How to build mental resilience as a founder

The past few years have been quite challenging for business owners. While tech ventures experienced an initial boom during the pandemic, the subsequent global economic downturn slowed that momentum dramatically.

Funding has also dried up.

For non-tech businesses, the difficulties have been even more pronounced, given we did not benefit from any momentary pandemic-driven uplift.

Unfortunately, things are going to stay this way for a while before they get comfortably better.

For young founders, it's thus more critical than ever to learn how to maintain our sanity as we maneuver through this testing period. We need to develop the kind of sturdy mindset that handles adversities better.

In this regard, I’d like to share two methods, both of which have served me well in recent times. And can be useful for you too.

And while I'm primarily addressing entrepreneurs, the tools can also be effectively applied by people in other backgrounds, like in a corporate setting.

The first is ????????????????????????????????????????.

You’re like an overworked firefighter particularly in the early years of a business. Every day, multiple tiny flames will erupt in different parts of your operations.

However, you cannot let one bad incident ruin your mood for the rest of the day.

For instance, suppose your board contacts you to schedule an emergency meeting tomorrow afternoon. Your business has not been hitting its goals lately, so you know the conversation isn’t going to be a pleasant one.

What do you do?

Let the apprehension run wild inside your head all day? Ruminate and stress over the meeting till you hit the sack?

A better approach, is compartmentalizing this meeting inside your brain instead. Think of it like creating a separate folder and filing it inside.

You won't touch this folder at all today. Rather, you will continue your daily tasks as usual.

You're going to return to this topic tomorrow morning, when you actually begin preparing for your board presentation.

This way, you do not let one bad news spoil everything else you are doing in your waking hours.

Compartmentalization also works for larger crises, including those you are still processing. For instance, not letting a personal breakup drastically affect your work.

Remember, though - compartmentalization should not be confused with forced positivity, or repression of emotions. Ultimately, we will have to confront and heal from bad experiences.

Compartmentalization simply gives us the ability to choose the time and manner in which we face and navigate our challenges, rather than letting a negativity in one area of our life steamroll and make a mess out of every other part.

The second method that helps reduce stress and manage setbacks better, is developing a ????????-???????? ????????????.

In the realm of electronics, a high-pass filter allows signals higher than a certain threshold frequency to pass through, while blocking the lower ones.

We can use a similar analogy for our everyday life.

Think of all the things that can go wrong over the course of a day, and how some are just beyond your control. You’re stuck in traffic en route to an important meeting, a customer leaves a rude review on your Facebook page, a coveted hire declines your job offer at the last moment.

It’s pretty easy to get overwhelmed if you always let these things get to you. And you can’t compartmentalize them as well, because these aren’t issues you need to attend later.

Instead, you can train your brain to not let these incidents earn mindshare in the first place.

Imagine a robust filter system guarding the entry to your mind. Its job is to block all minor annoyances. Things you can’t control, but are better off not fretting about. And it only lets the bigger alarms pass i.e. those which definitely require your attention, like a server crash.

In short, this filter protects you against every day irritations, so you can focus on the big picture.

I’ve had pretty good results with this mentality in particular. It is a fantastic way of protecting your mental health as well.

It is important to understand, though, that these two tools – compartmentalization and a high-pass filter – will not reduce your troubles in life. But they will help build in you the type of resilience necessary to navigate life's obstacles better.

Ultimately, in any pursuit for success, it's not just about learning how to manage setbacks but also mastering how we respond to them.