Hi there, Lisa here. Before we start the show, I have a few disclaimers that I would like for you to keep in mind, as you listen to each Episode. First, this show will cover a variety of topics related to connection, mental health, work, & life; & some of these topics may be sensitive for you or someone you know. I want to offer you permission to choose courage over comfort when it comes to consuming sensitive content; & also, permission to respect your own limits when it comes to consuming this content which may be sensitive for you. I also need to indicate that while I am a licensed therapist, I am not your therapist. This show is not intended to be direct professional advice & you should not use this as a substitute for individualized, professional help. Lastly, while I can assure you that any of the coachable or teachable content I share will have demonstrated effectiveness – & are practices I use myself – I can also assure you that I am imperfect & there are times when I do not act as skillfully, as I would have liked. My goal is to act skillfully, most of the time; & I very much want that for you, too! Now, with that said, let’s start the show.

Hello & welcome to Wired to Connect, the startup mental health podcast that keeps you going every week, with our easily digestible lessons, skills, & stories, that you can put into practice immediately. I’m your host, your coach, your teacher, Lisa Birnbaum; I’m also a social worker, a therapist, & the Co-Founder of Strengths Squared: a therapy, coaching, & consulting practice, for startup founders & their teams, that I started with my wife & Co-Founder in 2021. The learnings we are sharing here, come from a combination of the lived experiences of the startup founders & startup team members we’ve worked with over the years, from our own lived experiences, & from research-backed strategies, too. And we are so excited to be able to share these insights here, with all of you now. In today’s episode, we’ll be discussing. . .

How to use your biology, your psychology, & your sociology to your advantage, at work. I’m going to use the term “smart work” to talk about how we work. And I’m going to use the term “hard work” to talk about the amount of time we spend working. Sometimes, we need to make changes to both, how we are working, & the amount of time we are working, in order to be effective. Often though, making these changes does not need to be a 50-50 split. So, before you start thinking about spending more time on your work, what if I told you you could utilize your biology, your psychology, & your sociology, to work smarter with the time you already have? Well, you actually can! Smart work is doing the right work, at the right time, in the right way. Essentially, it means, working effectively. And those of us who are able to do this consistently, experience so-many-positives, as a result. Working more effectively with the time we already have means we spend less of our other time unproductively ruminating, or feeling guilty about not getting our work done & then beating ourselves up about it, or getting caught in an anxiety-filled spiral of analysis paralysis where we can’t seem to move forward & instead, find ourselves mindlessly scrolling social media. When we don’t need to pour our energy into these ineffective ways of working, we have so-much-more-energy to 1) give back to ourselves during the times we are working, 2) engage in what we actually want to be doing during times we are not working, & 3) cultivate meaningful connections with the people in our lives & in our communities. When our energy levels are stabilized throughout the day – instead of feeling totally drained – we often take better care of ourselves, physically. We get sick less often, we make wiser choices when it comes to eating nutritious foods & avoiding drugs & alcohol, we improve our sleep hygiene, & we exercise or move our bodies more consistently. We’re also more likely to take better care of the physical space we’re working from by acknowledging & honoring what we need from a workspace, to be able to do our best work. When done consistently, each of the practices I just noted – which we are now much more likely to continue – have also been shown to help us effectively regulate our emotions! And, Emotion Regulation skills are a key component to taking better care of ourselves, emotionally, as well! Additionally, when we learn to work smarter – by intentionally working on the specified work we set out to do, at the specified time we set aside for it, in the specified way that is best for us – we begin building mastery over this set of skills. Building Mastery is a concept where we are intentionally learning something new – that is a bit outside of our comfort zone – stretching ourselves & intentionally, putting it into practice. Something that is at first, enough of a reach, & enough of a challenge – that we don’t feel bored by it, or like we’re already doing it on autopilot – while not being so incredibly challenging that we feel overwhelmed by it. Building Mastery is a skill that has also demonstrated effectiveness in helping us regulate our emotions. And – as I mentioned a moment ago – Emotion Regulation skills are a key component to taking better care of ourselves, emotionally. When we work on this Building Mastery skill – by consistently getting our reps in & building these muscles – this inherently feels good, is super-motivating, & creates a positive feedback loop that our brains want to repeat. We become someone who can consistently be counted on – by ourselves & by others – to do what we say we’re going to do, when we say we’re going to do it, in the way that works best for us. This is what builds confidence.

