It really depends on your problem and the situation your in. Sometimes you cant, there are some nagging problems that can not be left and should not be ignored.

It really depends on your problem and the situation your in. Sometimes you cant, there are some nagging problems that can not be left and should not be ignored. I guess these things are more along the side of family and health (for me anyway). You shouldnt start a startup if you have to address family or serious health problems with you or anyone close because they need your full attention. However for any other problem, girlfriend issues, money problems, loss of friends, yes they are hard but can be overcome with strong will. It depends on your priority, i value family and health over anything else so i can choose to ignore the others if i need to focus. Im really close to finishing my startup now after about a solid 1 year of un relenting work, curve balls and problems, with day job, with startup and other things personal. During the last year i could probably say that i faced 3 problems that were quite difficult to ignore however they did not directly concern my health and not directly my family (god bless) so i keep going. There are 24 hours in the day and you just need to tell yourself that after 3 hours of getting angry or wollowing or whatever you do, it gets you no where, but 3 hours of work gets you a step closer to how you see yourself in the future which can also be something you value. You can even trick yourself into thinking that where you see yourself in the future is a future you without some of the problems you may be having now. The approach i guess is to take a completly robotic and logical approach and kind of dehumanize some aspects that arent that important cause if you let everything get to you then you wont get anything done, not even the basic day to day things. The side effect of this is if you dont make it (even though you poured everything in) you need to be ready so you get into a state of depression. Its all about iron will , specially when life throws you curve balls. Good thing is, if you get through it, you will become a much stronger person. Having said that, take time off once in a while cause even though i take a robotic approach (as sometimes its the only way) im not a robot :)