration from your actions.

Accept your emotional state. Accept the feeling of emptiness. You are not alone. It is okay to feel so.

You are a leader. You can create an environment at work to add joy and contentment to your colleagues. What’s stopping you from starting some of those passion projects?

You are an important person in your family. What’s stopping you from taking charge of few other roles that you can play at home?

No one is stopping you. You are the one to initiate. And it’s in your mind. Just start and don’t procrastinate.

— The author, Srinath Sridharan is a Corporate Adviser and Independent Markets Commentator. For other articles in the Coach Soch series, click here.

(Gender representation of his/he is only representative and the leadership learnings here are gender-neutral)