Build Your “Mental Health Stack” Before Quitting The 9–5
You can be the CEO of your life with these 3 practices
Being the CEO of your life is stressful.
You have to juggle friendships, health, finances…
So much adult stuff.
And these “things” don’t disappear when you quit your 9–5. They get bigger.
So it’s time to disarm your fears, even if you’re not quitting.
These three practices can help.
Practice #1: Build your “mental health stack”
Alex Lieberman coined the term “mental health stack. " It’s like a tech stack — popular with company executives — but for mental fitness. He uses his daily.
“Managing your mental health is a full-time job […]
“There are things on my mental health stack that (bring down) my base level anxiety […] And there are things that help lower the fluctuations […]
“When I’ve not taken care of one of these things (sleep, exercise, diet) for more than three days, my baseline moves from a three or four to a six or seven […]
“I have a therapist, an executive coach […] and (I educate) myself […]
I’ve taken Alex’s advice to heart. I’ve built my own mental health stack. I make sure I’m eating enough, exercise daily, and get 7–8 hours of sleep a night.
Extras for me include:
Spending time in nature
Reading before I go to bed
Journalling every day
Practice #2: Weekly “fear-setting”
Make no mistake — quitting your 9–5 is scary.
I held off for as long as I could. I’m also risk-averse, so I built up 12 months of savings. Six may work for you.
Having a year of savings helped, but my mind still jumped to the worst. What if I can’t make payments? What if my income dries up?
What if, what if, what if…
To ease these worries, try “fear-setting”. It’s a practice made popular by Tim Ferriss.
Once a week, I list ten of the worse things that could happen in my life. I then note ten ways I could prevent these things from happening. Finally, I list ten ways I could repair each bad thing.
The practice helps me realise how deceptive my fears can be. I face them head-on and see their point of view.
Here’s a free template in case you’re interested.
Image from mindfulambition.net
Practice #3: Lex Fridman’s mantra routine
Lex is one of my unofficial mentors.
He’s the host of The Lex Fridman podcast and has interviewed some of the world’s leading figures, including Elon Musk.
He’s a humble guy and keeps things simple. He wears suits outside because he likes how they feel. His YouTube videos are loosely edited.
I could go on.
In one of his videos, he shared “a day in my life”. What struck me was his mantra routine.
It goes like this.
Part I: Rules
He says, “I remind myself of the constraints in which the game is to be played.”
Such rules include:
Getting 6–8 hours of sleep every night
Only checking social media when he posts (1–3 times a day)
Exercising every single day, even if he’s injured. “I find a body part that’s not injured and exercise that.”
Part II: Visualise
Next, he visualises his day ahead — but quickly. “Like I’m in a game of Sims […]”
He then says aloud three things he’s grateful for and meditates on the idea that he might die.
“Today could be my last day on Earth.”
Part III: Goals
After visualising them, he says his long-term goals out loud. These are ambitious, five-year goals.
These are followed by his short-term goals. Lex defines them as things he can do by the end of the year.
Just out of reach but achievable.
Part IV: Principles
Finally, he lists his core principles. You can think of these as affirmations. These are things he strives to do.
He admits his principles are a little cliche.
They revolve around compassion, empathy, love, character, integrity, and strength — mental and physical.
Here’s a screenshot of my own mantra routine:
Screenshot by the author
Takeaways
Quitting the 9–5 is scary.
The human brain is thousands of years old, and it’s wired to detect fear. Just the faintest whiff is enough to trigger alarms.
There’s no point running. Let’s embrace it! After all, mindset is 80% of the game.
Here’s a quick summary of three practices that can help:
#1: Build your “mental health stack” — Check off your diet, exercise, and sleep. Consider other self-care practices, like meditation and therapy. It’s best to build the habits before you need them.
#2: Weekly “fear-setting”— Your fears may look absurd when they’re captured on paper.
#3: Lex Fridman’s mantra routine — Positive self-talk can put you in an abundance mindset.
“Keep daring. You have nothing to lose but fear.”
— Nicole Hernandez, The Travelling Hypnotist
Want to ditch the 9–5? Get my free 19-page guide: Everything I Did to Quit My 9–5 Job & Transition Into Profitable, Sustainable Solopreneuring :)