So much of this is interconnected. I’m going to break all of this down for you in today’s episode. So, let’s get into it; let’s make some meaningful connections!

Support for today’s show comes from our very own, Strengths Squared. What if you really knew the type of startup founder you are, or the type of future-startup founder you are likely to become? Would it change your trajectory? Would you do anything differently? Well now you can better answer these questions for yourself, by taking the quiz we created, specifically for startup founders and future-startup founders. In 10, pinpoint questions, you’ll identify your leadership strengths, as well as your opportunities for growth. At the end, you’ll see which type of startup founder you are – or which type of future-startup founder you are likely to become – so that you can move forward with the clarity, courage, and confidence to ensure that your type is working for you, rather than against you. Just head to: strengthssquared.com/quiz to take the first step toward being the best startup founder you can be. That’s s-t-r-e-n-g-t-h-s-s-q-u-a-r-e-d-dot-com-forward-slash-quiz, and we can’t wait to hear which type of startup founder you are!

Okay, so how then, can we work smarter with the time we already have? Essentially, how can we ensure we are working more effectively; meaning, we are doing the right work, at the right time, in the right way? I’m going to give you 8 recommendations:

Value Your Time & Others’ Time: I am not kidding when I say that time is our most valuable & precious resource. It is not infinite & we can’t invent more of it. Do not create – or exacerbate – a work culture where unnecessary meetings take place & where everyone is expected to respond all-of-the-time. I may decide to do a separate Episode about setting expectations around this. For now though, if you are a Founder, an Executive, or in a position of Leadership, it is up to you to Lead by example. Decide on some criteria that need to exist, in order to hold a meeting. Asynchronous communication tools exist for a reason, & in my opinion – when they’re used as intended – they are quite useful! Instead of using them during times when you weren’t actually intending to work, as a way of always being connected – which, essentially, just turns them into synchronous communication tools – try using them during times when you are intending to work. So, use these tools whenever your criteria for holding a meeting are not met; & set expectations around response times, so that we can all stop defaulting to the often mistaken belief that we need to respond immediately!

Protect Your Attention: In addition to the many internal triggers that distract us, there is no shortage of external pings & dings competing for our attention, either. And, social platforms – which are also constantly vying for our attention – & are built to give us repeated hits of dopamine – are external distractions for us to contend with, too. Having a toolkit with a few, accessible, Mindfulness practices is definitely what I recommend for effectively handling any type of mind-wandering or internal distraction. I’ll be sure to teach all about Mindfulness – & its utility – on a future Wired to Connect Episode. For now though, let’s be sure you have at least created an environment for effectively handling the countless external distractions you may encounter. There is absolutely no shame in implementing an Environmental Intervention here – that’s just, ‘therapist speak’, for setting up your environment for success – and there are excellent tools that can help with this. I know some founders & future-founders who like the web-based app, Self Control, which blocks a list of websites that you choose for a set period of time. I know others who ask a trusted person to set a new passcode on their smartphones each day. I know some who remove social media sites from their phones & some who remove tools like Slack from their computers. I know some who use the “Set App Limits” or the “Do Not Disturb” or the “Focus” features on their phones & some who use the “Do Not Disturb” feature on their computers. This last one is a personal favorite of mine, & one that I use daily. I’m also highly selective about which “push notifications” I allow on my phone. My main point here is, figure out what will work for you to protect your attention. And don’t worry so much about finding the ‘perfect’ tool. The ‘perfect’ tool – if that even exists – will actually be the one that you use consistently. I’ll be sure to discuss the importance of being aware of perfectionistic tendencies on a future Episode of Wired to Connect, as well. For now though, my suggestion here is to find one tool – that seems helpful enough – & start using it!

Learn to Prioritize, Effectively: If our goal here is to work on the right work, at the right time, and in the right way, how do we determine what that work is & when to work on it? Before getting to this point, it’s necessary for everyone to understand & align on a roadmap – as a whole – before prioritizing as an individual. Different teams will surely have different priorities AND these different priorities really need to be discussed openly, and not in silos. I’ve seen – far too many times – Eng. Teams & other Teams feeling that sense of ‘whiplash’ that comes when priorities previously agreed upon are abruptly changed & these new priorities now need to be addressed, without any solid understanding that accounts for the change. Also, it can be fairly easy to get distracted by any ‘shiny, new, object’ that comes your way; & so, it pays to be aware of this. By all means, if pivoting on a previously agreed upon roadmap is necessary, understand why you are pivoting, & pivot. The ‘shiny, new, objects’ I’m referring to don’t fall into the ‘necessary-to-pivot’ category; & instead, are seemingly exciting – maybe even innovative – things that pull your focus from what you’re working on, with a misleading sense of urgency; that actually, wind up distracting you & taking you off track. Believe me, I know how tempting it can be to follow these ‘shiny, new, objects’. It takes courage, discipline, & perspective to know that following that ‘shiny, new, object’ – while it might feel advantageous in the short-term – will absolutely, not be useful in the long-term, or in any sustainable way. So, when you find yourself thinking, “What should I do now?”, “What could I do now?”, & “What would I like to do now?”, my recommendation is to find a system that works for you & that you can stick to. Personally, I really like using the Eisenhower Matrix, which, – you can feel free to Google for more info – essentially, is a 2 X 2 Grid that can be used to delineate work according to its “Urgency” & “Importance”. In the first box labeled, “Urgent & Important”, anything I include in this box becomes work that needs to be handled now, & needs to be handled by me. In the next box labeled, “Urgent & Not Important”, anything I include in this box becomes work that needs to be handled now, & may not need to be handled by me. What I do need to do here now though, is I need to delegate any work that is in this box to one or more people who are equipped to handle it. In the next box labeled, “Not Urgent & Important”, anything I include in this box becomes work that can be handled later, & needs to be handled by me. What I do need to do here now though, is I need to determine when specifically, I will handle this work. And in the last box labeled, “Not Urgent & Not Important”, anything I include in this box becomes work that gets deleted or eliminated completely. The Eisenhower Matrix – which I just went through, briefly – works really well when used openly & by the whole Team. Whether you use the Eisenhower Matrix or something else to help you prioritize, effectively, again, my recommendation is to find a system that works for you & is one that you can stick to.

Make Time For Daily Reflection: We really can’t make progress without reflection. We all need to consistently reflect on the work we’re doing, in order to identify ways that we can work differently. Reflecting on where we’re at right now, provides us with the ability to see clearly, things like whether there’s any work that needs reprioritizing, or whether there’s something about our work environment that needs optimizing. And as organizational development & management-renowned American author-consultant, Peter Drucker is-quoted-as-saying, “What gets measured, gets managed”. Journaling is actually an extremely effective tool for reflecting & for understanding whether you are improving in ways you want to improve. And, there are many ways to utilize Journaling. Some people love it, some people hate it. In my experience, those who say they hate it almost always have not actually given it a chance, & simply, hate the idea of it. What I can say though is, whether you love the idea, hate the idea, or fall somewhere in between, it has demonstrated effectiveness & has been positively correlated with improved self-awareness, improved emotional literacy & overall mental health, & improved ability to change patterns & behaviors. So, I recommend giving it a try, daily, for at least 3 weeks; before deciding it’s not helpful, or, is not for you. What do you have to lose? Okay so, in terms of getting started with Journaling, or, if you’re looking to tweak your practice a bit, my recommendations are to first, get one of those 6-inch, 100-page handy notebooks, something like a Moleskine, that can easily be carried with you, or kept on your nightstand. If you want to go digital, go digital later. Next, on the first page, write down your top 10, most important, life goals. These goals should represent some sort of destination, where you can feel like you’ve won. It’s really important to be reminded of this, & so, I want you to read this list over, every single day. Next, choose a 20-30 minute block of time, & try to also choose a consistent day & time, for you to use for Journaling each day, & actually schedule it on your calendar. If it’s not there – especially, in the beginning – it just isn’t going to get done. Next, at your chosen Journaling time, set a timer for 20-30 minutes. You can always adjust this time later if you want more or less time. Start your Journaling practice by reading over your top 10, most important, life goals, which you wrote down on the first page. Again, I want you to read these over every single day, so that these goals remain front & center in your mind. Read each one slowly, & allow yourself to pause & visualize each one, before moving on to the next. Then, on each subsequent page of your Journal, I recommend starting with 3 distinct parts to your daily entry, which will basically, serve as your reflection on the previous 24 hours. These 3 parts are: 1) a very practical catalog of what you did throughout the previous 24 hours (work & non-work). Be very honest about how you spent your time; 2) a short phrase/paragraph about how you felt the previous 24 hours went, as a whole. This allows you to keep track of your mood & how you felt on a daily basis, have a record to reflect back on, & identify changes you want to make; & 3) an answer to the question, “Did my actions/behaviors today, help move me closer to reaching the goals I identified on page one of my Journal?” I need to be really honest with myself here, & if the answer is “no”, I need to write that down, in order to be aware of it & to make a change the following day, or as close in time as possible. I have found – & I know many others have found, too – that having this self-accountability is incredibly powerful! It allows me to say to myself, “Hey, Lisa, you said these 10 goals are what’s most important in your life/what success looks like to you. So, why are you doing things that pull you away from them? And, when the answer is “yes”, this also helps build my confidence, because I learn I can trust & count on myself! And then, if I have 7 “yes” days in a row, I do something small that I find enjoyable, that I don’t routinely do, & I do it intentionally as a reward. I’m not someone who gets regular massages, for example, but I do enjoy them; so, I’ll sometimes, schedule one, after having 7 “yes” days in a row, & I intentionally, make note of it, in my brain, that I am doing this, as a reward, to celebrate & recognize that I’m winning! This is incredibly motivating & keeps me going! Either way, whether the answer to this question is “yes” or “no”, being able to identify what went well, what I learned, & where there’s room for improvement is so useful. Honestly, this kind of daily awareness is key to making the next 24 hours better for me, than the previous.

Establish & Maintain a Mentally Healthy, Morning Routine: So much has been written on this topic & I can not overstate its importance. Ariana Huffington & the incredible folks over at Thrive Global have researched, studied, experienced, & written extensively on this, & on its utility – along with good sleep hygiene practices in the evening – for preventing burnout. Perhaps I will do a separate Episode on this topic as well, in the future. For now though, the most important point I want to get across is: Please, do not start your morning with email, chat, messaging, or social media. Allow your body & your mind to first, wake up, & fuel them with practices meant to be energy-producing, well before you start attending to email, chat, messaging, or social media; which, I think most of us by now can agree, can be extremely energy-draining. And remember, as with any new practice – especially those geared toward facilitating high performance – muscle memory & building momentum are important; so, being able to maintain these practices, consistently, will be beneficial. Personally, I have established & maintained my own, mentally healthy morning routine, for years now. I adhere to mine about 95% of the time. And I can promise you, that I do not feel as good, mentally or physically, the 5% of the time I do not adhere.

