A founder’s life is crazy. Alerts, alarm bells, crisis and change. And that’s all before you get to today’s list.

Often founders think that being overwhelmed is part of the deal of running a business, but there is a different way to think about that which will keep the overwhelm at bay.

– Awareness gives you power. Ask yourself before you instinctively respond – what choices to I have here? Unless you’re in prison or being held at gunpoint, you always have choices, even though they are hard to see sometimes.
– Remember that a heightened alert state for us is addictive. Being “so busy” and “just not having a chance” is deeply connected to our need to be relevant, but it can easily get out of hand. So routinely taking a step away breaks that cycle, even if you feel as though you don’t need it.
– What, if anything, can you delegate? Even small things make a difference, and your question when facing something isn’t “how can I get this done” but “who can do this?”

So while a founder’s life might look crazy from the outside, we have choices about how to handle it so it’s not so crazy from the inside.