written by Fabiano
5 min read

How to Regain Inner Peace as an Entrepreneur

Structure

Quick intro 

What’s the problem?

I’m in my home office right now and taking two hours to concentrate on writing. My thoughts are mainly focused on this blog post, no distraction or worries. I can feel a deep sense of inner peace. The words flow and my emotions are balanced. It’s a state in which I really enjoy deep, focused work. It feels natural and fulfilling. 
This is not how I experience work every day. In fact, just recently a lot of my working hours were packed with chat messages, context switching, doubts, stress and uncertainty. There are times when you need to move fast, organize a lot of things simultaneously and be available throughout the day. However, for me it’s important to be able to always come back to inner peace and calmness. 
So I ask myself very regularly: how to regain inner peace while navigating through the wild journey of entrepreneurship?


Own background

What’s my context/experience?

I feel when I’m in a phase of inner peace. And people around me also feel it. Just last week a colleague I’m working closely with said: ‘I can tell that you've been completely balanced and in Zen mode for a few days.’ And that’s true: I mostly feel that I’m living moment by moment, not overthinking stuff in my head. For me, those phases last for a week or two, before I’m back in ‘normal mode’. So everytime I’m in such a phase of inner peace I embrace it. I reconnect with my values, I deeply appreciate my current state in life, my relationships and the work I focus on. This state of mind also enforces the superpower of believing in my entrepreneurial vision and recharging energy to continue working towards it. During such a phase I wonder if someday this will be my constant state of mind. However, this is not the case yet. After a few weeks, I smoothly transition back into what I described as ‘normal mode’. ‘Normal mode’ has less mindful moments in day to day life. It’s more focused on executing and achieving goals instead of the big picture and being present in each moment. It’s well structured and solution-driven instead of spontaneous and deeply tied to intuition. As much as I also enjoy ‘normal mode’, I’m sure that ‘inner peace mode’ sets the foundation for big steps and decisions in my personal life and business career (I think it’s scientific common sense that a relaxed mind improves decision-making, creativity, well-being and productivity). So I reflected on my past experiences and identified some patterns that have contributed to reentering a phase of inner peace.


My approach

How do I tackle it?

I found a journal entry of me stating some observations during such a phase of inner peace in the past: 

‘It feels too easy, too calm, too normal. But in a positive sense. And all this in a phase in which I’m working around 12 hours a day (8h for Google, 4h for Livria). My days are still packed, strictly scheduled and there are some major events coming up where I’m responsible for the success. So, wondering about my inner peace in such an intense period of my life I derived several conclusions to identify the reasons behind it:

  1. Last week I was on a beautiful 5-day vacation in Corsica with my family. I barely used my laptop and took a lot of time to enjoy nature and time with my parents and siblings. It could be the afterglow of this trip which I’m experiencing right now.
  2. The last few days I more than usual consumed content about Stoicism and finding meaning in life. For example, I listened to a podcast with Ryan Holiday and finished a book in which the philosophical wisdom of Naval Ravikant was shared. Also, I had the chance to participate in a workshop from Ali Abdaal in which he guided us through a reflection about our life and what is the life we dream of. 
  3. I’m currently in Dublin, by myself. No distractions, just me & and my work and habits. Even though I know that I don’t want this to be a permanent state and I’m really looking forward to seeing the people I love soon again, I feel more self-aware. It’s been a while since I had a decent amount of time during the day for reflection, more than one meditation and alone-walks. ‘

Reading it, I realized that those three conclusions also match with my current situation. Last week I came back from a mastermind retreat with friends. We spent most of the time brainstorming ideas and hiking in nature with minimal screen time. Reconnecting with nature and calmness created a spark of interest in revisiting more stoic and mindful content (for example a guided meditation from Sam Harris or Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’ book). Also, I’ve spent more time cooking and doing reflection walks around my neighborhood in Berlin. And during periods of intense work, I included 15-minute walks in the park to restore my sense of calm. Or, before a recent difficult decision, journaling about my thoughts and feelings helped me gain clarity and perspective.

Derived from my experience, this is the inner peace framework:

Inner Peace Framework Illustration
Inner Peace Framework

For me, distance from my laptop and my daily work, combined with time in nature, set the initial spark for the other steps in this framework. This underlines the power of taking days off throughout the year to fully reconnect with your inner peace. 

It's important to acknowledge that the path to inner peace is not always smooth. In entrepreneurship things can get wild and chaotic. You often face unique challenges such as high-pressure situations, constant decision-making, and long working hours, which can disrupt inner peace. Therefore, regaining and maintaining inner peace at least for a few weeks can play an essential role to build your business around a life that you love.


Tools I use to regain and maintain inner peace

Links and Tipps

List of related blog articles from 40 Hour Entrepreneur


Community Space

Your comments, ideas, feedback

  • What resonates most with you in this framework for finding inner peace, and why?
  • In your experience, what are the biggest obstacles to achieving inner peace as an entrepreneur?
  • How has your definition of inner peace evolved over time?
  • Besides the tools mentioned in the article, what other resources or practices have you found helpful for cultivating inner peace?
  • ...

Join the discussion below. Or write me an email to fabiano@40hourentrepreneur.com