Embrace Focused, Monotasking: The concept of “multitasking” is really a myth. What we’re actually doing is called “context switching” – going back-&-forth, back-&-forth between tasks – & despite some people believing they are working more efficiently by doing this; in reality, it takes about 20 minutes on average, to get back into the working zone we were in, before switching contexts. That is a lot of minutes we could potentially get back, every single day! Trust me when I say, this concept of “multitasking” – which is really, “context switching” – is not efficient, nor is it focused. It’s also not effective in helping us move forward toward our goals, & is quite taxing on our brains’ cognitive & emotional abilities. Monotasking, on the other hand, – which is basically doing one task at a time, or one thing at any given moment – is one of the core mindfulness skills I teach, & is of course, the exact opposite of trying to multitask. So what does focused monotasking look like in practice? It looks like, timeboxing your day – which is essentially, devoting fixed amounts of time to singularly, focused aspects of your work – & going ‘all in’, on the one thing you are attending to during that fixed amount of time. So, when you’re working on a deck, work on the deck. When you’re in a meeting, be fully present in that meeting. When you’re attending to bugs, or you’re writing a design doc, or you’re reviewing code, do-just-that. Don’t also be checking your phone, writing emails, sending off tweets or scrolling social media, pinging your team, chatting, or sending Slack messages. And similarly, when you’re writing an email – or engaging with any of these other tools – just focus on, reading-and-responding-to-your-email. Again, these tools were intended to be asynchronous forms of communication. There is hardly ever a need for such immediate responses. Very few things in life are truly as urgent as we’ve told ourselves they are. So once I’ve timeboxed my day, I then use two tools in conjunction with each other, to help me launch into focused work, alternating with rest. I use a combination of the Pomodoro Method & Focus Music to achieve this. The first tool I use is The Pomodoro Method, which, – if you’re not aware of – encourages working in 25-minute chunks & then taking a 5-minute break; & after 4 cycles of 25 & 5, then taking a longer break. There are honestly tons of apps out there, based on the Pomodoro Method. The app I use for this is called “PomoDone” (which is spelled p-o-m-o-d-o-n-e, all one word) & it’s available on both, mobile & desktop. For my needs, the free version has been great. Behind a paywall, they have a lot of really good integrations, along with unlimited log access & log sharing, though; & so, one of their Premium Plans might be better suited for startup founders & startup teams. The second tool I use is Focus Music – which is typically, music without words – that removes sound events that would usually grab your attention (this is called ‘salience reduction’); & instead, keeps your mind attentive to what you are working on, & allows the music to sit comfortably in the background, while drowning out background noise. The app I use for this is called “Brain.fm” (which is spelled b-r-a-i-n-.-f-m, all one word) & this too, is available on both, mobile & desktop. This is a paid app – with a free trial that lets you try it out for a few days – & so, I do pay for it, & I absolutely love it.

Make Time For Daily Planning: Okay, so in addition to making time for reflecting on the previous 24 hours in our Journal – which I already discussed – here, we are also making time for mapping out the next 24 hours. Take 10 minutes or so & visualize your upcoming 24 hours, from beginning to end. This is where I use the info I have from my Eisenhower Matrix – which I discussed earlier – or whichever prioritization system works for you to help you separate what you should be doing now, what you could be doing now, & what you would like to be doing now; along with timeboxing – which I also discussed earlier – to create those blocks in my calendar around the type of work I am doing at each hour. For me, I know that if I follow this plan, I’m very likely to have a day I feel good about. The 10 minutes I spend here have a huge payoff. This process of daily planning holds me accountable for the most part, allows me to be thoughtful & intentional about what I am doing with my time – rather than losing track of time – & serves as an important reminder for me to work on one singularly focused task at a time. The best part of all – in my opinion – is that these 10 minutes of planning completely eliminate the need to decide in-the-moment what to work on. I’ve both experienced – & witnessed – a level of stress & overwhelm that can come from having a half-hour block of time between meetings, wanting to get something accomplished during this time, & wasting precious time needing to first decide what to work on. It is so much more effective to decide these things ahead of time, & to save your decision-making energy for the many other important decisions you will need to make throughout the day. Bottom Line, whether you are in a formal Leadership role or not, take 10 minutes to plan out your upcoming day, ahead of time. After planning it out – & unlike, my Journaling recommendation – if you keep a digital calendar, absolutely, input everything for your upcoming 24 hours, onto your digital calendar. Feel free to do this – either at the start of your workday that same day, or at the end of your workday the day prior – in whichever way works best for you. And, don’t forget to schedule everything on your calendar, including this 10 minute block for mapping out the next 24 hours. I’ve experienced this myself – & I’ve heard this said countless times before – if it’s not scheduled & on your calendar, it will not get done! Oh, & believe me, I know how ‘boring’ this can sound. It can sound super-confining to essentially have every hour, of every day, scheduled & accounted for. Just the idea of it, sounds constricting & completely devoid of creativity. In my experience though, ironically, it is having everything planned out & scheduled that actually, allows for the most creative ideas to surface, during specific, delineated times. So, whether you’re in an identified creative role, or whether your role requires creativity – which, honestly, almost every role does, to one degree or another – I want to remind you that planning your day in advance & creativity are not mutually exclusive. They can – & often do, co-exist. And, scheduling your day – even down to the hour – can actually facilitate creativity, not hinder it. And, lastly,

Map Your Day to Your Chronotype: Just like we need to have an awareness of our priorities in our day, we also need to have an awareness of our personal chronotype. Essentially, we all get energy from different types of work & we each have different times during the day when we are most effective. If at all feasible, it is incredibly useful to map your most important work to the time of day when your mind & body have the most energy, the greatest ability to focus, & generally feel the most effective. So, how can we each design a schedule that uses our biology to our advantage; makes the most of our personal, peak focus hours, & maximizes our productivity (without doing more work!)?

All of us have one of three chronotypes:

There’s AM-Shifted: These folks have their biological prime time in the early morning. They are early to bed, early to rise, & are ready for focused work, first thing in the morning.

Then, there’s PM-Shifted: These folks are most productive later in the day.

And, lastly, there’s Biphasic: These folks have one energy peak around midmorning, a second energy peak in the early evening, & have a big energy dip somewhere in the afternoon.

You can determine your chronotype either by:

Taking a genetic test.

Taking a research-backed questionnaire, online.

Or, simply by, checking-in with yourself & logging your energy at different times throughout the day for at least 3 consecutive days.

Once you determine your chronotype, you can more easily design your schedule to work with your mind & body biology, instead of against it. For example, this can be done by:

Aiming to schedule your analytical work for during your peak focus hours; so, usually a 3-4 hour chunk starting either, in the early morning, or midmorning; & can be anything requiring deep focus or attention. Studies have shown that 1 hour of work done during peak focus hours can enable up to 5x greater productivity, because you are more alert & are less likely to make mistakes.

Also aiming to save work you might consider ‘less’ important for during your energy dip; so, usually somewhere in the afternoon; & for some, can be, administrative tasks, or emails, or really, anything you know that doesn’t require deep focusing, for you, personally. Your known energy dip is also a great time to take a refreshing break, by going for a walk outside or getting some sunlight.

And aiming to schedule tasks requiring insight or creativity to be during your recovery period; so, usually during the late afternoon; & can be best utilized for any sort of brainstorming sessions or for any kind of problem solving.

I realize that it is a tremendous privilege to even be able to build a schedule that allows you to take advantage of the suggestions I just laid out, & it certainly won’t be feasible for everyone. Heck, it’s not even possible for me – right now – to have the exact schedule every single day, that would truly work best for me. I do incorporate these principles however, on as many days as I can. And my hope for you is that, if you are not able to incorporate this into your schedule entirely right now, that you will find ways to incorporate aspects of it, whenever you can.

