In this personal monologue, the speaker—an entrepreneur and CEO—shares how he copes when he isn’t feeling 100% and how he handles anxiety, stress, and bad days. He explains that, as high‑performing leaders, we often try to problem‑solve our emotions, which can worsen them. Instead, he advocates accepting feelings, doing his best without over‑reacting, and staying aligned with core values rather than letting momentary moods dictate actions. He warns against both extremes: canceling responsibilities whenever mood dips, and over‑compensating with drastic lifestyle changes. He outlines three practical, low‑effort mental‑management tools he uses when feeling down: (1) schedule dedicated time to sit with the feeling, allowing it to run its course; (2) write the feeling down—via journal, note, text, or coach—to gain objectivity and often discover a silver lining; (3) remind himself that thoughts and emotions are transient, so there’s no need to force a change. Throughout, he emphasizes that feelings are normal, that resistance to them fuels the problem, and that maintaining productivity while honoring values is possible even on low‑energy days. He concludes by encouraging viewers to stop seeking a “silver bullet” for happiness and instead learn to operate effectively while feeling sub‑optimal, inviting them to subscribe for future content on productivity during tough moods.
Chapters
What is up? In this video today, what I want to share with you is what I do when I'm not feeling 100% and how I handle having bad days or being in a bad mood. And this came from a question that someone, a few different people asked, which is kind of along the lines of like, what do I do when I'm not feeling 100%? And it's interesting because today, for example, I'm pretty stressed about stuff that's happening both at work and personally. I haven't slept well for a few days. I'm in a new apartment that we just got, and I'm not settled at all yet, and I'm kind of overstimulated, and I feel a little stressed and anxious, and I don't like that feeling at all. And so I felt like it was appropriate to make this video on the day where I'm not feeling well. What I have come to realize is that the answer to what do I do when I'm not feeling 100% is often nothing. I think that's very unsettling, but at the same time, I find it very freeing because I think that as entrepreneurs and CEOs, we're so good at problem solving. And so when we don't feel 100%, we want to problem solve. And a lot of the times this is actually what perpetuates the problem because almost what you're doing is you're telling your brain there's something wrong with feeling anxious, with feeling overwhelmed, with feeling sad. Instead of just accepting that emotion and not being frightened that you have it. Because in some way, shape, or form, I think anxiety comes from, you know, it arises from different things. But I think a lot of the times it comes— we almost make it worse because we get anxiety about our anxiety. We get stressed about our stress. We're like, why am I feeling this way? I shouldn't be feeling this way. Like, I'm the CEO, I'm the leader, I can't have a bad day. And that's just not true. But what I have come to realize is that oftentimes doing nothing is the best approach. Approach. Instead, do your best. That's really what I like to say. I'm like, I'm gonna do my best today. I don't feel great. I don't know when it's— I don't know when I'm gonna feel better, right? But I'm going to do my best today, and I'm not going to change what the plan was. And the reason for that is because, like I said, I think that then we train ourselves— either we train ourselves into, um, not upholding our values, because if we say every time I feel tired, every time I didn't sleep well, every time I feel sick, every time I I'm overwhelmed, I cancel meetings, I don't work out, I eat bad food. Well, that's fucking 50% of life. So your life's not really going to get where it needs to go if you just do that every time you don't feel good, right? And, you know, I think that that's one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum is that we say, I don't feel good, I'm overwhelmed, I'm anxious, I need to fix this right now. You know, I need a new routine, I need an infrared sauna, I need a cold bath, I need this, I need that. And like, to an extent, things help, right? Writing things down can help. Talking to a friend can help. But when you have to completely overhaul your life because, you know, maybe you've been feeling super anxious, maybe you've had stomachaches, maybe you haven't slept for a few nights, like whatever it may be, I don't really think that that means that you need to overhaul your life. I think that maybe there's things going on and you're just feeling overwhelmed and that's just a natural part of life and it's okay not to feel 100%. And so the answer to that question is really nothing. I try best to live by my values and not by my emotions or how I feel because how I feel changes all the time. And odds are next week or the week after, I will feel 10 times better than I feel right now. And then if I cancel everything, I don't work out and I eat badly because I'm not feeling well now, I'm going to look back later and be like, dang, I really wish I hadn't done that because I kind of set myself back a little bit. And that's okay. That happens. We all set ourselves back at times. But if I can catch myself and be aware of it and not do it, then I would rather do that than the opposite. I think that just understanding and accepting that not feeling good is a part of life. It's a fact of life. Like, and I think that a lot of the times if we are leaders and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, for some reason, you know, we think that we should also be the ones who never feel badly. Right. And that's why that so many people make money off of like high performance, this high performance, that, you know, all these things. And I have fallen into that trap as well. But what I've come to realize full circle is that you just have to accept that sometimes you feel shitty and sometimes you get sick and