Achieving “life balance” is totally the wrong goal. This week let’s commit to becoming a better balancer.

Balance is not what you get, it’s what you do. In fact, the quest for “achieving balance” is counterproductive to your happiness, as it discounts the present moment for the promise of future bliss. All you ever get is now, and you will never achieve indefinite balance. But you can, and should, become a better balancer.

All my life, I have studied dynamic balance, both in the physical sense, and in life. And in both respects, balancing is about making informed, real-time adjustments, to either manage, or move toward, what is desired. Mastering this skill enables greater comfort in the midst of change and consistent, steady progress.

How well are you balancing life right now? Are you leading change or struggling to keep up with it? Are you anticipating what’s needed, or generally a step or two behind? How comfort are you making adjustments or stepping into new situations?

These 5 physical principles are essential for real-life applications.

1. Look up. Connect to purpose, and to possibility. You can not effectively balance if you’re looking down.

2. Keep your cool. Expert balancers breathe, expelling anxiety and choosing presence over panic.

3. Make small adjustments. Acting out of urgency or anxiousness often leads to over-correcting and causes even bigger problems. Sometimes a subtle shift is all it takes.

4. Act with agility. If you’re thinking bigger picture and longer term, you can anticipate and act with both quickness and confidence.

5. Own your improvement. As you progress in both ability and mindset, be assured that you can handle what’s coming next.

Balance isn’t about accomplishment, but connectedness. When you are alive in the moment and capable of making adjustments, your footing can be sure, even when the path forward isn’t. So this week, practice dynamic balancing in the present, as you actively shape the future, going Off Balance On Purpose.

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO.