The illusion of balance

Oh yes let me be the first to admit, I am a sucker for the "balance" speech. It sounds so good right, you have to have "balance" in your life, work hard play hard, take a break, go on vacation, watch TV at night to relax, take a day off, take a night off, take a weekend off... I don't want to sound like a fun Nazi, but this is a lesson I learned the the hard way, you must consciously decide to get out of balance in order to accomplish great things.  Randy Gage wrote a blog about it last week and it got me thinking. For that past 10 years I have been an avid goal setter, I set goals and I go after them. But if I'm being 100% honest, I give myself lots of slack. What I mean by slack is that I put things on my goal board that I don't have to get out of balance for....deep down I know that a lot of my goals are  fluffy. And the real ones that require me to get out of "balance" usually end up on the "goals" to go after next year or "things change" or "too unrealistic".  I'm not sure when or why I had this epiphany but it hit me when I was looking at my goal board that I created this year.

So on here I have 3 categories...Personal, Career and Health. And quite frankly its pretty all over the place. What was I thinking? How can I expect to accomplish anything great when I'm spread so thin over all these different goals. And the truth....I CAN'T and I WON'T.  You know why successful people are successful? I would say 99% of the time they consciously give up everything else and focus on one thing, for a least 5 years. They don't go on vacations, they don't jump on every new opportunity that walks in their path, they don't get distracted by every shiny thing, every different path. NO, they stay committed to their goal and focus on that one thing 100%.

Here we are in August and I have hit a lot of my "fluff" goals for the year. I'm like a cat with ADD in a room of shinny things when it comes to "jumping on new opportunities" or expanding my current entrepreneurial ventures. I love starting new things. It's fun! It's exciting! I hate the follow through, I hate the out of balance part. You know the part where you decide to keep going or walk away. Yeah. I'm calling myself out...OUCH!  I've never in my life committed to a goal longer than 3 years. I mean really committed to something. That stopped when I came to this harsh reality. I'm getting way out of balance until I reach my goal.  My house is trashed, my yard is over grown with weeds, I haven't gone out with friends or on a date with my husband in months, I will miss my workout, I'll miss cooking at home, I'll miss my softball league, and vacations and frankly anything that does not get me closer to my goal. Well with two exceptions, God and Family those are things that I will never let out of balance. Everything else is out the door. Here's why... I am going to be successful. I am going to be financially free. I don't care how long it takes me. I'm not changing course.

Let me put a little side note in here: when I say financially free, I mean really free. Most people fall into two categories... employees and/or business owners/self employed. In my definition, being in either of those two categories you can never be free. (Read Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant: Rich Dad's Guide to Financial Freedom by Robert T. Kiyosaki for a much better explanation) I've been both. Employee is obvious...  you have someone telling you what to do, how to do it and how much you're worth...ooooo but being a business owner with no boss and no rules...Whooo I'm free!! Not quite, now you just own a job and believe me that business will run your life. Seriously ask any business owner they will tell you how much "freedom" they have. No my friend you are still trading your hours for dollars, your paycheck is a direct reflection of how much time you have personally invested and it stops when you're gone.   I'm not a genius and this is just my opinion but the only people that are living financially free are those that understand residual income or income that continues to be generated after the initial effort has been expended. For example, songwriters, inventors, patents owners, and actors they all get paid residual income. Most of those people are extremely talented, what about us average people? Ever heard of Direct Sales? We get paid residual income too. There are lots of good companies out there, I'm not talking about the shady pyramid companies that force you to buy their products, stock the products, sign people up or pay monthly fees. I'm talking about real direct sales. Do your research before you jump on board with one. Okay that's it for the side note..
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My goal is to coach and be a mentor to hundreds of other families so they can live free too. In order to do that I have to be focused. And to be honest until I am free myself I will never be able to help others the way I want to. Having financial freedom will allow me to stop thinking about myself, my bills, how my family will survive and start living for others.  I have to let everything else fall out of balance so that I can pour every ounce of energy into helping people reach their goals. I sat around and made excuses for 3 years, for 3 years I sat with this opportunity in my hands and I made excuses on why it wouldn't work for me as I lost focus and danced with every new opportunity that came my way. I sat back and watched as my teammates and good friends, went from a small team of  about 10 to a huge organization of hundreds. They have changed hundreds of lives because they stayed focused. Moms being able to quit their jobs to raise their children, families not fighting over finances, people being able to volunteer time, donate a lot of money to things they care about,  having the choice to leave jobs they hate, dad's being able to go to their kids sports, families being able to take vacations around the world, adults being able to spend months with their sick parents... that's what they did for people, not even mentioning everyone that they have helped with their health, wellness and fitness.  I could have done the same.

It was a simple decision I made to myself a couple of months ago...this is the first time I'm writing about it. I told my husband. He was on board but the decision I made to myself is what changed everything. It's amazing what kinds of things start to "happen" with a simple self promise.

AdvoCare came into my life 3 years ago...I wasn't ready. The products changed my life. And they sure changed my Husbands life, they are the reason he is a CrossFit coach today and why he has such passion for health and wellness now.  The products work for every single person that commits to program.  The leadership and the company values have shaped me as a person. When people are ready, this company will change their life too.  I don't have to convince people that it can or will do the same thing for them. I share my story, I listen and I lose myself in other people's goals. That's it. I don't "sell" anything or try to convince anyone to do something they don't want to. I pay it forward to people that are looking for the same solutions that I was looking for and when I do that AdvoCare takes care of me and my family. I refuse to leave my children with my debt. I refuse to not make a positive impact. And I refuse to live a life anything less than extraordinary. Everyday regular people become extraordinary by getting out of balance. They consciously decide that they want it more than anything else and they commit to it no matter what life throws at them.