Being a Founder is extremely rewarding. Bringing your ideas to life, making a positive impact in the world, and empowering those around you to thrive, are only some of the wonders of leading as a High Achieving Empathic Giver. On the entrepreneurial path, every day is a new exciting adventure.
Performing at this level also means dealing with multiple challenges on a daily basis. We have experienced it first-hand during our 20 years of helping 1000+ Founders, CEOs, and investors thrive as High Achievers. Life as a Founder can often feel like driving a Formula One car while playing simultaneous chess with eight different opponents, whose only job is to focus on a single game.
Committing to a lifestyle with such a high level of intensity, where each decision you make has a significant impact, means that your wellbeing and alignment are some of your most precious assets.
Join us in the first piece of our article series to discover the game-changing habits that will help you protect and cultivate your body and your mind, creating a positive ripple effect on your journey as a Founder.
Designing a Routine That Strengthens Your Performance
To thrive and continuously peak your performance, it is essential to create an environment where your mind and body can excel. Shielding yourself from any external, unnecessary negativity will allow you to stay in top form and alignment as you face challenges that involve dealing with various levels of difficulties.
It is a matter of being intentional in designing your life and habits to cut out any form of toxicity while cultivating your mind positively – making a point of minimizing anything that doesn’t add to your purpose and values. Creating peace and stability, so as you step into the Formula One car, you can make sure to be completely present and focused.
An essential factor in keeping a peaceful and calm mind is connected to how you begin and end your days. These are the times where you can allow yourself to feel, think, and reflect on anything that’s on your mind. These are often the times of the day that you can dedicate to taking care of yourself holistically as a human.
As soon as the day starts, there will be messages, notifications, and news trying to get a piece of your attention. So, before diving in, consider starting the day with your phone on flight mode. This will allow you to have an uninterrupted time and space with yourself and get ready to begin the day with groundedness, focus, and intention. Your routine should incorporate the habits that best contribute to your alignment and self-reflection, which can include meditating, journaling, and working out.
The closing to your day is also a key moment to nourish your personal alignment. One of the key factors is not to overlook the significance of sleep: getting an adequate amount and quality of rest is essential for staying sharp, bright, and bringing out your potential. But to ensure good rest, it is important to be in a positive headspace before hitting the pillow. Not having anything from the day lingering and potentially even setting an intention to sleep well can help you achieve a higher quality rest.
Additionally, it is beneficial to include a reminder of your purpose in your daily routine. It can be in any form that resonates with you: a meaningful token, a piece of music, a phrase, a small ritual. The essence is to stay in touch with the things that deeply matter to you. Reconnecting with your sense of why you’re doing what you’re doing can provide a great boost of energy. As a complement to this habit, you can also make a point of setting intentions for the day that represent your values.
Dedicating Time to Deep Thinking
The Founder’s journey involves multiple dimensions, activities, and skillsets. One of the challenges is switching between leading, executing, and working strategically from moment to moment. Most of these moments will be of action and adrenaline, time to execute and to make things happen. But this action time also needs a counteract of strategizing, which is why the other side of the journey is focused on deep thinking.
You have probably heard about the difference between working “in” your business and working “on” your business. As a high-achieving startup Founder, it is very easy to get caught up working “in” the business: there are always a million things that need to happen, and never enough time or resources to cover them all. Prioritizing time for deep thinking is a matter of creating a space where you can also work “on” the business: connecting the dots, deciding which races and games you are going to take, why they are important, and how everything fits together and contributes to your vision.
Deep thinking sessions can look different for different Founders. Like we mentioned when we covered the untapped potential of workplace flexibility, it is a matter of choosing the environment that best complements your focus and the medium that helps your ideas flow and connect. Sitting down in a buzzing hotel lobby, a warm spot by the ocean, the comfort of your own home, or going for a walk in nature; capturing your ideas in your laptop, with pen and paper, or in voice notes. The key is ensuring that you have a space dedicated to working out where you’re going, the best way to get there is, and of course, why this matters to you.
Nourishing Your Founder's Tribe
Committing to the Founder’s path typically entails unbelievable achievements and wins, alongside intense lows, making for an incredibly rewarding but unconventional lifestyle. This means that, at times, the road can get lonely. This is why it is essential to surround yourself with people who are aligned with you, who understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it, and who support you and empower you to stay in the driver’s seat of your entrepreneurial vision.
As we covered in our previous article, a Founder’s tribe has multiple layers where different people back you up in different ways. The key habit here is to build your tribe, reach out to it when you need support, and contribute back to it.
A good way of starting small is by scheduling monthly check-ins with the members of your tribe, where you can ask them a question, ask for their support on something meaningful, or offer your help. Over time, you can nurture and develop your habit and create quarterly events where you bring your tribe together, like a dinner, a mastermind, or a conversation where you can meet to support each other.
In addition to the cheerleaders, advisors, and various supporters who make up a Founder’s tribe, there is one specific member who can be a game-changer in your journey as a Founder. This is what the next habit is about.
Bonus: Investing in Leveling Up Your Performance
The best athletes in the world typically work with one or several professionals who help them maximize their abilities and achieve greater heights. It is similar for high-achieving Founders, executives, and investors: having their own group of supporters and trainers contributes greatly to inspiring them further, gaining bigger wins, and having insightful guidance through testing crossroads. In this context, there is a key player who can add incredible value to your tribe and radically change the pace of your journey.
The Founder’s Yoda is a professional who simultaneously provides knowledgeable advice on the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. An expert voice who has a thorough understanding of the moving pieces of your culture and company. Your right hand as you decide how to move forward, both in extreme situations and in the everyday life of your company. A soothing voice that you can call in a moment of need for comfort and reassurance, someone who knows how to bring you to your center in stressful moments, and helps you peak your performance as a Founder and CEO. Someone who makes sure you stay in the driver’s seat helps you interpret the road ahead as you are driving fast and skillfully figures out where to go next and why.
The key habit to develop here is to meet your Yoda and work with them on a weekly basis – honing your skills, leveling up, and maximizing your performance and wellbeing, all initiatives that will have a tremendous impact on your company and yourself.
An Expert Voice by Your Side
As the architect of high-impact initiatives, it is essential to look after yourself by designing routines that complement your work and align with your values and purpose. The key piece of wisdom here is that good habits will be there to serve you in challenging periods. When you build good habits during the smoother parts of the road, it will be much easier to strengthen and benefit from them when you really need them.
Your Founder’s Yoda can be a pivotal contributor to this level-up. By designing personalized tools, techniques, and resources, your Master Teacher adds value to your personal and professional journey, helping you step into the next level of your performance. Beyond providing expert guidance, this individual gets to know you deeply, is able to identify your strengths and areas of development and understands how they connect to your pursuits and your mission.
Founder/Executive Coaching At a Glance
Have you ever wished to have Yoda by your side, helping you choose between the million paths ahead?
Have you ever wanted a co-founder to magically appear to help you make the hard decisions that keep you up all night? Have you ever wanted someone to do for you what you do for everyone else? Someone who sees your potential and has your back?
These are just some of the ways Therése has been described by her founder and C-level clients on the journey they have taken together, as she made sure they received the support they needed.
Therése has been empowering High Achieving individuals for 20 years through her transformative change programs where everything is done with a purpose.
Each journey starts with a first step based on your dreams and goals.
So the question is, whom do you wish was on your side, as you make your way through your own hero’s journey?