sometimes you can't sleep and sometimes you have things on your mind and sometimes, you know, you have stomachaches because you're so stressed. And all of these things happen to people and they're completely normal. And oftentimes our resistance of them, our unwillingness to feel bad, is what perpetuates feeling bad. And so I like to think of it like I have a feeling it's in my body. I need to let it move through my body and out. And the way not to do that is by overcompensating for how I feel right now, by eating a ton of food, by canceling all my meetings, by watching Netflix, by buffering with something like that, or by, you know, going the opposite direction and just making myself so busy that I can't think about anything, can't feel the feeling. And the reality is that feelings are normal and natural. And if your brain knows that you hear the feeling, the signal that is being told, and you allow it to just be there, then your brain probably will stop sending the feeling to your brain, right? To you. And that's what I've come to see as to be true. And sometimes it takes a day, sometimes it takes 2 days, 3 days, 4 days, whatever. But it gets through and eventually you feel differently. And so now when I say that, you know, I do nothing and I accept feeling shitty and I'm like, I'm going to do what I said I was going to do regardless of how I feel, because if I give myself an out every time I feel a bad way, that's quite a lot of time I'm losing. So instead, I have 3 things that are kind of like my go-tos when I'm not feeling too great, and it doesn't involve changing any external circumstances, but it's kind of just like mental management. And so the first thing I usually do is I just set aside time to feel shitty and think about how I feel. Um, usually I tell myself like, I'll go through my day— like today, for example, I had 6 meetings before this I filmed this and I have a break right now that I'm going to film this, and then after this I have like an hour. And so I was like, I'm gonna go on a walk and I'm gonna feel like shit for like an hour. I'm gonna let that happen. Then your brain knows, it's almost like, okay, you have a designated time where you're going to let yourself feel these feelings. And for some reason that helps me get through when I know that like I'm going to have a time where I can address this, right? And so I set aside like 30 minutes just to think about it, allow myself to feel it, or do whatever I need to do. Like if you need to cry, cry. If you need to scream, scream. If you need to go on a run, go on a run. Whatever it is, I think setting aside the time to be present with how you feel and to remember that it's okay to feel this way, it's completely normal, is the first thing. The second thing is that sometimes I write it down. And so this could be I'm writing it to a friend, like I'm texting a friend just being like, oh, I feel like shit today. This could be that I'm writing it down to myself in a note on my phone. This could be I'm writing it in a journal. This could be I'm writing it to a coach. You know, whatever it is, I'm writing it down and it helps me to be more objective. Right. And a lot of times I notice that when I start writing down why I'm feeling shitty, I also start to find the silver lining because I'm proud of how I'm handling the situation. I'm like, I'm feeling shitty, but I'm still doing everything I said I was going to do and I'm handling this way better than I might have a year or 2 years ago. Right. And so that's finding the positivity in the negativity. And then the third thing is that I always remind myself, I'm like, thoughts and emotions come and go. So the one thing I can rely on is knowing that they are unreliable. And so they will come, they will go, and eventually I'll feel something else. And I don't need to try and do things to feel differently, right? I just need to let the emotion pass and it will pass. And I don't need to be scared of it. I don't need to be worried about it. I don't need to be anxious about it. Like, we all have these terrible emotions that make us feel like a bear is about to eat us. And just because we have those doesn't mean we need to alter our lives. It's completely normal. That is how I show up when I'm not feeling 100%. I think that for me, again, this goes back to living in accordance with your values rather than obeying your emotions. Emotions are often not rational. They're often not, um, I don't look into them. I'm not like, oh, there's some giant deeper meaning here I need to solve through trauma therapy. Like, I'm like, we all are humans, we all have trauma, we all have crap that's happened. Like, just feeling poopy today, it is what it is. Like, I don't need to look into it. Because oftentimes us overanalyzing ourselves and our feelings and emotions perpetuates the cycle of not feeling well rather than just getting on with your day and remembering that you can have a day where you don't feel well and you're probably actually still going to have some times where you do feel good. And then you'll have times that day where you feel even worse and eventually it will change and it will pass and you will have a good day and you'll have a string of good days just like you have strings of bad days and they're normal. And I think that if I can give you one thing, it is that you have to stop searching for the silver bullet to feeling good, and you just have to learn how to do things when you don't feel good. And I think that oftentimes— I know myself in the past, and I'm sure many people now— it's like you just think, well, there's no way that if they felt how I feel, they would be able to get that much stuff done. And I challenge you on that thought, and I would actually say that they have just trained themselves to feel absolutely horrible and still get it done. So if you like this video, I will talk more on how to get things done when you are not feeling great. Um, and my guess is that by the next video I make, I will feel much better than this video. Um, so I hope that this was enlightening, and if so, go ahead, hit subscribe. I will see you in the next one.
