There’s a quote from Dale Carnegie I have taped to my desk:

If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.

The business owners I know  generally have a pretty good handle on worry. By their very nature, they are risk-takers. Even though worry comes with the territory, it’s easy enough to be calculative and compartmentalize in order to do what needs doing.  Not to mention, if you’re not a naturally energetic, positive and enthusiastic person, you probably won’t last in business very long anyway, and these personality traits alone are a pretty solid weapon at combating worry and uncertainty.

But, not all the time.

Most of us tend to worry when there’s a slowdown in the business cycle. Even though we know it’s coming and have planned accordingly … even though we know the team needs a little “quiet” time to regroup after an intense growth spurt … even though we know history has shown time and time again that the slowdown is temporary…

It’s still enough to make any business owner’s confidence falter, even just a little bit.

But, everyone has to find their own way through the mental ruts that sneak up on all of us. That day when you wake up, look at the to-do list, and would rather nail your toes to the floor than do half the crap on it. You’re tired and uninspired, and you’re the first one out the door if someone suggests … well … anything, really, to avoid running the month’s cash-flow report or attending one more networking event.

For me, a mental slump sometimes hits after we’ve had a fantastic run of new business, some record-breaking revenue months, and when there’s been  a lot of  “…Kickin’ ass and takin’ names!…” flying around the office. Then, inevitably, things slow down a little.  I’m tired, ornery about the boring day-to-day stuff it takes to run a business, and am especially vulnerable to even the slightest discouragement.

It doesn’t jive very well with my generally upbeat, positive, sassy nature,  so I flop around like a fish out of water for a little while, spending too much time in my own head. I start to worry about ridiculous things, like how long I’d be able to live on a diet of Spam and ramen noodles, or where on earth I’d put all my clothes if I had to live out of my car, or wondering if the kid who cuts my lawn is hiring.

Wallowing around in a slimy pile of negative mental goo is the death rattle for any small-business owner, so we fight like the dickens to hold onto the energy, enthusiasm and motivation that got us started in the first place. We are also driven by a little bit of fear… fear that if we don’t get out of the sticky mess of pessimist poo, our business dies.

So, we start moving forward again. We slow down to speed up. We get back to basics and do the things we know will bring in new (and better!) business, we tighten a few purse strings, we maybe sacrifice a little bit of our personal lives to get things back on track.

We surround ourselves with our own personal motivators. I like to spend time visualizing the future, read business mags loaded with ideas, reconnect with old friends from my professional circle, go through daily affirmations, or get caught up in a fun creative project. (Want some other ideas? Check out this post on how to “eat uncertainty for lunch.”)

Then, as expected, we gain some momentum and once again find ourselves in another growth spurt.  Pretty soon, everyone is kickin’ ass and takin’ names once again.

I’ve been running across quite a few blog posts lately that tap into this fundamental issue that plagues every small business owner – falling into a mental rut and the uncertainty about what the hell we’re doing that follows. (Here’s one post on ways to get out of a slump, and another one on dealing with fear.) How do you get yourself through the mental slump that rears its ugly head once in awhile?