Is Anxiety Ruining Your Business from the Inside Out?

Like many other parents this summer, you may have taken your children to see Inside Out 2 and realized you were all too familiar with one of the main character’s new emotions.

This emotion, Anxiety, leads the main character Riley… 

• to believe that she’s not good enough
• to pretend to be someone she’s not—so she can fit in with her “cooler” classmates—and
• to act compulsively out of fear of being rejected

This is obviously not how to become a serene, confident, happy teenager.

On the contrary, it’s the path to a nervous breakdown, and teenagers who run down it often arrive (at least temporarily) in the place they feared all along: a place of rejection and shame.

Unfortunately, the thing we say goodbye to after our teenage years is Free Room and Board—along with our Ability to Eat Whatever We Want Without Consequences.

But Anxiety?

For a lot of us, that’s not going anywhere; it’s hanging around for the long haul!

And the consequences? 

Well, in the world of business, Anxiety can lead us…

• to believe our company’s not good enough
• to market it as something it’s not—so it doesn’t come across as alternatively “too small” or “too corporate,” and
• to act compulsively, chasing down one fad after another, for fear of being left behind

This is not how to have a smooth-running, successful company either.

Instead, it’s the path to a confusing brand and maybe even cringe-worthy marketing, to dispirited employees and decreasing sales. 

Which might make you wonder… 

What is the best way to deal with Anxiety when it comes to your business?

The psychologist Pixar consulted for the movie, Lisa Damour, recently pointed out something useful in this regard.  

“Anxiety is a natural and unavoidable aspect of life. It’s there to alert us to potential threats, and to help us protect ourselves. In this way it serves as a valuable—in fact, indispensable—emotion.”

But, of course, there are healthy and unhealthy ways to respond to it.

When it comes to your business, the healthy way is to listen carefully when Anxiety speaks—because…

• maybe your company does need to become better in some ways
• maybe it does make sense to change how it markets itself, and
• maybe it should pursue a new opportunity that others see as just a fad

However, and this is important, consider such concerns in light of everything else you know, give yourself time to think everything through carefully, and only then, if it makes sense, take action.

In other words:

Listen to Anxiety, but without losing perspective or handing over the controls.

This can be hard sometimes, maybe even always.

But listening to Anxiety’s concerns raises our awareness, and that is always for the better.

Because we never become safer by ignoring dangers just as we never become more improved versions of ourselves by ignoring shortcomings.

Come to think of it…

A lot of positive things may actually result from listening to this negative emotion.

In the movie, after learning how to deal with Anxiety, Riley gains a more accurate, honest, and accepting view of herself.

She is then able to do what she loves with Joy.

Why couldn’t the same occur with your business?

Imagine embracing the distinctive values of your business, doubling down on what makes your brand unique, and proudly marketing that.

This is not just what Jobs did when he returned to Apple in 1997, it’s what all successful businesses with true fans do—and it’s what we’ve helped businesses with for over three decades.

Want to get started?

Just contact us whenever you’re ready to stop trying to fit in and are eager to start standing out.