← The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
626: (Solo) Work Life Balance Is an Illusion. Here’s What Works Instead
00:10:57
Most founders won’t say this out loud… work-life balance doesn’t really exist. At least not in the early years. I didn’t want balance — I was obsessed. I worked until 5 a.m., skipped sleep, skipped holidays, ignored my health, and pushed myself until the wheels fell off. And eventually, they did. In this episode, I share the truth about burnout, why obsession can be a superpower until it becomes a liability, and how I rebuilt my life using systems, structure, and intentional habits.
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Hey, founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insanely good return. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code. Founder50. Just head to omnisend.com founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Hey, guys, Nathan here. Welcome back to another episode, the Founder to Founder solo podcast. So I want to talk about something most people don't say out loud in entrepreneurship circles, and that is is work, life, balance, even real? When you're a founder, in particular, a founder that wants to build a business of true worth and significance, hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder podcast with Nathan Chan. Now, I want to be honest, guys. Early on my journey building founder from the ground up, it wasn't even a question. Like I didn't want balance. I was obsessed. I worked literally sometimes. And I'm not proud to say this, I'm not encouraging it, but this is just from my experience. I worked sometimes until 5am, slept for an hour or didn't even sleep, and then went to my day job because I lost track of time. It didn't feel like work and I was just having fun. But fast forward a few years and I hit a wall, like a big one. Even though founder was booming, business was doing well, hitting all time, record high numbers, I didn't want to work anymore. I was burnt out and I was done. So today I want to share how I went from, you know, grind at all cost mentality to really finding a system that works. Not perfect balance, but a rhythm that's really helped me build, found up and a life that I'm really proud of. And it's something that I'm constantly optimizing towards. But I can confidently say that in the past couple of years, I've been in the best shape of my life. I've had more balance than ever, quote, unquote. I've never said no to anything when it comes to family, friends, holidays, all of that. Good stuff. And things are going really good on the business side. So part one, let's get into it. Obsession was my superpower until it wasn't. And I think in the early days, and this is the unhealthy thing, but I've just found it from my experience, if you want to build a business, you want to build something of true worth and significance. You want to even just build a lifestyle business, there's just a rite of passage where you just have to grind it out and you don't get balance. And perhaps you don't even want it. Like, I felt that I didn't want it. I sacrificed weekends, I ignored my sleep, I said no to holidays, I skipped meals, not because I wanted to, but just because I lost track of time because I was having so much fun and I was obsessed and I skipped gym sessions, and that was necessary, I felt. And if I look back on my time, yes, I would have loved to have been more balanced, but I feel like, you know, I've spoken to so many founders, it's kind of like a rite of passage. I had to give it everything. That period of deep obsession was what got Founder to where it is today. Now, is it healthy? It is not. Do I encourage it? No. But what no one tells you is you can't stay in that mode forever. And it's a season. And eventually, your body, your brain, your relationships, they all start to send you signals, and those are loud ones. And for me, that's what happened, right? I hit burnout. And it didn't show up as stress. It showed up as apathy. Like I didn't care anymore. I wasn't excited. I was waking up in the middle of the night with my heart beating really fast. I was running on fumes. I was resentful of something that I loved. And that's when I realized something had to change. So even though Founder was doing great externally, I wasn't. And I realized this one really, really, really important thing about life is you can have everything. You can be in the best physical fitness and shape of your life. You can have all the accolades. You can never have to worry about money again. But all of that is worth nothing if you don't have your mental health, right? So I took a step back and I started going to therapy. I started really working on myself and started to rebuild not just my work habits, but my life habits. And this was about five, almost six years ago now. And I want to share with you the system that really saved me and helped me shift. And it's Something that I wish that I did sooner, I should have done it sooner. And it's something I wish that another founder or someone was able to tell me what I'm sharing with you guys. So what helped me