Getting Out Of Balance
===
[00:00:00] If you have struggled with achieving your goals, if you feel like your life is constantly out of balance and if you struggle to prioritize your goals, then this episode is definitely for you. I.
What do you do when life throws you a curve ball and you get thrown off your path? What do you do? Well, that's been me for the last year and a half. I had goals. I had a vision, I had a clear direction for my future, and then my health started to fail. And what do you do? How do you stay on track? How do you keep moving forward to achieve your goals?
When something else is demanding your full attention? What do you do? Well, you might be surprised to hear me say that you put your goals down for a bit and you focus on the part of your life that needs your absolute [00:01:00] attention. And I know this isn't what we want to hear. As entrepreneurs, we wanna hear that we can push through it, fight our way through, get to the goals no matter what.
And sometimes, yeah, sure, depending on what it is. I had my health breakdown a year and a half ago after seven years of remission from an autoimmune disorder. Suddenly it came back within 24 hours. I went from being totally healthy, living my life to being fully in a flare up of ulcerative colitis and having to change directions.
Now, I did not do this lightly. It took me the first, I don't know, year, almost a year of dealing with this to come to terms with the fact that I needed to prioritize my health because I fought it. I fought it for the first while I ignored it, I denied it. I [00:02:00] refused to buy into the fact that I wasn't well, and the more that I resisted what was happening.
The worse it got for me until I finally said, okay, I surrender. I surrender. And from that point, I have started to heal, not quickly, but my body is starting to heal and I had to let myself learn to be imbalanced. I had to get out of balance in order to let this happen, and it was one of my mentors who said this to me.
He said, Teri, your health has to be your top priority right now, so it's time to put the goals aside, the business goals aside, that can wait, and it's time to focus a hundred percent on your health and to become unbalanced. Now, I didn't like this. I didn't like this until I realized that I'm actually really [00:03:00] good at being off balance.
I'm good at being off balance when it's the business that's taking the weight of it, you know, when it's the business that's throwing me off balance in other areas, I'm fine with that. Listen, I am a pure Capricorn. I'm a Capricorn Moon. I'm a Capricorn rising. I have Capricorn all over my astrology chart.
I am used to being unbalanced when it comes to putting business at the forefront of my life. I am okay being off balance when it's going in the direction that I like. But I was not okay being off balance when it was my health that was demanding my attention. So I needed to really sit with myself and take a step back and to be okay not achieving my goals.
I mean, not permanently. Not permanently, but putting them on the back burner, [00:04:00] so to speak, saying it's okay to not. Drive the business right now, it's okay to let it just maintain. It's okay to go with the status quo right now and to focus my resources, my energy, and everything else that I have into healing.
But man, that threw me for a loop. And I think we do this as business owners. We're okay being imbalanced when it's what we want, but not when we have to focus on something that we don't want to be focusing on. So I had to learn to get out of balance. And this came up in conversation today with my mastermind group.
We were talking about morning routines and what should be in a morning routine. And my first inclination was like, you gotta prep your mind, your body, you gotta get focused and you got to get to work because we're all entrepreneurs in this mastermind. So the focus is on business and then, Then I took a [00:05:00] step back and I came back around and I said, you know, I'm gonna contradict what I said, and I'm going to say that it depends on what your priority is at the time.
Because if your priority is not business right now, if it's health, then maybe you maximize your highest energy time of the day to put towards exercise, to put towards doing the things that are gonna make you healthier, and then you do your business stuff after that. Because that's been a big shift in my thinking over the last several months, is learning how to let myself prioritize health and make that the most important thing in my life, so that then I can eventually get back into business and focus fully on my business again.
So this has been a, a big shift for me, and this is why I want to talk about it on the show today because I think as entrepreneurs we do this, we prioritize our business sometimes to the detriment of our health and our wellbeing, and we need to stop. We need to stop doing that. [00:06:00] And I teach this stuff. I talk about it all the time about, you know, about taking care of you, about self-care, about creating healthy habits, but.
I allowed myself to ignore my health for a very long time until I could no longer ignore it. So this is where I am now. But that's enough about me. Let's talk about you. So why is this relevant to you or how is this relevant to your life? Well, when we set goals, we need to keep in mind that the conscious mind is the goal setter.
