[Week 6/52]: Personal Board Rooms for your Personal Life - A Brand New Idea and Practice!
Here's a habit that every founder, investor, and person should attempt! If you love it, it might just change your life forever!
Jan 26, 2026
[Preview]
If startups run their business with monthly board meetings…. why not run your life the same way?
In today’s blog we’re going to discuss a life habit which really helped benefit my personal happiness, my personality, and even my startup career for the better. Personal board meetings.
I’m going to share some real-life examples of goals I’ve set in the past, values I’ve established for my personal life, and more. This is a practice that is extremely healthy, and if you can be disciplined enough to do this on a monthly basis, I think you’ll thank me!
Scroll down to read the full concept in today’s blog. But first…
A word from our author in a Harry Potter style talking-painting
“Hey! Welcome to my blog, Don’s Daily!”
Hey, I’m Don! I’ve been building career memories for a decade. Over the last three years I’ve been reinvesting my own capital and time back it into my business. All the while learning and growing my net worth via public markets and crypto.
Over that same period, I also hosted 50+ virtual events with some of the world’s best VC investors and founders for our CEO group. Prior to all that, aside from my first job at Meta, I was lucky enough to raise $10 million in my twenties; doing my best to learn business, investor relations, and the startup mindset all at the same time. Maybe some of you can relate.
All that’s to say, I love business, I love money, I love to try and leverage my time.
This year, I set the goal to publish a thoughtful blog every Monday.. 52 of them! Don’ Daily is a recap of the entrepreneurship adventures I collect, as well as the new lessons I’m constantly learning from doing. My hope is that this entertains, inspires, and influences new creative ideas for you. Every Monday. If you enjoy the blog, please share some info on who you are, and your startup!
You already run meetings with your employees, team, and investors... so now you should run meetings with yourself
Today we’re going to break down the practice of ‘personal board meetings.’ These are defined as monthly meetings you set with yourself. In these meetings, you act as both the operator and the board advisor. Your goal is to leave each exercise with some clarity, and a plan for the upcoming month.
There’s a reason CEO’s have board meetings.. and now, as the CEO of your own life, you’re going to host them too. It sounds simple. Almost boring. But it has been one of the most stabilizing practices I have ever adopted. Once a month, I run a personal board meeting, and as you can see below, I’ve been running them on a monthly basis for years.
The mental shift that unlocked this for me was treating my life less like a diary and more like a business. Businesses do not rely on vibes alone. They review numbers. They assess strategy. They talk through risks and opportunities with perspective. So I do the same.
Just like a real company, everything ‘we’ discuss. (aka me, myself, and I) revolves around a structured template. There are three core parts to the template, I’ll break them down for you. And then provide you a blank template so you can begin the same practice with my outline.
Part 1: Re-establishing your core values and vision, every month!
This is an actual screenshot from my personal board meeting August 2024. My favorite part of this slide is filling out the ‘company values,’ aka, my personal prioritized values for that month.
Zooming in.. you can see that from 2023 to 2024, some of my values changed, but some of them stayed the exact same. You know once you’ve kept a value for months it’s probably a truth.
For example, in October 2023, one of the values I listed was, “steal the best ideas.” This was because at the time I was in full on marketing mode, and the best way to gain traction is to find content that works, then remix it. Now instagram built these tools into the platform, but back then it worked really well! And maybe that’s why in 2024 that value is no longer there.
What did I replace that value with? It was replaced with, “No shame / full transparency.” My extremely successful cousin, and Niko from General Catalyst, both gave me the same advice during the same month - ‘great founders have NO shame. They are willing to be embarrassed for the sake of their company.” And so I decided to try that out as a value for the month.
Part 2: Reassess your 90 day goals and 365 day goals.. every month!
This one is all about zooming in and thinking through tangible goals. These answers are not as timeless as your values slide, but yet, very important!!
By filling out this slide each month, I’m forcing myself to create some foresight around both near term goals (90 days) and longer term goals (1 year).
This is usually where I write down revenue goals, as well as opportunities which are currently in my orbit. I’d say only about 25% of what gets written on here actually comes true. But that’s still better than 0%. This is where you should set goals, and then subconsciously figure out how to get close to achieving them each day during the month.
Here is an actual screenshot from my October 2023 goals:
Each time I do this exercise, I literally start with a blank canvas. And then fill in the goals over about the course of 1-2 hours. I’ll provide you the full blank template at the end of the blog today!
Ask yourself right now… what opportunities do you have in front of you that you’re not yet taking advantage? And, what can you do over the next 90 days to remedy that?
Part 3: IKIGAI! A trendy way to find your purpose... but also, hey, kinda helpful!
An IKIGAi is a Japanese practice originating in the Heian Period (794–1185) from the words iki (life) and gai (value/worth, linked to kai or shell), evolving from finding value in life's small joys and societal contribution.
I know that sounds snobby… and it is because I pasted that definition from Google. The IKIGAI is a concept that a lot of influencers have corrupted, much like ‘manifesting.’ However, there is some real value of keeping an open mind.
The Four Core Ikigai Questions
What do you love?
What are you good at?
What can you be paid for?
What does the world need?
Those questions are posed in the form of a vin diagram. With the hops that whatever ends up in the overlapping circle found in the direct center.. that should be your North Star!
For example, I’m quite good at hosting events, talking, raising money for startups, and, I love people. All those realizations are what led me to creating my last business, which was a member-based online events company for startups. Thank you, IKIGAI!
Why should you try hosting a personal board meeting?
When you imagine a “board,” you are no longer stuck inside your own head. You are stepping back. You are forced to explain your choices as if someone else were listening. That alone changes the quality of your thinking.
Sometimes the board is proud. Sometimes the board is disappointed. Sometimes the board is neutral but cautious.
And sometimes the board sees opportunities you were too close to notice in real time. The key benefit is added perspective.
Where did I spend energy that did not compound?
What worked? What did not?
What moved the needle? What was noise?
Was this a good month or a bad one, and why?
What decisions paid off more than expected?
What patterns are repeating that I should not ignore?
No journaling for journaling’s sake. No emotional spirals. No rewriting history. Just a structured review. This practice helped me stop overreacting to bad weeks. It also helped me stop coasting during good ones. Instead of swinging between extremes, I started thinking in longer arcs. If you are building something, working toward something, or simply trying to live with more intention, this habit gives you a quiet sense of control. Not control over outcomes, but control over reflection.
How to use it:
[1] Make a copy. [2] Fill it out, Run your first meeting. [3] Let your board help you. Each month.
If the button below doesn’t work for any reason, you can also 👉 Get the Personal Board Meeting template here: Download
Claim your own copy of the Personal Board Meeting template, you can download it here (free!):
Want to suggest a cool topic we can learn on behalf of everyone and share with the group? AI Products? Investor intro’s? Pitch deck help? Startup idea? Co-Founder? Music? Want me to fund something? Something else?
