This is not the entrepreneurial mindset I enjoyed this week.  I started my week doing my faithful, what I like to call “community service”.  I checked out all the great posts of my blogging friends and post comments and retweets to get myself into the groove.  I immediately learned that on my own blog, my retweets weren’t retweeting and my simple face book plugin was far more complicated than it should have been.  Even my commentluv posts failed to link back to my post because, apparently, my commentluv program had to be updated.  Who would guess?

With my entrepreneurial mindset clutched firmly in my grasp, I bravely contacted my plugin vendors for help, only to find my passwords were wrong (of course I had failed to write them down anywhere since I “knew” I couldn’t possibly ever need them again, or … that my memory is so astounding that I’d certainly recall them when put on notice).  We’ve all lost passwords, though, so I courageously entered my emails and requested permission to reset them.  But my emails weren’t registered.  What?  Registered? Nobody ever… wait, I’m an independent entrepreneur.  I need to think of these things myself.  But come on, register my plugins?  This was insane.  Who ever heard… but I digress.

I put out a distress message to Kimberly Castleberry, my favorite, endlessly giving and always spot on technical expert and… in time, all will be well.

So, turn to my Pay Per Click campaigns instead.  A strong entrepreneurial mindset requires that we roll with the punches, endure the valleys as we relish the peaks… yaddy yaddy yaddah.  So I simply rolled up my sleeves and started putting my Google Adwords campaigns together until I learned that Google didn’t recognize my account information and I had to start a new one.  I can deal with it.

Turns out Google also was aghast at the configuration of my capture pages and I was best advised to create sub domains for their URLs, but… the sub domains would, at best, reduce my quality scores to levels that would keep my brilliant keyword campaigns from ever reaching any of those craving eyeballs.  Off to build a custom domain, except I wasn’t sure how to actually apply that to the technological system I’m utilizing so I had to put out an “Urgent” support ticket for direction on that process.  Three days later, the matter was resolved.

Oh, did I mention… by that time the week was pretty much shot, along with my nerves.  I couldn’t do a single video what with pulling my hair out all week I looked afright, so much that my dog wouldn’t stay in bed with me on those rare occasions when I made it to that forgotten repose.  My computer was still intact, despite my waves of threats to dash it against the sharpest corner of the wall.  But it hardly helped any since in the middle of my most critical webinar of the week, it totally froze.  No reason.  It just froze.

Did I also mention that I have some nice little investment properties.  This week I had to pay a plumber over $200 to unclog a toilet, the oil company over $300 for an emergency heating fuel delivery, some guy I don’t know $150 to install a new doorknob so the tenants could stop climbing in and out of their window and… Oh I didn’t have to pay the electrician.  He still hasn’t showed up after 6 phone calls and the tenant still can’t watch TV in the living room or open his garage door (one of those convenient remote control ones!).

Back to my entrepreneurial mindset, and roll with the punches and never give up and on and on.  I really couldn’t figure out ANYTHING of value that I could offer to my readers this week, in terms of incredible learning or inspiring vignettes.  So this is what you get.

I struggled with which category to put it in… seems to have little to do with internet marketing, social media or blogging per se.  So I put it in the Health category.  I don’t really have one for mental health.

Yet we all come from different places, have different dreams and have varying degrees of health, or lack of it. I know several among our number that suffer from both diagnosed and sub-clinical levels of depression . That is, while they may or may not be actually diagnosed as depressed , they intermittently suffer from the ability to jump into action on a marketing plan or to network easily with their fellow entrepreneurs.

This lack of action and involvement is often perceived as laziness or lack of resolution. In fact, most people suffering from these diagnosed or sub-clinical maladies retract frequently into episodes of low self-esteem and self-judgment that further hinder their ability to take effective action.

This syndrome is only exacerbated when they are cast among characters who seemingly have no limit to their enthusiasm and action-oriented, full steam ahead marketing campaigns.

Najla Husseini, in a Vanderbilt University paper titled “Exercise and Depression” (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/exercise_and_depression.htm), cites many studies that relate the benefits of exercise for the depressed. Neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin and beta-endorphins are increased during exercise, leading many to the euphoria knows commonly as “runner’s high”. Whether or not you are depressed, then, exercise is certainly a great benefit to all of us busy-to-the-bones entrepreneurs.

So take time from your tasks, get out of your chair each day and get a little wild: run, swim, lift weights, walk. Do what you can within your specific abilities and/or limitations.

Discuss your exercise protocol with your doctor to be sure you are working out safely. In any case, don’t get too wild: Husseini’s article cites at least one source indicating that mild forms of exercise are typically more beneficial than more aggressive forms which… go figure… are stressful in their physical over-reach.

While exercise is not considered a treatment for depression at any level, it certainly appears to be a mood and self-esteem enhancer that could be pivotal to the entrepreneur suffering from depression. Even if you are not suffering from these maladies, exercise is still a natural mood enhancer that can leave you feeling more energetic and up to the challenges of running your business or enterprise. It seems especially beneficial to infuse techniques such as visualization, controlled breathing and deep stretching while exercising. I personally find it a great time to focus on affirmations that I am currently working with.

If you think that this is a problem not warranting your serious consideration, Husseini points out that one of five people suffer from depression at one time or another. You are, therefore, likely to encounter people among your teammates, clients and fellow entrepreneurs who suffer from one form of depression or another. It would be good to withhold judgment, and approach them with patience and empathy. Depressed entrepreneurs can, in fact, be as successful as the prolific author William Styron who describes the depth of this problem in his short but eye-opening book, “Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness”.