Tom Ferry says balance is overrated for ambitious people. He runs on zero balance but dims his intensity for family. Life is short, he argues, so either intentionally create balance or go all-in on big goals without regret.
I get asked the question all the time, how do you create balance? Well, what if I told you I have zero balance? I am super obsessed with my life, work with my mission, but what I have been able to figure out is how to just pause myself, how to, as my buddy Tim Grover says all the time, just dim the flame of my intensity and passion just a tad. Because my wife doesn't always want that, my 98 year old mother in law certainly doesn't want that. My puppy doesn't want it and my kids don't want it either. And you know what? I don't need it on the golf course or playing pickleball with my buddies, but I can't turn it off. And I think that's the difference between people that go out and achieve something big. They, they are, they just have this innate intensity about them. So when people say to me, how do you create more balance? I'm like, I don't know if I actually want any more balance. What I want is I want to have those moments of peace. I want to have that ability to keep dimming it down, as my buddy Tim says. And I want to just be present with the people that matter most and not with them. I want to give everything I have in my life to achieve the things I want to achieve. Because TikTok, tick tock. Life is short, my friend. So my question for you as you're watching this, was it more about balance because I probably didn't help, or is it really more about maybe turning the heat up, recognizing that life is short and we have a small amount of time on this planet to do something really special. And if you can do that thing that makes your heart sing at a high level, I promise you on your deathbed you will look back with no regrets. But I've had friends die in the last decade and sitting with them before they pass from cancer or something else, that's just tragic. All they talk about is what they regretted. All they talk about is what they regretted. And by the way, it wasn't just their personal life they regretted. Leaving it on the field, if you will, and not playing as big as they said they were going to when they were setting their visions and setting their goals. So I guess I just challenge you today, maybe just to think differently. If you need more balance, go make that happen, right? Carve out more time off. It's obvious, it's easy. Get an assistant, stop making sure that your phone is ringing all the time and have a Google phone that has it transferred to somebody else. These are super easy tactics, but I would challenge you to say, how do you light the flame of passion and intensity? Find out something that you're super inspired by and go for that. Learn something new. Learn a new skill. Drive yourself in a way you haven't driven yourself in a long, long time. Get out of the of your existing life and go do something big. Got it?
