The Founder Who Learned to Stay Plugged In

“How do I do it all?”

A client called me last week. Let’s call her Sarah.

Founder of a tech start up and mother of two dealing with product launch delays, investor calls, end of year school events and a living room cluttered with toys she couldn’t handle anymore.

“I woke up again with this anxiety and foreboding sense of, you know, I can’t cope with life,” she told me. “How is it all going to work? How am I going to do all of the things that I want to do?”

She paused. “I’ve been feeling very fluctuating in my mental state.”

I’d heard this before. Not just from Sarah, but from countless high-achievers. Brilliant minds running on fumes, disconnected from the very source that could fuel it all.

Somewhere between the pitch decks and delayed products, between school runs and investor meetings, she’d innocently unplugged herself from her own power source.

When you’re not managing your internal state, everything external feels overwhelming.

In his book “Falling Upward,” Richard Rohr shares a conversation with Desmond Tutu: “We are only the light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in.”

We’re not the electricity. We don’t generate the power. We’re the conduit.

And our only job is to stay plugged in.

Throughout human history, every culture recognised this universal energy source. The Hawaiians call it Mana. The Chinese called it Chi. Indians spoke of Prana. Africans in Yoruba tradition called it Ashe – the divine life force.

Different names. Same truth.

There’s an infinite source of energy available to us at every moment. The same intelligence that beats your heart without you thinking about it.

It’s always there and always flowing.

The question isn’t whether the power exists. The question is: are you staying connected to it?

Brilliant, capable people run themselves into the ground because they’re trying to power through on willpower alone. They’re operating like disconnected battery-powered devices when they could be plugged into an infinite source.

As I guided Sarah through her overwhelm, I asked: “What’s draining your energy right now?”

The clutter, the lack of movement, and lack of creating space to recalibrate was costing her.

“Let’s start with the fundamentals,” I said. “Let’s get you plugged back in.”

Not through massive life overhauls. Through the simple things that actually matter.

The fundamentals for me are: eating, sleeping, and moving.

The fundamentals aren’t glamorous.

Social media glorifies the extreme versions of self-care. The ice baths, the 90-minute meditations, the biohacking supplement stacks.

But staying plugged in isn’t about Instagram-worthy routines. It’s about unglamorous fundamentals that work.

I learned this myself just this week. I was in Manchester for an event with a former client, completely out of my routine. I could feel the difference of being plugged out. Lack of sleep, poor diet, hardly any strength training all results in mental fog, reactive energy and scattered focus.

That’s when I came back to what I call my minimum standard.

We all have ideals. The perfect morning routine. The complete workout. The meditation practice. But when you’re traveling, when business demands pile up, when life gets chaotic, what’s your minimum standard?

For me, it’s simple. When I can’t do anything else and there are a thousand other priorities screaming for my attention, my minimum standard is this: 12 push-ups, some stretching for mobility, and some form of meditation, even if it’s just five minutes.

That’s it. Bare minimum.

These aren’t revolutionary. They’re not sexy. But they keep me screwed in.

For Sarah, we started with similar fundamentals. Daily movement, minimum of 15 minutes, because her nervous system was stuck in fight-or-flight. Clearing that cluttered living room because physical space affects mental state.

I also gave her the task of writing down everything on her mental radar and getting it out of her head onto paper, physical paper – not her Notes app on her phone (this has a very powerful effect on the mind).

Ultimately, overwhelm isn’t created by what’s going on outside. It’s created by the way you are seeing your world. When you are plugged in, when you are in a state of higher frequency, you see your world differently.

There are people out there with more priorities and challenges than you right now who are feeling blessed, peaceful and powerful.

What’s the difference? The external challenge or the observer?

The beauty of Desmond Tutu’s metaphor is simple. The light bulb doesn’t manufacture the electricity. It just stays connected to the source.

When you’re plugged in, everything shifts.

You are connected to something greater. Problems that felt crushing suddenly feel workable. Not because circumstances changed, but because you’re no longer running on empty.

What keeps you plugged in won’t be the same as what works for me or Sarah. The point isn’t copying someone’s routine. The point is knowing what reconnects you to your source and having a minimum standard you won’t drop below.

After seven years of coaching senior execs and successful founders, here’s what I know: you don’t need more strategies or another productivity framework. You need energy. Everything else flows from being plugged in.

So I’ll ask you what I asked myself in Manchester this week:

Because your job isn’t to become the electricity. Your job is to stay screwed in.

The question isn’t “how do I do it all?” it’s “what energy state will allow me to achieve this all?”

One thing I do most days is my 20 minute energetic calibration meditation – it helps me start my day in the right state.

You can download it for free below.

Here are a few ways you can start your journey of transformation:

1) BRAND NEW!! Join our Lead From Within Circle on 8th Dec – Take off the mask and uncover of your truth with other growth minded professionals. Only 10 space available. ​

2) 📓 Journal with Jaineel 7 Day Experience for Free – 7 days, 10 minutes a day. One prompt. ​

3) 🧘 Download my free guided meditation – 20 minutes to calibrate your energy and shift your state. Remember: you don’t attract what you want, you attract who you are. ​

4) 📞 Let’s talk – If you’re ready to do this work 1:1 or in a group setting, book a call with me ​
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