Living Out of Balance

A few years ago, I drove more than 28 hours in just TWO DAYS to record five minutes of live television for the launch of a new product.

That seems crazy doesn’t it?! It felt absolutely INSANE to me at the time.

The trip reminded me of my physical fitness journey in lots of ways:

• You start out excited, all gassed up, the car is clean.
• At some point, you wonder why you ever took this on. You’re tired. The car is filthy. The clock (scale) never seems to move fast enough.
• You hit rain, darkness, delirium, but you press on, fueled by momentum and a desire to achieve your destination.
• At the end, you feel super proud of all you accomplished.

Once you’ve achieved that big goal, it’s time to focus on other things that will help you continue to build momentum toward your goal. There is no “done” – only a next phase of the journey.

But I think the biggest takeaway I realized from this trip is that sometimes to achieve our goals, we HAVE TO be out of balance.

Sometimes we HAVE TO focus on mastering ONE new thing instead of spreading our energy across multiple endeavors. To really focus on our health, we need time to shop, prepare, cook and exercise. We may also want to journal, mediate and read.

All of these activities take time – time that we used to spend doing something else.

When we take people through a mental fitness journey through our 8 week Positive Intelligence bootcamps, the impact is similar.

Think of your health journey like having a newborn baby. You need time to nurture this new life you want. Your priorities will shift. Decide, what can you delete, decrease or delegate?

• Keeping your house spotless
• Going out with your friends, watching TV, going out to eat
• Working evenings and weekends to get that promotion

You don’t have to give your other priorities up forever, but you may need to be OK with being “out of balance” for a while.

SOMETIMES, SOMETHING HAS TO GIVE!

When my friend told me that driving to Tennessee and back would be 14 hours each way, I thought,

“NO WAY can I do it!”

…then I thought about all the competitors (including several friends) who swam, biked and ran for about 14 hours to complete the Ironman.

I adjusted my thinking…

“If people can exert themselves physically for 14 hrs, I can certainly sit in the car to do something that is going to help me achieve this big, potentially life-changing goal.”

When you look at your life wheel, realize there is no perfect balance.

Balance sometimes can only be achieved by being out of balance for a while.

When I committed to my physical and mental fitness 10 years ago, I had been on the bench, raising kids and running a business for many years. I couldn’t do a pushup, much less a burpee. I couldn’t meditate for 20 minutes. I was burned out, stressed out, overweight, and struggling.

Yes, it took extra effort to get back into shape.

Yes, I had to give up drinking beer and eating pizza on a regular basis.

Yes, I wanted to skip my mindfulness exercises or meetings.

But over time, my health routine wasn’t as new, wasn’t as time consuming, and other areas of my life could come back into balance.

The truth is that sometimes being out of balance is the fast track to being in balance.

Don’t let your past or current circumstances hold you back any longer.

Take the first step towards a fulfilling future by joining our Thriving Men Program. Together, we’ll help you thrive in every aspect of your life.