You consciously decide what you want. You think about it, you decide, okay, this is, this is how I want my business to be. This is how I want my health, my relationships, uh, this is what I want, my personal development, these are the things I want in my life. This is, you know, this is what I want. And we set goals.
And often a mistake is made in personal development where we teach people to set goals in all areas of life. And while it [00:07:00] is important that you know what you want in each area of life, your unconscious mind is the goal getter and the unconscious mind does best. It does. Its absolute best work when you're focused on one goal at a time.
And one area of life at a time. Now, I'm not saying that you can't set goals in different areas of life at once, but your big goal, the big thing, the one that needs your attention, like right now, my health is the big thing that I need to put my attention into. It doesn't mean I don't still have goals in my business, but I keep them relative to what it is I need to focus on.
So you can work on a big transformation or a big goal in one area of life at a time. I mean, could you work on multiple big goals in multiple areas of life at once? Sure, you could, but you're probably gonna get lackluster results. You're probably not going to go very far on any of [00:08:00] those because your, your focus is split in multiple directions.
It's like, if you imagine we're in a giant warehouse, And it's pitch black. There's no light coming in from anywhere. And in the center of that warehouse, there's a single light bulb and not, you know, like not one of those newer light bulbs, like, not the, the energy efficient bulbs, but I'm talking about those old incandescent bulbs, like a 60 watt bulb, let's say.
And you know, let's say we turn on that, that light. How much of the warehouse will be illuminated? Not very much. That bulb will cast a hazy dome of light around it, and then the further we get away from the light, the dark hurt will get until it's pitch blackness again. So that's 60 watts of unfocused energy.
It goes everywhere and nowhere. It [00:09:00] takes a lot of energy to produce a not great result versus a five watt laser, which can shoot all the way to the moon and be reflected back to earth. Five watts focused energy. So which one of those is your mind? If you are focusing on all the goals and all the areas of life, you're working on your relationships, you're working on your health, you're working on your finances, you're working on your business, you're working on your spirituality, and you're setting big goals in all these areas and looking for transformation, all of them, that's a lot of energy going everywhere and nowhere, and you're probably not going to achieve those goals.
You might make some headway on all of them, but you're probably not going to be able to fulfill them. Versus if you say, okay, this is the priority right now, I'm going to focus 100% on changing my financial situation right now. So I'm going to start budgeting. I'm investing, I'm [00:10:00] learning everything I can about money and how to grow my money, and I have a big goal that I'm going to.
Put into my future for how I want my finances to be one year from today, and I'm gonna focus my energy on this area of life until it's complete, you know, which, how like you would make amazing changes in that year. I. In that area of life, and that doesn't mean you're not still working your business and working on your relationships and everything else, but you keep those goals in perspective of your big goal, which is the finances.
Your unconscious mind does its best work with one singular focus. The 60 watt bulb is hot to touch. It's a lot of energy. You also burn out. That bulb burns out. Do you remember how often we had to change those bulbs? Those bulbs burn out because it's a lot of energy producing a not great result. [00:11:00] The five watt laser shoots the moon and back.
Do you wanna get to the moon? Do you want to achieve great things in your life? Now, I'm not saying that you can't. Work on all aspects of life at once. And when I'm working with my clients, I encourage them to pick the one area of life which will have a positive effect on all other areas. And that's where we start our work.
Think about it this way, if you focused for one year or however long it took, say you're, it was a, it could be a six month goal, it could be a three month goal, but let's just say, It's a one year goal to dramatically improve your financial situation and to really grow your money. So you set a 12 month goal for that.
Again, it could be six months, nine months, whatever the time is relative to the goal. But let's say it's 12 months and you focused your energy in that area. Do you think at the same time your business. Would improve because you, you also need to be making more [00:12:00] money to be able to invest more money. So you know that's probably gonna have a positive effect on your business.
Do you think that would positively impact your relationships? Absolutely. The number one reason that relationships, romantic partnerships fail is to do with money. I mean, people say it's communication, but it's usually they're not communicating about their financial stress. It's money. Money causes a breakdown of marriages.
