Channel Cortisol like the Special Forces

Forget wellness or yoga- learn from the special forces

Mental wellness is a huge topic these days and it should not be ignored but the brutal truth is that it has little place in a startup. Startups are incredibly hard- you are literally trying to will something into existence which the world might not want and which might not make you even enough money to live on. You are dealing with constant rejection, exhausting hours, punishing levels of decision making, lack of funds and much more. Resilience and persistence are must have traits but even if you think you’re ready for it the truth is you cannot be. Sophie Bruce , a performance psychologist, specialised in teaching mental resilience to professional sports teams, and as such was an expert practitioner of dealing with stress, and so in her own words thought she would have this aspect covered but when she founded MOLO App was shocked by the level required.

 Piers Bearne, founder of Collingwood, says in our recent podcast https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7422187369170288640 that when you are in startup mode you are in go mode all the time. You wake up ready to go and you just want to crack on- the last thing you want or have time do is yoga or meditation and at the end of the day when your completely exhausted you just want to collapse in a heat. So what to do?

You need to channel your cortisol or to put it another way- make stress your best friend. Lets look for a minute about how stress works on your body. When we get stressed our body goes into flight or fight mode. When this happens our heart rate and breathing increase, adrenalin kicks in, cortisol spikes and our arteries tighten diverting blood away from the brain and to the heart. We are wired effectively. This is supposed to be a temporary mode before it returns to normal when the danger that is causing the stress has passed. An interesting fact is that once our BPM ( heart rate) goes above 120 our brains ceases to be able to make good rational decisions. If you watch sport towards the end of the match when the participants are tired, despite their professional fitness, they will often make bizarre decisions about what shot to take or what to try and do with the ball. As a spectator and fan you will be screaming, ‘ What on earth were they thinking?’ The answer is that they are not- their BPM is too high and they cannot make good decisions.

 I once wore a heart rate monitor out of curiosity for a few weeks at work to see what happened. We had a small cashflow crisis and much to my horror I discovered that while my BPM through most of the day was around 60 it spiked to over 130 whenever the CFO wanted to talk to me! But back to a solution.

 A positive mindset goes along way. The first thing is to talk positively to yourself about the outcome and about what you are going to do. This will make your stress levels will drop. By reframing it in a positive light your BPM will literally drop back to normal- mind over matter in action. This positive mental outlook and focus on a solution or next step is critical as it allows you to reduce your body’s cortisol response and make good as opposed to bad decisions.

The next trick is to break it down into small manageable steps – a technique called segmentation. By focusing on just the one small next step you intend to take and then the next one and by not looking at the overall whole, you can make it more manageable and again drive down your cortisol levels. 

Finally you can use a US Navy SEAL's technique called box breathing. You breathe in for the count of 4, hold it for 4, exhale for 4 and hold it for 4 and you try to do this 4 times. This again reduces your BPM and use your mind to physically force your body to overcome its physiological reaction to the stress. While it is hard to remember to do this initially it is a learned response that can be quickly adapted with practice.

The Australian special forces have a process where they tie your hands together and feet together and throw you into the deep end of a pool in order to try to do various exercises. The Royal Marines in Norway make you jump into a freezing lake. The idea is the same- with each event your brain will go into fight or flight overdrive and your cortisol will massively spike. if you don't control it you will be seized by blind panic. By using these techniques on a regular basis you can learn to bring it under control, slow your breathing and BPM, reduce your body’s stress and cortisol spike and make sound decision about how to get through the situation.

 Am I being dramatic? Do you need to learn all this in order to be a founder? While you don’t need to jump into a pool with all your limbs tied together the short answer is yes. As a founder you are going to endure insane levels of stress, constant flight or fight cortisol spikes and if you don’t teach yourself to deal with it then not only will you make bad decisions, which will have a negative impact on your business, but you will also destroy your health.

 So when this occurs on almost a daily basis the first thing to remember is - you've got this. You don’t necessarily know how yet but you just need to figure out the first step to take, secure in the knowledge that you will find a way through. Nothing ever goes perfectly or works exactly how you imagine it will and the constant trial and error is part and parcel of founder life. Just by accepting that this stress will occur, by remaining mentally positive and by teaching yourself to deal with it, you can channel your cortisol and use it to heighten your abilities in a positive and meaningful way

You are willing something into existence from nothing. It is the ultimate act of creation and in doing so you are achieving something beautiful and incredible. Remember this and enjoy it and this will ease the stress of founder life in a way that yoga and meditation can’t.