As I write this, I am at the very beginning of building my third business so I know a thing or two about building foundations. And from my experience, we can really overcomplicate this part, and it’s the most crucial part of all if you ask me. 

Now first let’s dig into what I even mean when I talk about your foundation, or your energetic standard, because it really has nothing to do with your business but EVERYTHING to do with your business success.

In order for you to have and maintain success in your business you must have an energetic standard. And this is a "rinse and repeat as necessary" process. You must set boundaries for things you will not tolerate at your current level. Then, when you’re ready for new goals, you must have clarity on the things you will no longer tolerate about your current level - are you with me? If not, it’s okay, just keep reading.

With my first business I had no energetic standard. No boundaries. No definition of success outside of finances. My only standard, if you could call it that, was to hustle, hustle, hustle.

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Hustle is an important season of building a business, but it’s not sustainable.

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Let’s think about what happens to a house with no foundation. At first, it looks like nothing is wrong. The house doesn’t fall immediately. It’s a slow crumbling. A slow caving in as the walls built without foundation lose strength and everything starts to fall in on each other.

This is what happened to me in my first business. I didn’t start with a foundation for myself and so I slowly became buried under the work. Now, I have no regrets and certainly no guilt about how I built my first business because without it I wouldn’t know better, and without it I couldn’t be here helping you avoid this very thing.

There are many famous entrepreneurs that talk about this standard and call it their own name, but my favorite way I’ve heard it taught is by Ed Mylett. (If you don’t yet have your hands on his book ‘The Power of One More’ stop reading this, go buy it, and then come back.) But the way Ed explains it is using the thermostat metaphor. 

So with Ed’s explanation of this he says that if your thermostat is set to 75 degrees, you’ll live a 75-degree life. And no matter what opportunities and successes come your way, you’ll always cool yourself back down to 75 degrees if that’s what your energetic standard is set at.

Here are the two questions I want you to ask yourself in exploring what you want to set your energetic standard to…

1. What do you want success to FEEL like for you? For example, if you have an income goal you want to hit, it’s not enough. You need to clearly define what you want it to feel like. What will it mean to you? As Ed says, what’s the compelling reason for your monetary goal? Is it so you can buy your dream home? Take a year and fulfill your dream of seeing the world? It has to move something within you.
2. What are you no longer willing to tolerate at this energetic standard? Are you no longer going to tolerate working weekends? Are you no longer willing to tolerate client texts after 6PM? Are you no longer willing to tolerate your current monthly income? Are you no longer willing to tolerate wasting time watching Netflix? Declare it and display it.

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Now, writing these things in your journal is important, but what I like to do is get these things somewhere I can see them every single day. Here’s some examples I’ve used before, and you’ll get your best results if you use 2-3 of these instead of picking only one.

1. Make an event in your calendar to read your goals every single morning.
2. Write down your goals and boundaries and put them at your desk. 
3. Use a habit tracker app. My favorite is Habit Tracker - the one with the pink check. 
4. Tell a friend, coach or peer to have an accountability partner. 
5. Schedule emails to yourself in Gmail to check in with yourself in 3 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, etc. and be your own cheerleader and accountability partner.

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Defining and creating your energetic standard is the easy part.

But showing up every day to raise your thermostat, raise your energetic standard - that lives in your consistency, in your daily habits and routines. If you can commit to yourself, I promise you, you’ll build a fruitful foundation for yourself that will stand the test of time.