I haven’t written in a while (sorry), but that’s exactly what I want to talk about.
A few weeks ago I got sick. Nothing serious, but enough to force me to stop.
I know why this happens. I take on too much, spread myself across too many projects, and then wonder why I’m running on empty.
I know this about myself, and yet the desire to go back to working on 12 things at once comes back almost immediately, before I’ve even properly recovered.
I feel like this isn’t really a knowledge problem. I know what I should do.
But the intention to slow down keeps losing to the environment I’ve built around myself. And no amount of to-do lists or prioritization Youtube videos seem to fix it. If anything, they’ve made it worse, giving me more to track and less time to actually do the work.
So I want to talk about the areas where I (and I think a lot of impact folks) tend to spend their energy.
And more importantly, which ones we can actually control.
After interviewing and working with 200+ impact founders, I started noticing that the challenges they face cluster into roughly four areas.
- The system
- The collective
- The business
- The self
Most impact founders I know are energized from the top down.
The big systemic problems they want to tackle, the community they want to nurture, the business they want to build to make their dent in the world.
Makes sense, that’s probably why they got into this work in the first place.
But, in my experience, those are almost impossible to influence if you haven't invested in the lower levels first.
So I’ll talk about them bottoms up.
The self
This is the area I struggle with most, and I’m guessing I’m not alone.
This is about self-sustainability. Protecting your energy, knowing your limits, and rejecting the idea that doing good requires sacrificing yourself in the process.
For me, the challenge isn’t motivation, it’s the opposite.
I genuinely love the work. I get excited about new projects, new ideas, new people to collaborate with. Saying yes feels good in the moment, but the consequences catch up with me later.
And the conventional advice I see all over productivity-YouTube (make a list, prioritize, track everything) hasn’t really helped. If anything, it adds more stress to an already full plate.
I’ve found more relief in tracking less, focusing on a smaller number of higher-level intentions, and trying to spend more time doing the work rather than managing it.
Sounds simple, but it isn’t easy for me.
I need to design my days better. Rituals that protect my time and energy before the pull of the next thing kicks in, because that pull comes back fast.
This is the foundation everything else rests on, and personally, it’s the one most treated as an afterthought.
The business
This is the area I feel most comfortable in, which is a little ironic.
I spend a lot of my working time helping universities and early-stage technology teams take a big idea and turn it into a tangible startup opportunity.
I’m pretty good at keeping things objective, running experiments, and not getting too attached to the outcome.
The problem is that’s a lot easier when it’s someone else’s business.
When it’s mine, I skip steps.
I’ll bypass validation processes I’d put any other founder through because I have enough lived experience to convince myself I already know the answer. I’ll hold onto ideas longer than I should.
I think it’s because when you’re building something of your own, especially in the impact space, you’re not just building a business. You’re building something you think deserves to exist in the world. And that feeling, as powerful as it is, isn’t always good for clear decision making.
This area is more within your control than the ones above it. But only if you can stay honest with yourself about what you actually know versus what you just believe.
The collective
This one is about the people around you, your community.
I don’t have a huge following across the channels I post to, but I do have a small, deep network of people I can genuinely rely on.
That’s been worth more to me than any follower count.
What that actually looks like day to day is just… staying in contact. Checking in. Sending the extra message. It sounds easy but when you’re drained at the end of a long day, it’s one of the first things that slips.
And that’s when it catches up with you. When you’ve been burnt out and quiet for a few weeks and you resurface and realize how much those connections actually hold you together.
You don’t notice the weight of the net until you’ve stopped maintaining it.
With Make Space, we’re trying to build this space that doesn’t fully rely entirely on us to function.
I can’t fully speak on behalf of my partner, but I feel like I’m good at being the connector, that just comes with a lot of emotional energy.
Part of what will be interesting (to me) about Make Space is seeing how the community grows and if it can start to sustain itself.
This area is less within your control than Self or Business. You can create the conditions for real connection, but you can’t force it. What you can control is showing up consistently, even when it’s hard.
Honestly, it has been hard, and Angel and I took a brief season of rest. But I’m excited that we’re picking back up and have been imagining new paths the community could take.
I look forward to sharing that with you.
The system
This is the one that probably got most of us into this work in the first place.
The system is everything outside your immediate control.
The broken infrastructure, the misaligned incentives, the macro forces that make impact-driven work harder than it needs to be.
It’s easy to see what’s wrong, and it’s easy to get fired up about it.
For a long time I used that frustration as fuel. And it works for a while, but I’ve found that when motivation turns into anger, it stops giving me energy and starts draining it.
It feels suffocating.
And when I’m feeling that way, I can’t take any steps towards progress.
What I’m trying to do now is use the change I want to see in the world as motivation, without letting what’s broken consume me.
I’m trying to acknowledge it, let it point me in a direction, and then leave it there.
This is the area least within your control. Which isn’t a reason to ignore it, I think it’s a reason to engage with it carefully, and make sure the inner spheres are looked after first.
So I’ve been using these 4 areas to sit with myself and honestly audit where my energy is going.
Which area am I neglecting? Which one am I hiding from?
For me, the answer is clear. The sphere I keep treating as optional is the one everything else depends on, myself.
If you're in the impact space I'd encourage you to do this audit and see where you stand. The world needs more people like you doing good work, but you can't do that work if you're not taking care of yourself.
