You Can’t Pour From an Empty Cup. Taking Care of Yourself as a First Time Founder
Taking care of yourself as a founder is something you need to take seriously and prioritise.
If you don’t, your mental and physical health will suffer, eventually leading to burnout. When the founder burns out, the business follows.
When you prioritise taking care of yourself as a founder, everything else will be in much better shape.
Unfortunately, many first-time founders get swept up in the “hustle” culture of fifteen-hour days, seven days a week. This is not sustainable.
I’ve realised over the past 3 years that I needed to take better care of myself as a priority. Here are some things that have worked for me:
1: Find your “Out of Office”
You have to take time away from work. Go out for a long walk. Reconnect with nature and be active. Nature is an incredibly calming and inspiring place to get lost. Whenever I return from time with nature, my ideas are much clearer and creativity flows. Nature will do that for you.
2: Calming the Mind
It’s so easy to get swept up in the worries of the past, fixate on the future, and spend every waking hour working through your backlog of priorities. If you find yourself here, pause and breath.
Explore the practice of guided meditation. Mediation is something that will bring you complete focus back to the present moment, while removing the worries of the past and distractions of the future.
3: Detach from the Tech
Sure, social media plays a valuable role in networking. However, it plays a more detrimental role in distorting reality. You can lose hours scrolling through people’s perfect lives and accomplishments. Don’t do that!
Turn off notifications on your mobile and limit the need to have your work apps on your phone. Constantly checking emails and Slack channels results in increased anxiety, shallow work and diminishing returns.
4: Surround Yourself with the Right People
Focus on assembling a small group of great people who you can delegate work to, share worries with, and lean on for an honest perspective. These people are those you trust most and who see vulnerability as a strength. Emphasis on small groups, as everyone has an opinion.
Take care and go build.
