We all have been there; listening to a training on how to improve our lives and be successful and the message that is preached is to go at it with 100% intensity and drive. How many times have you heard something along those same lines? How many times have we tried to do that and found that we could not maintain the drive as our mind and body burnt out? I know that I have done that more than a few times in my life and have abandoned dreams because of it. I have some to the conclusion that I was misunderstanding the message and not picking up on an important aspect of the trainings. The simple truth of it is that we need balance in life rather than just drive.

The message that I didn’t understand in all those trainings, is that the drive to hit our dreams and activities with 100% intensity is referring to the drive we need when we are doing those activities. Most time in these trainings, the speaker talks about the things in their life that has improved.  Yet if you read between the lines, you will realize that those things are not always 100% drive towards the professed goals. This is because the trainer is naturally taking balance into their own equation, working with that full drive when they are working on their dreams and goals, but taking time here and there to enjoy the fruits of their labors. I have no doubt that they are indulging in those fruits with the same 100% intensity, and when they are, they are using them to recharge their batteries. This is the only way to make the pace and drive we have sustainable. We can’t be working on our dreams every moment of every day, unless we can create a balance in our lives that still achieves the steps needed to reach our goals and gives us the time to recharge.

One of the secrets to this balance is to never let the recharging period become the status quo, allowing our dreams to stagnate and die.  We need balance, that there must be a give and take between the aspects of our lives. This can be a tough road to walk, but we are all dedicated to learning how to walk our path and keep moving towards our dreams.

For me, this balance comes in spending a day each week to connect with my good friends and play a board game, it gives me a connection outside of the driving dream that my wife and I share and a place to let my internal stores get refueled. What sorts of things do you do to recharge those batteries so that you can drive forward along your path with steady and constant momentum instead of getting dragged down by the quagmire or having your tanks run dry and ending up on the side of the road hoping for someone else to rescue you?

~Dominic

Life’s too short to have bad days.  What are YOU doing to make today fantastic?