As a born multi-passionate I have been navigating the “having it all” narrative my whole life. And I’m not one to boast, but after 24 years I’d like to think I’ve done a pretty good job at cracking the code – at least for now.
And what I’ve learnt, is that if you want to live the ultimate blended life, whereby you get to pursue all of your multiple passions sustainably and feel fulfilled in every area of your business and life without consequences, then you need to increase both your INTERNAL and EXTERNAL capacity.
Internal vs External Capacity
What’s The Difference?
Your INTERNAL capacity is how much you personally can take on. This will fluctuate based on the severity of the external. But the more you can improve your patterns, the more you’ll be able to zone out the external and in turn, take on more.
Whereas your EXTERNAL capacity is your access to resources that act as your “match to flame” moment. Team members, outsourcing, knowledge, time, funds.
Even if you understand this basic concept. It can be tricky to pin point what’s taking up the internal vs external capacity in your own life. So I’ve listed below some examples of the things I find typically absorbing my clients internal and external capacity.
Things that take up your internal capacity vs things that take up your external capacity:
Internal Capacity Suckers | External Capacity Suckers |
|
|
How I Increase My Capacity
External
The most impactful way for me to increase my external capacity is to keep my finger on the pulse with my business operations. Whether this be processes and communication channels with team members, documentation for efficient delegation or investments in my development and learning. Keeping my business operations streamlined and up to date plays a vital role in maintaining and expanding my external capacity as a busy entrepreneur operating and managing several 6-7 figure businesses.
Internal
For me, I use rhythms as a baseline. Cadences of actions that make sure I’m set up to show up as the best version of myself. They spread across all aspects of my life. Some are daily, others are weekly. Some are lengthy, others are short. And when you look at them, you may think there’s a lot there. But by prioritising them, and not procrastinating on other things – they don’t actually take much time. And for me, having all of these things done and tracked frees up so much mental capacity. Making the time for these rhythms and building them into my life 10x’s my internal capacity, simply because they get the baseline things in my life handled and out of my head.
This works for me. But the key to success in increasing your capacity is finding what works for you.
The Framework
Like with everything else in life and business, our framework applies:
Because the truth is that as you continue to develop your business and grow as a leader, the things you want to do and HOW you want to do them will continue to shift. Meaning every process in your life needs to be in a CONSTANT cycle of refinement.
What works for you now may not work for you a year down the line, and that’s okay. Because if things weren’t shifting and nothing ever needed refinement, you’d never be progressing. (And if you’re anything like me, you’ll agree that a life without progression and development, isn’t a life worth living).
So the way to crack the code for yourself is by accepting that there is no magic answer. The only approach to move through life and business in a way that brings you happiness and fulfilment everyday is to accept that there’s no end goal. It’s a constant journey. And the only thing that matters are the marginal, compounding gains you make every single day, that get you one step closer to making your dream life a reality.
