This is the final episode of the mental fitness podcast for entrepreneurs. Protecting your mental health means saying no to some projects and at times, cancelling or pausing them. I was glad to take part in this project as it's reached many people and help them in their journeys. In this episode, I talk about my reasons of finishing this project as well as some tips on when and how to change gears.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

What works best for me:
1. Manage my creative and productive energy rather than time (Know how much this is for you by measuring)
2. Appreciate that you are a system with needs, Just like physiological needs, you have mental and emotional needs. Just because you are in charge of this system, you don't get to set all the rules of how it works.
3. The Two Mindsets - The night Ozan, The day Ozan.
4. Understand what dopamine is and how it works. - remind yourself of the reward - make the reward visible.
5. (Understand willpower is a limited resource.) Design your visual space free of distractions - so it is not a war of willpower.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

A spontaneous conversation with Daryl where we swap stories and ideas about the biggest fears entrepreneurs have. A few insightful gems here.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

(From the book Startups Grow With People: How to Pick Partners, Recruit the Top Talent and Build a Company Culture)

*A good partner has the life-design that fits being in a startup (can spare the time, energy, focus, and finances required)

*A good partner shares the problem (sees the world in the same unique way)

*A good partner has a depth of knowledge on at least one topic related to the startup (you find yourself learning new things in each encounter)

*A good partner values good execution over genius ideas (knows success is more dependent on doing hard work and the teams’ problem-solving capacity rather than the ingenuity of ideas)
Hint: Here is a litmus test. Ask your potential partner what she thinks has made the well-known startups successful. If the answer is among the realms of “a genius idea”, or “luck” take these as warning signs.

*A good partner focuses on increasing the quality of decisions (honestly prefers reaching better business decisions rather than ‘being right’)

*A good partner listens to you (open to learning from you and enjoys discussing ideas even when their direct impact on the business is not apparent)

*A good partner is intrinsically motivated (follows-up on her tasks without external reminders and volunteers for open tasks)

*A good partner is a life-long learner (sees the big picture, values design-thinking, quick to grasp abstract concepts, can change her ideas when presented with the right data)

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

Understand Systems Thinking: Your body and mind are a system, it has inputs and outputs and it manages resources. Optimise for it.

The natural world - seeing it as an endless resource - depleted fossil fuels, environmental disaster.
Your body will deplete, the cost will be disastrous (in ways you may not guess).

Physical - early age death, stress-related illnesses, muscle, spinal and neural systems damage, etc...
Psychological - anxiety, fear, higher overall BP and HR, (the silent killer) leading to many diseases... You are more irritable, easy to fight with others, get angry, lose good relationships.

Think in terms of not in time - but in terms of creative & productive energy where you can stay in a state of flow.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

Why is it OK to fail? What is the narrative you tell yourself to be OK with failure?

In a corporate context vs failing in a game. Freedom to use these words.
When is it OK to make a mistake vs failing? (Jeff Bezos' example - warehouse blueprint)

Conclusion:
Make it OK to fail.
Don't fail so bad that you will run out of lives to play again.
Yes, you learn from mistakes, but you also learn from successes. That's why vicarious learning is huge.
Learn from people who have similar stakes to you. Look at first big breaks. Not 3rd exits.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

A conversation with Daryl about how stress changes the thinking process of the entrepreneur and may lead to a vicious loop of bad decisions. How do we break free from what we have dubbed the Business Panic Attack and stay on top of things. 4 strong tactics that we have personally used and now that they work.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

1. Do they keep their small promises
2. Do they listen or talk and listen less
3. How are they in other areas of life, in traffic, in a restaurant, while talking to others, etc.
4. [Most importantly] what is their core driving motivation in life? What are they after? Money, pleasure, power, status...

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

Feeling like an imposter versus having imposter syndrome.
The feeling is a result of the contrast you observe between what you experience internally versus how others perceive you.
Why entrepreneurs are particularly vulnerable.
Three suggestions to deal with this feeling well.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.

According to the University of San Francisco researcher Micheal A. Freeman who focused on entrepreneurs and mental health, 49% of entrepreneurs suffer from a mental health condition at least once. Another clinical practicioner DR. Hokemeyer's experience is that the rate of people who struggle with personality and other disorders is closer to 80% in the entrepreneurial community. I share my own experience and suggest a few ways to design your own mental composition.

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Welcome to the Mental Fitness Podcast.

Today's entrepreneurs are mental athletes that have to know about the mind and how to keep it fit. Our goal is to increase our resilience against stress and anxiety; optimize our productivity, motivation, and optimism by learning about the human mind through psychology, neuroscience, and human behavior.

I am your host Ozan. I am a founder who has experienced the challenges of launching and growing a business and a keen student of human behavior over the last 15 years. I will share with you what I know and learn.

Hundreds of impactful behavior-changing ideas are waiting to be discovered.

Let's begin now.