Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Louis Deveseleer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Louis, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?
I limit my work time, take care of maintaining my social life, and workout every day.
As a startup founder, it is tempting to dedicate every waking hour to my project. But I noticed that when I do too much, it throws me off-balance: my productivity ends up decreasing and I get negative-minded. So I found that the best way to optimize my effectiveness is actually to do less work: I stop before I’m exhausted, and I force myself to keep doing all these other activities that do not directly impact my project but participate in my life balance.
Working out every day became a necessity as well. I alternate between calisthenics, climbing, jogging and slack-lining. It keeps me sane, healthy, feeling good, and mentally productive.
Consciously reducing my work time forces me to ask myself: what is the single most important thing to do for my business right now? That way, all my work time is spent on things that need to be done to move the business forward and it limits unproductive work time.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I created Calistree, a fitness app focused on calisthenics (bodyweight strength training), to keep me motivated and engaged with my training. Calisthenics practice became very important for me 6 years ago when it helped get me out of a depression state: it was pivotal in changing my life for the better. But I had trouble learning this complex practice and could not find good resources out there, so that’s why I set out to fill that gap with Calistree.
Everything is designed to make things easy for the user: workout programs are generated based on your objectives, equipment and level, and automatic suggestions help you progress over time. But it’s also extremely customizable, so you can create training programs and log workouts precisely as you do them, to track your progress in great detail.
There are over 1000 exercises in the library, which makes it the calisthenics app with the largest database. Exercises have simple demonstration videos, detailed muscles used information, and are linked together with Skill trees. As you log workouts, you gain mastery and experience points, so it makes it a bit like a game and you look forward to the next workout to keep growing.
The most exciting part of this project for me is to see how much people get from the app: thousands of users log workouts with Calistree every week and I regularly get messages saying it’s the best fitness app they’ve ever seen!
Helping people realize the benefits of a regular physical practice brings me a lot of satisfaction, because I know from experience the huge benefits it has on someone’s life, and how it can help them have a more positive impact on their own environment.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
– Discipline You have to put in the work and there is no magic bullet. The road is long but if you show up every day and take small steps, you’ll get somewhere. So wake up early, don’t waste time on useless and mindless activities, and stay focused on your vision.
– Balance
Life is short and you don’t know when it’s gonna end. There is no point in sacrificing everything for a project that will likely fail. So keep doing the things that bring you joy and make life worth living. Learning how to keep a good life balance will also be beneficial for the long-term development of your project, because you need to stay sane.
– Openness
Stay open to the world outside of your project and outside of yourself, otherwise you will miss out on a lot of opportunities for insights and personal development. Your project may be important to you, but it is only a tiny insignificant part of a large and complex world, inside of which it won’t be able to develop unless you have a deep understanding of that world.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
I know what I should do when I feel overwhelmed, but I don’t always do it, so I’m still working on that part… But what works very well is to stop whatever I’m doing, focus on my breath and try to empty my mind. Even just a few minutes is a surprisingly big help; I really should be doing it all the time!
In today’s world, our attention has monetary value and many products, such as social media apps, became really good at keeping our attention on them. We became used to always doing or consuming something, and the empty moments got driven out of our lives. But empty moments, where nothing is happening, are very important to give our busy minds a rest.
So try to take a few moments every day to do nothing, think nothing, and focus on your breath. It doesn’t sound like much, but it really helps!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://calistree.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calistree/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calistree.official
- Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.calistree.calistree
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calistree/id1558561315
