If you’ve just joined us - we’re really glad you’re here. I blinked… got buried in a very full week… and suddenly we have a LONG list of new members and crossed 1,000 members as a community. 😅🎉 So if you joined recently and didn’t get an official welcome yet - this post is for you.Welcome to the chaos, the care, the growth, and the genuinely supportive humans that make this space what it is. Hitting 1,000 members isn’t just a number. It's 1,000 people choosing connection, consistency, and community over doing things alone. And that’s something worth celebrating. 👇 Let’s help you settle in: • Drop an intro post and tell us who you are + what you’re working on • Get familiarized with Classroom and Calendar to get familiarized. • Follow your mod team - @Sebastian Schroeder, @Alison St. Romain and myself for all the exciting things we cook up for you. @Nichola White @Mitchell Starc @Jeannie Goodwin @Forest Benedict @Greg Shackelford @Alex Bodi @Ashley Manta @Gurvinder Singh Sandhu @Lance Oldham @Sian Cowan @Rachel Bents @Anete Faulds @Emerson Patton @Ari-Amber Doolé @Joshua Maseda @Mrs Martha @Robert Lombino @Ced Digital @Jhoss Pacheco @Yana Firman @Lisa Concepcion @Adriana-Morena R. @Alexander Royce

My dear friend @Maxwell Riseman just made a post in his community, RiseUp Together, about "Healing the Heart", where he shared this lovely Instagram Reel about healing your nervous system through experiences rather than simply waiting for it to happen. He called on me and others like @Rachel Bents from The Joy Project to share our strategies on creating more joy in our lives. (In case you didn't know, one of our big missions at Focus Founders is to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and lives from a place of FLOW and JOY, rather than necessity or struggle.) I really enjoyed this question, and I wanted to share my response. I recently came across the idea that joy & gratitude are like muscles. The more you practice them, the stronger they become in you, and the more easily they become your default state. So how do you exercise these muscles? Here are some ways that have worked for me: 1. Gratitude journaling. Each day, write 3-5 things you are grateful for in your life. 2. Guided meditations around gratitude or joy. Practice coming back to these emotions regularly throughout your day. 3. Play a game I call the “I like” game. I look around and name things I like out loud. “I like the way those leaves shake in the wind. I like the feeling of the sun on my face. I like watching the ducks swim.” 4. I also play the "I like" game with friends. We simply take turns naming things we like! It’s a good practice for becoming someone who notices things you like as you move through the world. 5. Sing the gratitude song. “I thank you, thank you for [insert thing you’re thankful for here]. For example, I thank you thank you for this beautiful day. Or I thank you, thank you for the sun today. Your imagination is the only limit here!