One of the things I have strived to do over the years is to help myself and to help others become their best selves. I have found to be able to help others it all starts with me. I work to continuously improve in each area of my life. This includes my faith and spiritual life, my fitness and health, my relationship with my wife and my family, my finances, friendships and creating memories with fun.

There is a slogan that I picked up from a friend that says “Speed of the Leader, Speed of the Team”.  In order for you to lead and help others you have to help yourself first. This is similar to something that you hear on an airplane during the safety announcements. You are told in case of emergency place the air mask on yourself first. This is so you will have enough oxygen in order to help others to put their mask on. It all starts with you.

In our society most people determine “success” from a financial standpoint. Many times you will find that the financially successful people are not necessarily successful in some of the other 5 areas. To obtain a balance you have to strive to become proficient in all 6 areas of your life.

You will never live your life totally in balance. In fact, you need to learn how to live your life out of balance. What you have to be careful of is getting too far out of balance in any area of your life.

A great way to measure this is to take each of the 6 areas and rate them on how you are doing today on a scale of 1 – 10 with 10 being best. Picture a bicycle wheel and 10 is the tire and everything inside of 1 through 10 are along the spokes going towards the hub? How does your wheel look? Does it roll or is it lopsided?

This is a good exercise check to do on a monthly basis to see where you are getting too far out of balance. The key is to be aware of where you are too far out of balance and make corrections before you crash.

I finish many of my notes, birthday wishes or emails with the saying Be Great!. When I say Be Great! I am saying be the greatest person you can become. Be your best self.

Be Great!