Causes divorce. So do you think if you got your finances organized, do you think your relationship might start to improve? Absolutely. Do you think that your health would improve if you're not stressing about money All the time? Yes. Do you think that your health would also improve because then maybe you would have money to invest in better healthcare, to invest in better food, quality of food to.
Maybe hire a personal trainer to do the things that we know help us improve our health. Yeah. It becomes more doable. So [00:13:00] even though I'm saying have one singular focus, it's a rising tide raises all ships. So you start to improve one area of life and everything else is gonna start to rise with it. And then once you have the finances under control, you achieve that goal.
Then you can reassess and go, okay, you know what? I've spent the last 12 months or however long it was working towards this focus, but now, now I need a new goal. So now I'm gonna focus my energy for say, the next six months. I'm gonna focus for the next six months on working out and getting my fitness to where I want it to be.
And then I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna run a 10 K or whatever it is. That's the goal, to train for a 10 K in six months and improve my fitness level. Okay, great. We have the next goal, and if you do this, if you focus on one major goal or one major [00:14:00] area of life at a time, you'll get far greater results. And if you dilute your efforts and you try to work on everything at once, you'll burn out.
It's exhausting. And I think that's why people get to the end of the year and they go, oh, I set all these goals at the beginning of the year and I did nothing. I said I was gonna exercise and I was gonna eat better, and I was gonna budget and get my finances together, and oh, I was going to do so much of my business and I was gonna make sure that I was spending more time with my spouse and I, I did none of those things.
Yeah, it's too much. So it's important that when we're looking at our goals, To prioritize what is the most important, what's the biggest goal? What is the goal that if I work on this thing and if I achieve it, is going to improve all other areas of life? What is that thing? I mean, and we can do this with any area of life, like let's say health is your priority.
Do you think if you got healthier, your business would improve? Yes, it would because you'd have more energy to focus on [00:15:00] it. You'd have better mental clarity. You'd make better decisions if you focus your energy and your focus on health. Do you think that your. Relationship would be better. Definitely.
People who exercise regularly have more endorphins. They're just happier. They're more fun to be around. Um, you're feeling better about yourself. Your confidence starts to improve. The healthier you get, that rubs off on people. Yes, your relationship would be better too. Do you think that if you got healthier, your finances would improve?
Yes. Because you're not sick as often. You're able to work more, you're able to be focused when you're working and put your, you know, and be more intentional in your efforts. Yes, definitely. So the key is you pick the area of life that's gonna make the biggest difference for you, and you prioritize your goal in that area.
Now, For me right now. Like I said earlier, my business goals changed. I had big goals for this year. [00:16:00] I had to change them to just, okay, I'm going to maintain this level of business. I'm going to maintain the client load that I have. I'm gonna maintain my mastermind group. I'm gonna maintain what I'm doing until my health has substantially improved to a point where I have the energy and the stamina and the focus to be able to start putting a little bit more into my business again.
So if you've been setting your goals and you feel like you're just constantly spinning your wheels and you're not really getting any further ahead, are you setting too many goals? Is it time to reevaluate them? Is it time to maybe put some of them aside for a while? I'm not saying give them up, you know, I fully believe that you could have everything you want in life, but maybe not.
All right now. Lay them out on a timeline. You know, for the next six months, I'm focused solely on my health. When I achieve this goal, the next thing I'm working towards is I'm going to [00:17:00] do X amount of money in my business. That's the next goal. When I've achieved that goal, I. Say that's a 12 month goal.
When I've achieved that, my next goal, the next thing I'm gonna conquer is I am going to run my first marathon. So I'm gonna focus back on health again and getting to like super elite level athleticism. So whatever it is, just pick your one thing at a time to focus on for your big goals. Again, that doesn't mean that you can't be improving other areas of life, but your big goals.
Need your focus and one key area of life at a time. That's it for today. Make sure you hit the subscribe button because next week I have John Jonas joining me and he's going to share with us how to create the four hour work week through out sourcing. So if you want that time freedom and you want the money freedom, he is going to share with us some great tips on how to get it hit subscribe so that you don't miss [00:18:00] it.
And if you enjoyed this episode, please leave your five star review. They're always appreciated and they help more people like you to find this show. Thanks again for joining me, and I hope you have a fantastic week.
