Scared, elated, tense, relaxed, focused, diffused, confident. All of these conflicting emotions course through me on a regular basis. I know that I am supposed to just keep an even keel. No matter, good or bad, it’s all a product of your work level, so keep on working hard, the swings will even themselves out and that’ll be just great. I figure if my dad could do it, with all the pressures of raising a family, then I should be able to do it in my admittedly less pressurized situation. I don’t have a kid, a dog or a mortgage. I do have a beautiful and supportive wife and I owe it to her to keep an even keel and work my butt off to grow PlansForUs.

But the reality is that beneath my veneer of even keelness, I am a roiling cauldron of emotion. Now can I mellow that out by taking a step back, absolutely, but as things happen throughout the day and then replay themselves nightly before I go to bed; I have to admit that starting, launching and growing PlansForUs is an emotional exercise. I have read and heard from others about the emotional rawness of being an entrepreneur, but experiencing it is another thing totally.

To deal with this I have returned the coping strategies that have never failed me, physical activity. In my case basketball, running and soon, bicycling. You can find me almost every night, when I am in the city, around 6 at the Stuyvesant Courts in NYC playing hoops. Sometimes it’s 5 on 5, sometimes 1 on 1 and sometimes it me working on a shot that refuses perfection despite over 20 years of ongoing work. When I am not in the city or when the weather changes, you can find me punishing myself with a run, seeking that ultimate payoff, an endorphin rush. Soon you will find me on a classic Vitus 979 (thanks Uncle David) road bike cruising the roads of the East End and upstate New York. Come Fall, I will explore some longer rides up from the city up the Hudson.

The point of this entry is that I am interested in inviting those of you who are creating something and finding the emotional crucible of creation really intense to join me in some of these endeavors. Perhaps you are a fellow entrepreneur, perhaps you are a teacher embarking on a new experience. If you use physical exercise as an outlet, leave a comment, lets get together and regain our even keel through exercise.

by Tyler, CEO