I was 24 at the time — ambitious, said yes to far too many requests and opportunities, and wore the hustle 24/7/365 mentality like a badge of honour.

From the outside, it looked like success. The company was growing at a pace I never anticipated, but what I didn’t (want to!) see was the toll it was taking. As the company grew my responsibilities piled up and other areas of my life began to take a hit — my health, relationships, personal interests — they all took a back seat to the almighty hustle.

It took a devastating health crisis to wake me up.

I had to step down as the CEO of my company and accept the collapse of the painfully achieved identity that came with it. This was my body’s way of shouting what I’d been too busy to hear — constantly pushing beyond my capacity to the point of near death wasn’t serving anyone.

Not me, not my company, not my team, not my investors, and certainly not those that I cared about most.

So why am I telling you this?

Because last week, we touched on the importance of integrating our goals across different areas of life. We talked about how success in one area shouldn’t come at the cost of chronic neglect of others, which in turn can (and eventually will!) cause the collapse of the success we’ve achieved in other areas.

Which is why today, I wanted to get to the core of how we can actually achieve this balance by addressing one of the most consistently overlooked attributes in the pursuit of our goals.

Knowing where to draw the line.

The truth is when we set new, integrated, goals for the priority areas in our lives — it’s vital to understand the full implications of pursuing them, especially when they demand time and energy we don’t readily have.

The simple rule is: by saying yes to something, you, inevitably, say no to something else.

This is especially important to remember when you’re prone to overextending yourself in one specific area of your life — as it’s all too easy for a new goal to slip under the radar of our awareness and contribute to further overextension, reinforcing the habitual pattern.

Whether you want to grow your business, get in the best shape of your life, or start showing up as a better, more engaged, partner — if you want to direct more of your time and energy towards an area that you’ve neglected or wish to excel in, you must consider the trade-off you’d need to prevent adding to already full plate.

And this is where things start to unravel.

Often without realising it, we’re setting ourselves up for failure. We stretch ourselves thin, trying to juggle our new commitments alongside existing responsibilities. Our energy depletes, our focus scatters, and the quality of our work and relationships — in all areas — begins to suffer.

This might look like those fresh into a new relationship, who pour all their time and energy into their partner, neglecting their work in the process, only to find themselves feeling out of control, dependent and further back from where they started months down the line.

Or in my own case, working myself (quite literally!) nearly into the ground.

Both of these scenarios stem from the same root — a “mono focus” — the fixation on one goal that consumes most, if not all, of our capacity. It’s a concept we discussed in last weeks newsletter, and the reason why I encouraged you to identify your top 3 priority areas and set clear, integrated, goals for them.

However, knowing your goals isn’t enough. To give approriate time and attention (and therefore achieve your goal!) you must know where and when to draw the line — which is where boundaries come into play.

There are many different forms of boundaries, but here I’m speaking of the boundaries you set to protect yourself against your habitual patterns of behaviour. They’re the imaginary lines that highlight where one thing ends and another begins. As much as they help you to protect your time, energy and focus, they also allow you to be in the driver’s seat of your life.

To invest appropriate time and energy to each area of your life, not only to restore balance, but so that they (and you!) can thrive.

My startup journey taught me that without these boundaries, we risk more than just burnout — we risk creating an imbalance that cause our house of cards to collapse. We simply can’t have or do everything at once, and pretending otherwise is a recipe for disaster.

And trust me — I learned this lesson the hard way, but I see many of my clients, peers and loved ones falling into the same trap.

So, how do we start setting our boundaries?

How do we know where and when to draw the line?

First of all, when we talk about setting boundaries, we’re really talking about honouring ourselves and our commitments by creating a structure that allows us to pursue our goals without sacrificing the things (and people!) we claim to be important to us.

The key is to make these trade-offs consciously, proactively and intentionally as opposed to reactively waiting until you’re drowning in commitments to start cutting back.

So, for those who completed the exercise last week of identifying your 3 primary areas of focus for the last 6 months of ’24, and have set integrates goals for them — I now invite you to get clear on the boundaries you need to set to make these goals a reality.

To do this, get radically honest and ask yourself:

What are the consequences of saying yes to the goals you have set outside of your MAIN area of focus (the area of overextension)?

What boundaries do you need to be put in place to give the time and energy that these goals need and deserve?

And are you able and willing to adhere to these boundaries?

Over the last three weeks, I’ve given you the insights and tools to help you make the most of ’24. But now, it’s really up to you to stick to your promise.

So, can we make a deal?

That for once and for all you keep the promises you make to yourself.

No more “’I’ll do it tomorrow”.

No more but [insert your go to excuse]…

No more lying to yourself.

Not following through destroys your ability to trust and LEAD yourself.

For once and for all, decide what you know you MUST do.

Get clear on what and what doesn’t deserve your time, energy and attention.

Start where you are, take it one promise, one task, one habit, one decision at a time.

This is how self-trust is built.

This is how you reclaim control of your time and energy.

This is how you honour all aspects of your life.

It’s hard at first, but trust me, the rewards are unmatched.

So, do we have a deal?

That you start treating yourself like you matter enough to stick to your promises and honour your boundaries? Because you do.

Give it a try.

It has worked for me, over and over again, and I believe it will work for you too.