As some of you may already know, I’m in the process of launching my next venture. With this comes all the stressors involved in starting something new. Lawyers, advisors, business plans, execution, pipeline population, making connections, market research et cetera. We all know that part. This particular launch has another level as well. I’m faced with the exit from my current employer and doing so in a way that leaves them running smoothly without my particular set of skills which we’ve sold for the past few months. I made commitments and intend to meet them, regardless of my own plans.

As one might imagine, life is a bit chaotic on a good day. Tie in the fact that it is summer time, the kids are out of school, and our house is basically a bed and breakfast for lake-goers, and you’ve got a recipe for mental breakdown. You’ve got to find calm or that’s just what happens. These are a few techniques I use to find calm.

Get a “sweaty hobby”
It doesn’t matter what it is, it just matters that you truly enjoy doing it and it involves physical activity. The combination of physical activity and the time needed away from your job create a calming effect on me that lasts for days after the outing. My current sweat hobbies are wake boarding when the weather and family allow and mountain biking. I’m relatively obsessed with each, it’s impossible to work and do either at the same time, and they both require focus and strength to do well… all of which aid in achieving that “calm” I keep talking about.

Get up early.
I’m not sure why everyone is so afraid of mornings. Yes it takes a little discipline to train yourself to get up when the alarm goes off, but its not the end of the world. I wake up every day around 5am and hit the ground running. It took a little training while in the corporate world, but has paid off hugely over the years.

I realized one day that my productivity dropped considerably as soon as anyone else got into the office. I just started going in earlier and earlier every day. Those hours before 9am were when I got the work of the day done. I kept the inbox closed and knocked out my list of “big rocks” for the day, before most had their coffee. Then, no matter what the day threw at me, I’d already achieved something significant that day.

I’ve continued this in my life as an entrepreneur and my home life as well. There’s nothing better to me during the week than my morning ritual, meeting my barista at the door as he unlocks for the day. I knock out what needs to be done. I write. I think about the day. I make lists. I’m calm when I’m done and my day is more manageable.

In my home life, on days off or the weekends, my schedule doesn’t change much. I get up, I read, I do the quieter items on the honey-do list, and a enjoy the quiet of the morning. Its like a little vacation every morning before the minions wake up.

Do Not Disturb, use it.
About a year ago, I set my phone to kill all alerts between 9pm and 6am. iOS folks have the DND which I’m sure they stole from you Android folks. Regardless, its called something similar. Check it out. I’ve set mine to shush my phone a couple of hours before I go to bed and keep it that way until I’ve been up for at least an hour. I still get emails, texts, and social posts but I have to actively seek them out. The lack of noise is a great way to wind down from the day. You might like it as much as I did, and turn notifications off completely for a lot of your phone. Silence is golden and the calm follows close behind.

Moderation is your friend.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not the guy to preach sobriety. I’ve liked to drink for a long time and it has caused me a considerable amount of hardship through the years, leading to this most recent life change I’m working on every day.

Tying one on after a rough day on the job is comfortable. Its a quick way to a temporary calm. If you’re lucky, you wake up hung over, you’re sick for half the day, you learn your lesson, and you’re better the next day. If you’re me, you drink all night, feel fine the next day, but your brain is cloudy and the number of sh#ts you give for the day is greatly decreased. You put off things that could have been handled, take a long lunch, and generally don’t have much focus. This compounds the problems of the previous day and chaos stacks up like a traffic jam behind your own blegh mental state.

Resist the urge, see step one, and after a couple of days you’ll have the bulk of the chaos sorted out.

My Disclaimer
I hope something I’ve mentioned here helps you out. At the end of the day, I’m no expert and I only have my own experiences to share. These are a few of the things that keep me sane through the stresses of major life change. All I can do is report on what works. A man in my small group gave me some great advice that is his mantra. “Try not to be stupid the same way twice.” These pointers help me make that attempt.

Stay sane and get out there. Your idea is waiting to change the world. You’ve just got to do it.

~jt