Know When to Sprint and When to Walk…
There’s no such thing as balance, people.
I know. It’s not what all of our gurus teach us. But let me explain.
In my experience, life is about seasons (not about daily balance). There are periods of time when we have to overtrain, to be unreasonable, to put in way more work than we ever want to. We get up at 3am and don’t stop until we hit a wall. We work out twice a day. We do a cleanse. Everyone has a period of time where they have to do a two-a-day.
What’s a two-a-day?
My friend and mentor Chalene Johnson once explained to me that football players often get in two, or three, workouts everyday before football season begins. There are seasons of their lives when they can work out 3 or 4 days a week, and then there are seasons when they have to put in the hard, condensed work.
They call them two-a-days.
If we think we can grow our business or change our lives or our bodies without periods of serious, balls-to-the-wall work, we’re kidding ourselves. You cannot ease into success anymore than you can force success.
There are times to overtrain. Times to work on your business 18 hours a day. Times to absolutely overdo it. And there are times to take your kids for a walk at 2 o’clock on a Wednesday.
That season of overdoing it led me to the place where I can take a day off or an extra vacation; it led me to be able to bounce back from a cheat day or one two many glasses of scotch. Putting in the hard, concerted WORK for a period of time is necessary.
It’s not about balance everyday.
It’s about balance over the course of a year; seasons.
Am I working too hard? Yep. I probably am. Next month I might not. But I’m not going to sit around worrying about it. I’ve worked “too hard” in the past, and it’s gotten me to where I am today (which is a pretty freaking awesome spot!).