How often have you heard about how you should find “balance” in life?
Well, in my opinion, balance is for losers and I am going to prove it to you. Answer the next questions HONESTLY without scrolling down.
1a) Who are the 5 people you admire/like most in world history?
2a) Who are the 5 people that you think had the biggest impact in the world in the last 100 years?
3a) If you had any success at anything in life, how dedicated have you been doing it compared to everything else you are doing?
4a) Who are the most balanced and zen-like people that you know or have heard of in the media?
1b) Would you consider any of them as having lived a “balanced” life ?
2b) Was any of these guys NOT obsessed in some way about something?
3b) You were likely as “unbalanced” in your most successful moments than anywhere else
4b) I guarantee you that NONE of these people is actually “balanced” at all. Even the Dalai Lama by definition is a tough mofo and obsessed about the topic of balance, which ironically makes him not “balanced” at all.
Look at the answers and you know why this was an easy case to prove for me. The truth is that some broke assholes have fed you some bs on how you should live your life (take many breaks, don’t play too much poker). Since you have not achieved many great things, you might like the idea of “Zen” or “balance”, because well, you would continue to do what you are doing now, which is NOTHING.
However, you would feel better about yourself and some f***ers exploit this fact. Some of you might be offended, and some will have already closed the article. You can dismiss me as some arrogant pr1ck and say stuff like “I might be poor, but I’m at least a good person”.
So unless you want to end your life, career or poker career being completely insignificant, you should be everything, but you should NOT be balanced.
No matter what you think of me as a person, we can find some common ground and agree that balance is NOT the way to achieve great things in your (poker)life and (poker)career.
All the people that you admire, Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama, Mother Theresa, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Bush (ok, just kidding!!!)… they’re everything, but NOT BALANCED.
Understanding REAL balance:
Resting and recovering is VERY important. And having a little bit of “balance” actually is as well. However, you need to relax from SOMETHING that is exhausting and not relaxing from doing nothing (=YOU).
Many students in our CFP program complained about some requirements to join the elite group (the advanced group inside the CFP program). They said they needed more rest and I just laughed because I couldn’t believe they were serious.
Unless you work a 70hour+ week, you DO NOT NEED ANY REST OR BALANCE. You’re a lazy fuck (and sometimes I do work less than 70hours/week as well… it’s called VACATION!!!).
You are already relaxing most of the time unless you put in 70hours + each week.
So please, when you listen to some Google, Facebook or Goldman Sachs executive talking about balance, it is because they work 120hours EACH WEEK. Of course, they need some “balance” here and there – but not as much as you think!!!
You have no idea how good you can be.
A huge part of our job at BPC in the CFP program is to show people that they can be 30x better than THEY think they can be. One of our most lazy people in the group played 256 hours last month. I asked him whether he was “tired” or “stressed” and he said, “actually I did not know that I was capable of playing so much”. It actually was not stressful at all. Oh, he also had a record profit month.
This was a guy who would play 18 hours per week and constantly “be stressed” (LOL!).
It’s all in your mind! If you decide that playing 70hours+ per week is doable, you will do it. And you will feel less stressed than usual because you have a PURPOSE/GOAL.
The real reason for stress is doing things without purpose. But that’s a post for another day.
Another truth is that YOU are NOT BUSY. You are watching pr0n and surfing random websites (been there, done that).
Unless you’re the Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Christiano Ronaldo type of guy… you are doing random things.
The hard truth is that you don’t even do anything meaningful with your time when you’re not playing poker. If you at least did something else with a clear purpose (learning a language, sports, fun events… aka anything that will give you good memories), then at least you would not be wasting time.
“Chilling with friends” (drinking, smoking etc) is NOT meaningful, unless you previously worked 14hours and need a little “time out”.
The worst part is that you’re wasting your time. You’re wasting your life in the name of balance. And you even pay some stupid people money for their books, which tell you that what you’re doing is alright by giving it some elevated spiritual name !!!
If you want to be brutally honest with yourself, do the following:
1) Go to http://www.toggl.com and download the program (free)
2) Track EVERY hour of your life and insert it into the list. Create categories etc
3) After one week, look at the TRUTH
If you do this and you’re wasting less than 20hours each week, then send me your toggl report, promise me that you are NOT lying, and I will give you $100 in credits that you can use for products on our site.
(People making $5k+/month are excluded)
SUMMARY:
Enough said. Deep down you knew all the way that balance is bullshit. Sometimes you need somebody like myself to tell you the obvious and wake you up.
