Why This Weight Feels Different Than “Normal” Stress

If starting a business feels heavier than you expected, let’s pause here for a moment.

I’m not talking about feeling busier, and I’m not talking about things feeling more difficult.

But rather the feeling of carrying a backpack you didn’t realize was full of bricks.

This is the kind of weight you feel when you’re deep in thought.

This weight also lingers when you’re “not working”, and it makes simple decisions feel oddly exhausting.

Many new entrepreneurs assume feeling the weight means they’re incompetent.

But that’s rarely what it is.

What they’re experiencing is the mental load of holding the weight of their business.

This is one of the core reasons we focus so heavily on entrepreneurial fitness — because before strategy or scaling, the entrepreneur needs enough internal capacity and structure to support what they’re trying to build.

Mental Load Isn’t the Work Itself — It’s the Lingering Things

When people talk about entrepreneurship being “difficult,” they usually point to the visible tasks such as:

• Creating offers
• Making decisions
• Learning new skills
• Putting yourself out there

But the real drain doesn’t come from having to do the work itself.

The drain comes from everything your mind is holding that hasn’t been externalized, clarified, or designed yet, such as:

• Unclear roles
• Obligations that haven’t been scheduled
• Dilemmas that still need to be settled
• Ideas that haven’t been examined

Your brain becomes the storage unit for the entire business. And research on decision fatigue and cognitive load shows that this kind of constant background processing significantly increases mental exhaustion, even when the actual workload hasn’t increased.

And this storage is cluttered and heavy.

Why Purpose-Driven Entrepreneurs Feel This Even More

The mental load is often higher for business owners who care deeply about what they’re building.

You’re not just asking:

1. “Will this work?”

You’re wrestling with other thoughts:

• “Does this align with my mission?”
• “Is this responsible?”
• “Am I building this the right way?”
• “What will happen if I make a mistake?”

That extra layer of care adds cognitive weight.

These are responsible questions.


But the problem is responsible thinking can be uncontained and out of control.

A Personal Example: When a Decision Isn’t Fully Formed, the Load Multiplies

Years into my career as a CPA, I reached a point where I wanted to specialize and develop a niche.

On paper, this should have been straightforward.


In my case, it became mentally exhausting.

Industry niches felt saturated.


So I explored service-based niches instead.


I even joined a group of other CPA’s who were trying to reshape their practices in similar ways.

I thought I had found a direction. But without clarity to support it, every step afterwards felt unstable.


Nothing locked into place.


What I expected was a structure, a plan, and a way forward.

What I felt instead was more mental weight.

The issue wasn’t from lack of trying or my brain checking out.

It was because my chosen direction was only partially formed — I hadn’t designed my decision into something concrete enough to rely on.


Eventually, I abandoned that niche entirely - not because it was a bad idea, but because there were too many jumbled questions still lurking. My mind was carrying too much, and the direction lacked the clarity needed to move forward.

That experience helped to shape how I understand entrepreneurial mental load today.

The Real Source of the Weight: Undesigned Decisions

Here’s what rarely gets said plainly:

Mental load doesn’t come from decisions not being made. It comes from carrying decisions that appear to be made, but haven’t yet been designed into clear, usable structures your brain can trust.

An undesigned decision lacks one or more of the following:

• Definition (What exactly does this mean in practice?)
• Boundaries (When does this apply, and when doesn’t it?)
• Ownership (Who or what role handles this?)
• Criteria (How do I know if I’m doing this correctly?)
• Repeatability (Can I follow this decision again without rethinking it?)

Until those exist, the decision remains cognitively “open.”

When open decisions stay active in the mind, the brain doesn’t rest.

These thoughts resurface while you’re:

• Making dinner
• Trying to sleep
• Answering unrelated emails
• Playing with your toddler

This is why “just push through” doesn’t apply.


You’re tired not because you’re weak, but because there’s too much data lurking in your brain.

Your brain is made to act like an operating system.

Why Career Transitions Make This Worse

If you’re transitioning from a role that uses solid structure — teaching, corporate work, healthcare, accounting — you’re losing something you might not realize you’ve been relying on:

External reference points.

Clear roles.


Defined expectations.


Built-in decision rules.

When you no longer have access to these reference points, your mind has to recreate them from scratch — while also learning how to build a business.

This becomes a challenge of architecture, and not just about mindset.

Why the Beginning Is the Heaviest Phase

It is believed by many that the most mentally demanding stage of entrepreneurship is during scaling or growth. In some cases, that’s true.

But most often, the most mentally demanding stage is at the very beginning.

This is because:

• You have yet to standardize
• You have yet to automate
• You have yet to design clear structures
• You have yet to fully “own” your designs

Your body feels this before your mind fully acknowledges it.

This comes in the form of tight shoulders, mental fatigue, and a sense of carrying something you can’t quite name.

That’s your nervous system responding to uncertainty without containment.

The Mistake That Keeps People Stuck

When new entrepreneurs get stuck, they often interpret their situation as follows:

“Other entrepreneurs make it look so easy. But it’s feeling so heavy, so there must be something wrong with me.”

So they:

• Try harder
• Consume more information
• Push longer hours
• Question their capability

These “solutions” are highly damaging because they don’t address the real issue.

Mental load is not a personal deficiency. It can happen to the brightest, capable people.


Mental load is the predictable cost of trying to build something before proper systems exist to support it.

How to Reduce the Load

Relief doesn’t come from trying to re-motivate yourself.

Relief comes from putting the necessary structure in place.

Here are some examples:

• Name roles instead of hypothesizing them
• Design decisions instead of constantly revisiting them
• Build foundations before trying to nail down your strategy

This is why business foundations for entrepreneurs matter so deeply — especially early on in your startup journey.

It’s not always the reduction of work that brings relief. When you increase structure, the mental weight eases (even if the workload stays the same).

This is because your mind is no longer holding what the foundation of your business can hold, instead.

A Gentle Invitation Forward

If you’ve been wondering why starting your business feels heavier than you expected, let’s reframe what you’re probably thinking:

FROM: “I’m failing.”


TO: “I started to carry something that needed to be developed further.”

At Ready Set Grow, we focus on entrepreneurial fitness — not hustle, not hype, but the mindset, structure, and confidence that allow a business to sit outside your head instead of inside it.

If this article put words to something you’ve been feeling but couldn’t explain, this is your first step to awareness.

And once you are aware, you will have a much better chance of finding relief.

👉 If you’d like design clarity instead of carrying weight, you may want to explore how entrepreneurial mindset training and structured foundations can change the way this journey actually feels day to day.


You don’t need to hold it all alone.