Written by: Dan Lawson, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Riddle: Many want me, some are ‘working’ on me, but very few get me… What am I?
So here you are finding yourself brushing up on some inspiring lifestyle and personal development articles through Brainz Magazine. And regardless if these have been topics of interest for a while now or something is changing within you to find new answers; the idea of improving your lifestyle balance may resonate with you. Or by contrast, maybe the term ‘balance’ might evoke an eye roll or an internal trigger ‒ especially if you have been around for a while?
For me it evokes some questions as to why it draws such contrasting reactions; what does work/life balance even mean? Is this an overused phrase? Does this model of balance even really apply in the modern-day? And how with all this talk about balance, can it really assist with progress and momentum in our lives?
I invite you to take a moment to consider how you are defining balance in your life currently, and if or how it's important to you.
Why Adventurepreneurship?
Adventurepreneurship goes beyond the egotistical and self-centered desires which entrepreneurship is often associated with. And so which, as a community, we are creating adventure lifestyle businesses that hold meaning and purpose for not only ourselves but with true ecology for the greater good.
For us following the ideologies of Adventurepreneurship, balance or maybe should I say alignment becomes a critical starting point. Because, a truly successful and functional lifestyle goes beyond physical activities, and embraces all elements of all aspects of our life. From conscious experience to fully embodied emotions for healthy relationships with ourselves & others.
Is society misguiding us on life balance?
Balance is certainly not that old model which is thrown around in the corporate office when we are asking for time off. For starters, it presupposes that work and life cannot co-exist as if we must be working or ‘life-ing’ in isolation to each other, which is obviously not true. Just take a look around… and those who are getting it right are loving that their life and work are so intertwined in a functional way.
But how about this one; the average job takes 8-10 hours per day, 5-6 days per week, for then rewarded with one or two days off. Do that for 4-6 months of the year, to then just to get a few more days off… Subtract your sleep time, then put it in a pie chart and notice there is something wrong with this balance. Further, just begin to notice all of what is generalised as ‘life’, but is treated like it is just a couple of little things like a trip to the beach, a night out, or a little holiday. Again, ‘life’ in its truest functional form is so much more than that!
As quoted by Earl Nightingale “The challenge is finding the gaps between which exist where you are now and the goal you are intending to reach”
I appreciate his thinking because often these gaps that we need to attend to most are not even in the area in which we are paying attention to when trying to achieve our goals. It presents a paradox that in order to get really great success in one area it will often mean we need to look in the opposite direction that we have been unconsciously neglecting for too long.
For example, have you ever noticed those who are really successful or connected in one area of their life tend to have chaos in another? Highly successful business people lacking healthy relationships, hobbies, health, etc? Or a highly family-oriented person often lacking a personal greater life purpose and resulting empty nest syndrome? Just to name a couple. Being overly focused in specific areas means others are often wiped out.
What is the framework in reliably finding the imbalances in our life?
The Wheel of Advenutrepreneurship is an exercise I have my clients and I go through together so that they can calibrate themselves and raise awareness in where they’re currently at. Something we all notice is that our wheel is far from being a smooth ride, and if it was on our car we can quickly understand why our journey without this awareness is never as smooth as we’d love it to be.
It is a great starting point as it really allows us to point out the area of our life that we unconsciously knew we had been neglecting or not taking responsibility for. And with this, we are empowered to face our own reality to make a change into shaping a new future with volition!
I’d love to invite you to download the free resources here to complete it yourself.
Dan Lawson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Dan Lawson is a professional in the lifestyle creation space leveraging proven ideologies and approaches to emotionally connect with and create a life that we can fall in love with. As Dan himself is an Entrepreneur, Coach, Business Owner, Author, and Facilitator just to name a few of his professional angles of expertise, he prefers to go by his self-proclaimed title of ‘Adventurepreneur’ which encompasses all of who he can be for those who he serves. Dan is an advocate for proven strategies with clear competencies and metrics for success which he demonstrates himself through tangible guarantees on all his services ‒ which is rarely seen in personal development!
