Living outside of reality
Over the last few months, I have been giving everything I have into making my dream of traveling across Canada in a bus come true.
It’s the first thing that’s on my mind when I wake up in the morning and the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep (often much later than I would like).
The rest of my life, be it my digital marketing business, my finances, my friends, family, and even my girlfriend have all taken a back seat to this pursuit.
In my head, this was an easily justifiable decision.
After all, just looking at the sheer scale of what I was attempting, it seemed obvious that I would have to prioritize goals above all else if I ever wanted to accomplish my dreams.
It’s this ‘life segmentation’ that has allowed me to push so hard and accomplish so much in such a short period of time.
Unfortunately, though, it’s also this decision that has caused reality to come crashing down upon me and it’s this decision that has forced me to reevaluate how I should live the rest of my life.
Sacrificing your life to strive for your dream
For all my accomplishments I am now facing the reality that I have not balanced my life very well.
Like a child with tunnel vision, I have become so focused on only this one aspect of my life and in doing so I’ve completely ignored almost all others.
It’s evident to me now the impact this has been having on my life and I can now see the sad truth that I must now face because of it.
Sacrificing my relationship
My relationship has taken the hardest part of my pursuit which has put a large and somewhat unfair burden on our day to day basis.
Free time has all but been eliminated from my schedule so finding (or making) the time to invest into romance or carefree fun has all but disappeared as well.
We still spend time together of course, but often I am distracted by the things I have left undone or by the constant updates of pending notifications.
This imbalance of priorities has sadly caused us to argue more and for her to love my passions less and less…
Sacrificing my business
My business has also taken a toll these last few months because of my lack of balance.
They say a good business should be 30 percent sales and 70 percent execution. Well, when you focus 100 percent of your time on execution and 0 percent on sales it’s not long until your business has a problem.
I have let my business, my primary source of financial stability run dry.
And even though the clients I’d had have been happy with my work, their contracts have since ended and I now face the long and difficult endeavor of trying to rebuild my business from scratch…
Sacrificing my community
Finally, I am sad to say that my personal relationships and community commitments have also struggled as of late.
I am painfully aware that any relationship not fostered is a relationship that can be quickly lost and this, I’m afraid, is what has happened to me.
Most nights I now stay at home, or at the office, I pass on socials, events, and adventures and I rarely pick up the phone unless I am in need of a favour.
This behavior, although optimum for productivity, only serves to cause divides among friends and eventually those divides become too great to try and mend…
Needless to say, this has all weighed heavily on my mind as of late and I am realizing very quickly that if something is not done soon I could potentially lose a lot more than my dreams.
Reprioritizing, rebalancing, and recommitting
It is not hard for me to see that some things needed to change but the question is how could I still pursue my crazy dreams while trying to maintain my life?
Well, the reality is there’s no simple solution for this problem, so if I want to salvage my life I am going to have to make some hard changes.
I will need to reprioritize how I treat all the aspects of my life.
This doesn’t mean I have to sacrifice the commitment I have made to my dreams, it just means I need to work harder to dedicate the time each of them deserves.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in doing little things that don’t really deliver a high value, that time can be shifted into better use if I just take the initiative to do so.
By proactively taking the initiative to work on all areas in my life instead of assuming they will take care of themselves I hope to recapture balance in my life.
This may take more work, and it may force me to be more organized and active than I ever have before but I believe this is the only true way to reach my goals.
Without a strong foundation to launch from, there is no journey and my rocket won’t even be able to get off the ground.
So I ask you, how are you prioritizing your life? Are you putting your goals above all else or are you building your dreams with a greater perspective in mind?
Follow me on my journey as I attempt to fight for my dreams, travel across Canada and Scale My Life.