As I hope you’ve come to appreciate, with each of these 8 recommendations, so much of this is interconnected. I’ll be back to recap all of these connections, right after this …

Support for today’s show comes from our very own Strengths Squared, a therapy, coaching, and consulting practice, partnering with startup founders & startup teams. At Strengths Squared, our goal is not to have to treat burnout after the fact; and instead, to prevent burnout from happening in the first place. We do this by equipping startup founders and their teams with the necessary skills to build sustainable, mentally healthy work cultures of collective care, collective accountability, & intentional work-life integration. If you are a startup founder, a startup team member, or are someone who might be a future-startup founder, and are navigating a challenging topic that you would like addressed on our show, or you have a question you would like answered on our show, please send an email to: podcast@strengthssquared.com for a chance to have your topic addressed or to have your question answered, on a future episode. Again, that’s p-o-d-c-a-s-t-@-s-t-r-e-n-g-t-h-s-s-q-u-a-r-e-d-dot-com, and we’ll keep our eyes out for your topics & your questions.

Let’s go ahead and pull all these connections together. To recap, my 8 recommendations for how to use your biology, your psychology, & your sociology to your advantage at work, are:

Number 1: Value Your Time & Others’ Time.

Number 2: Protect Your Attention.

Number 3: Learn to Prioritize, Effectively.

Number 4. Make Time for Daily Reflection.

Number 5: Establish & Maintain a Mentally Healthy, Morning Routine.

Number 6: Embrace Focused, Monotasking.

Number 7: Make Time For Daily Planning.

& Number 8: Map Your Day to Your Chronotype.

Thank you so much for listening to Wired to Connect & I hope this was helpful. If you would like a chance to win our Free Startup Coaching Session, which retails for $500, keep your ears out in the very next section for-the-instructions.

That wraps up today’s episode. I hope you loved it! Don’t forget to hit “Subscribe” or “Follow” on your favorite podcast app, so you don’t miss an episode. And, we are currently giving away our Free Startup Coaching Session! If you want to win a free coaching session, just leave us a rating & write a review on Apple Podcasts or the podcast app of your choice; and you’ll be entered in our weekly, random, draw. This type of startup coaching session retails for $500, & can be yours for free; by rating and writing a review of our podcast. Then, listen in next week to see if you won. It’s that simple! Thanks so much in advance, for supporting us on Apple Podcasts or on the podcast app of your choice!

Before I go, I want to leave you with this: if you are someone who is currently not implementing any of the strategies I just discussed, my suggestion for you is to not feel like you need to start implementing them all at once. This can seriously backfire and lead to none of them being implemented. Instead, try them out one-at-a-time. Choose one that feels manageable to start with, and begin incorporating that one practice consistently, at least for a few weeks, before adding in the next. The more reps you give yourself of the first practice, the easier time you’ll have incorporating the second practice, and so-on. And if – for whatever reason – you are completely against one of these strategies, save it until you’ve built some momentum incorporating the others. Then, when it’s time to incorporate that particular strategy, if you are still completely against it, put it aside for the time being. Don’t get rid of the others, though! Keep practicing the strategies you have effectively incorporated. In our experience, and in the experiences of many founders we’ve worked with, the more of these particular strategies that are incorporated, the better. And, at some point, it may be worth taking a deeper look at why any one of the particular strategies mentioned is so aversive to you. For right now though, set it aside, & understand that it doesn’t-need-to-be all or nothing. It’s often the practices we build incrementally along the way that have the greatest impact.

Thank you to my incredibly talented cousin, Andrew Fisher, for writing & playing the original music for this show. And, from the bottom of my heart, thank you to my amazing wife, partner, & Co-Founder, Marisa, for your belief in me, & in this show; for everything you do for our family & for Strengths Squared, for everything you are doing behind the scenes for Wired to Connect, & without whom, none of this would be possible! Lastly, & perhaps most importantly, thank you so much, to all of you who are listening, for supporting us by choosing to spend your time with us, for connecting with us, & for keeping an open mind & an open heart. I’ll look forward to connecting with you in next week’s episode. And until then, take good care, & remember, we are all Wired to Connect!