shift it was rituals, it was scheduling. And I lived by my calendar and I always did live by my calendar. So I just doubled down on living by my calendar. So I stopped chasing balance. And I actually made a conscious choice of building structure around the things that gave me energy, the things that excited me, the things that were fun. And I became really into health and wellbeing and longevity because I realized from that I was able to think smarter as a founder, more strategically. And it's paying its weight in gold. So here's what that looks like for me. 10,000 steps a day on average. Non negotiable. Locked in. I always do a certain amount of meetings. Walking whenever I can. When I'm on the phone, even onto my phone to my mum or friend, I'm walking. That's a non negotiable gym. Monday to Thursday I have a pt. If you can't afford a pt, that's okay. Find a friend that you go to the gym with at least four times a week. It's a non negotiable. Or Pilates or whatever your thing is, just a non negotiable. Have a, you know, a workout buddy, someone that holds you accountable. So for me, I've got a PT Monday to Thursday. I don't want to waste that money. It's locked in. It's in my calendar. Family lunch every Sundays. Sundays is protected, always scheduled. I love to play pickleball. Now I'm playing pickleball two times a week. Usually my brother on a Sunday or a Saturday. And then I also make sure that, that I've got it scheduled. It's got to be scheduled. And then as well, I book a holiday every six months. Even if it's just a few days. I need something to look forward to. I think when it comes to therapy, therapy is really healthy. Like we talk about, you know, training our muscles at the gym, training our body. You know, we lift weights to work out. Well, you actually need to do that for your mind as well. And that's why I think, you know, seeing a therapist, psychologist, whatever you want to call it, is really, really helpful. It's really, really healthy. And another thing I love to do is saunas. Saunas have been a game changer for me. Saunas then cold. I've got a sauna at my place. I'm gonna Get a new one soon. But if I'm not doing a sauna at my place, I'm doing sauna Sundays at the local leisure center with one of my friends, Easto. And it's really awesome, right? Another thing that's really, really important to me as well is, is getting my meals right. I use this incredible company called Fed that I'm involved in. So I've got all of my meals sorted. So I'm always eating clean, I'm always eating healthy. And then as well, I always have other things to look forward to. Like, I love going to spa baths, I love getting regular massages. I'm always trying to double down on filling up my cup because I find that if you're working really hard and you're playing at a really high level, you need to make sure you're doubling down on the rituals that you're playing at a really hard level. And the relaxation and the R and D. I get regular osteotherapy every single month. That's always booked in. I was always booking my next session. So when it comes to therapy, one of the most powerful tools that came to me when I was doing a therapy session was I mapped out each area of my life on a whiteboard and I gave it a score out of 10. And, and what I realized, and this will be comforting for you, is it's okay for everything not to be 10. It's actually normal and you don't need things to be perfectly balanced. So we looked at personal relationships, we looked at family, we looked at health and fitness, we looked at career and wealth, and you score all those things out of 10. And if you do that exercise right now, I promise you, you're not going to score everything out of 10. And that's okay. What you'll find is some seasons, certain areas, business, work, all that kind of stuff will be a 10 or 9 or an 8. And then some seasons, your health and fitness or your family, and it's just a constant balance, right? And taking time to reflect honestly is a game changer. So, guys, final takeaway is balance is an illusion and rhythm is the goal. It's all about habits and rituals and, and living by your calendar and placing those things in your calendar, your rituals to optimize your time, because you're going to go through seasons of imbalance. That's part of life. But the key is learning when to shift gears, knowing if you're going to burn out completely and build systems that give you energy, regular meditation, all of the good stuff. It works right fill that cup. Because when you build a life that supports your work, your work becomes sustainable and fun again. And I would never wish upon anyone, even my worst enemies. I don't even have any enemies. But like, even if I did that experience of burnout that I felt all right, guys, I hope this episode resonated with you. If it did, post a screenshot Share a story Let anyone know Share this episode Share this podcast with your friends, with your family. We work so hard to produce awesome content to help you guys in your entrepreneurial journey. And that's it from me. Take care of yourself. Your future self will thank you. I'll speak to you soon.