A Startup Survivor’s Expert Guide To Building Better Resilience

The startup journey is exhilarating, full of unexpected twists and turns, but it’s also fraught with challenges, setbacks, and uncertainties that test even the most seasoned entrepreneur. New Frontiers alumnus John Barron explores how resilience, grit, and a growth mindset can help you flourish in your startup.

It’s been said that launching a startup is like embarking on a rollercoaster ride through uncharted territory. In this high-stakes game, resilience – the ability to bounce back from adversity – emerges as a defining trait separating the triumphant from the defeated. While resilience may seem like an innate quality, emerging research shows that it can be cultivated through regular exercise.

“Resilience is essentially an emotional muscle, but our research shows that stressing our physical muscles by exercise is one of the best ways to increase our capacity to cope with daily stress.”
Elissa Epel, Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Five ways to become a better founder by developing resilience

Let’s explore how incorporating physical activity like a walk or a run into your busy day is no longer viewed as self-indulgent but seen as business critical in fuelling and maintaining your startup’s key asset: YOU.

1. Stress-proofing your mind and body

There’s no such thing as a stress-free life. The key is we want to experience manageable stressors so that we can develop stress resilience and not react with a big stress response every time something unexpected happens.

Exercise is proven to be a powerful stress-buster for both the body and mind. Physical activity triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural mood elevators, which help alleviate stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression.

By incorporating exercise into your daily routine, you equip yourself with what my co-founder at GoChallenge, Dr Caitríona Mooney, compares to putting on a suit of armour that helps you deal with the inevitable stressors that your busy life throws at you, fortifying your mental resilience in the process.

2. Enhancing cognitive function

The link between physical fitness and cognitive function is well-documented, with regular exercise shown to improve memory, concentration, and decision-making abilities. As an entrepreneur, these cognitive enhancements are invaluable, enabling you to think more clearly, adapt to changing circumstances, and devise creative solutions to complex problems.

By sharpening your mental acuity through exercise, you cultivate the resilience needed to tackle the myriad challenges of start-up life with positivity and clarity. Dr Chucks Hillman’s famous brain scan below of a sedentary person versus a person that has re-ignited their brain function by simply going for a walk for twenty minutes.

3. Building grit

I’ve always loved the movie the Princess Bride. If you haven’t seen it, I would highly recommend it. Great family viewing. In the movie, there’s a great line, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

The road to entrepreneurial success is paved with painful setbacks, rejections, and failures. However, it’s not the obstacles themselves but your response to them that ultimately determines your fate. Regular exercise fosters GRIT – the unwavering resolve to persevere in the face of adversity.

Whether you’re pushing through the final mile of a five mile walk or grinding out one more rep in the gym, each workout serves as a testament to your resilience, building the mental toughness needed to weather the storms of entrepreneurship.

4. Fostering a growth mindset

At the core of resilience lies a ‘growth mindset’ – the belief that all challenges are opportunities for growth and learning. Exercise cultivates this mindset by pushing you outside your comfort zone, challenging your limits, and fostering a sense of self-efficacy, positivity and mastery.

Whether you’re setting a new personal streak of walking five days in a row or training for a marathon, each achievement reinforces your belief in your ability to overcome obstacles and emerge stronger on the other side. If you haven’t read the James Clear book, Atomic Habits, you should. It’s a must for getting a better understanding of the importance of a growth mindset.

5. Promoting emotional well-being

Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride of emotions, with highs of triumph and lows of despair. Regular exercise acts as a natural mood stabiliser, helping to regulate emotions, reduce anxiety, and promote a sense of well-being and positivity.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) concentrates on changing unhelpful habitual responses and reinforcing positive behaviours. Combining the two is especially effective, given the human cycle of thoughts that lead to emotions. So a positive intervention in your day, like going for a 30-minute walk, has the impact of creating positive thoughts, leading to positive behaviours, which reinforce those thoughts and emotions.

By nurturing your emotional health through physical activity, you develop the resilience needed to navigate the emotional highs and lows of start-up life with grace and resilience.

Face challenges with confidence, fortitude, and positivity

In the fast-paced world of entrepreneurship, resilience isn’t just a desirable trait. It’s a survival skill. There’s not much we can control in life, but we can control our attitude. The key to this is staying consistent, even when times get tough. By incorporating exercise into your daily routine, you empower yourself to face the challenges of startup life with confidence, fortitude, and positivity. So, lace up your sneakers, get outside, go for a run, bring your dog for a walk, and embrace the transformative power of exercise to elevate your resilience levels and unlock your full potential as an entrepreneur. Your mind, body, and business will thank you for it.