Finding Balance

For the longest time, my goals were to train hard and to train constantly. I took no days off and I did not believe in easy workouts. This worked for awhile.

As a teenager with no injuries I felt invincible, but over time that changed. I would tweak my shoulder, then I would strain my back, then my knee would begin to ache. I could not reconcile my training philosophy with my body constantly in pain. I drove myself crazy, so focused on finding ways to push myself and maintain my conditioning rather than doing what was most needed. Rest.

I lived for years in an extreme mindset. Most of you do too. Whether you train too hard or do not rain at all. Perhaps you work too much. Perhaps you do not work enough. Maybe you only power lift, or do nothing outside of yoga.

Living in extremes is comfortable, but it's also detrimental. When your body and your mind finally do shut down, the hole you've dug is so deep it seems impossible to climb out of.

Living in balance is difficult, but it's also restorative. It takes constant awareness, microadjustments, and your complete attention.... at first. Over time balance will become a byproduct of your awareness.

How do you develop a balanced life though? First you need to transition from a state of unconscious incompetence (you don't know what you don't know), to conscious incompetence (You know what you don't know). A simple way to do this is to start tracking your day. How do you spend your time? Start simple: look at the balance between the hours you work and the hours you do not. Look at your sleep: are you getting enough. Look at your workouts: is every day a hard day or is every day too easy.

From here you can begin to adjust, tweak, break old habits little by little. Balance your diet, your sleep, your work, your workouts.

You never stop learning to balance your life, so you might as well start today!