Balance is defined as an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady. During a workout you need to balance a whole bunch of variables so you can successfully navigate yourself through it. If you balance all the variables of the workout you will generally have a good workout but if you put all your eggs in one basket imminent destruction in in your future. Go way too fast out of the gate and you’ll find yourself taking a nap in the middle of the gym floor mid WOD. Go too heavy and you’ll find yourself just staring at the bar or worse yet your form will be something that resembles a monkey fornicating with a football. You find that perfect balance or attempt to find it and you will be rewarded with a good workout. Same goes for our everyday lives. We have work, family, friends, bills to pay, CrossFit and for each of you, your own individual daily tasks that need to be taken care of. I personally have an innate ability to put all of my energy towards one aspect of my life and then giving what little energy I have left to take care of the rest. After a few weeks or months of this I have dug myself in a hole. I put all my eggs in one basket and before I know it I realize that I have become overwhelmed with all that I’ve ignored. Now my basket has gotten a hole in it with eggs dropping left and right. Everything is now screwed and I’m left wondering how in the hell am I going to get myself through. Up until recently this was something that came to a boiling point every couple months causing me to just kind of throw my hands up in the air and wonder why me? So I decided to take the bull by the proverbial horns and for once in my personal life start attempting to find balance instead of my typical mental breakdown. I sat down (in the woods) and took a mental inventory of my 5 most important parts of my life: family, CFGB, my health (mental & physical), my home and my friends. I realized that depending on what was most attractive at the time is where I put all my energy. Imminent failure. Since I’ve had this little breakthrough I’ve seen my overall quality of life improve by improving my life balance. Now I certainly have not perfected my balance but now that I’m aware when I see that basket starting to fray I’m able to stop what I’m doing and mend that basket before it’s too late. If you find yourselves in a hole take a few hours to yourself and decide what is all important to you and give each aspect a fair amount of your energy daily. It may surprise you how much your life changes just like your workouts when you start to attain balance.
Have a great Sunday!