In the last 5-10 years, I think we’ve made a lot of progress on the side of balance and health. 

The awareness… has increased a lot. 

The discussions are being had. 

People are trying very, very hard to apply more of this into their lives. 

And we have a LOT more to do. 

There is a lot of ground to cover, and we’re still figuring this stuff out. 

Just in the past few years everyone suddenly realized how important these things are. 

And it’s 2021. 

I’m sure a hundred years down the line, they’ll be looking at us like idiots. 

But anyways the most important thing is to continue this movement. 

We’re living at very interesting and fast times right now,

where all of the information is out there and available,

and people are struggling to apply it for various reasons. 

But our generation, really needs to figure this shit out, fast. 

We cannot go another however many years without having... this handled. 

We’re having to evolve much faster now, at the pace of everything else going on.  

Every chapter, I tried my best, to highlight where the issue lied for me, and how I navigated it. 

And I tried to incorporate different bits of balance into every chapter, 

Because this was key for making the process sustainable for me. 

In order to continue evolving, I had to learn WHEN.. to take a break, and HOW..to take a break. 

These are lessons I’ve had to re-learn... over and over again. 

And because this is so important, I could not think of a more fitting way to end this audiobook. 

Everything I’ve mentioned in the previous chapters...I’ve pretty much figured out for myself and I’m continuously applying it. 

But Balance, really, truly, is something that I’ll continue discovering for the rest of my life. 

I know almost everyone needs more of this in their lives. 

And I haven’t met many people that are really, consistently living in total balance. 

Have you?

Why I think this is so difficult..to nail down...is that

It’s different for everyone, and.. it’s different for every day. 

I’ve had phases where I just HAD TO WORK…

And there are phases like this summer, where I’ve had more balance in my life, and therefore the space to create something like this audiobook. 

Regardless of which phase I’m at in my life, 

I’ve always tried my best...to incorporate bits of balance, of mindfulness, of health, throughout the day, and throughout the week. 

Right now, 

I typically give myself space in the morning and the night. 

I usually turn off my phone an hour before bed, and I’ll use that time, to ease into my sleep, and read, and write, and reflect, and stretch 

Stretching just feels so fucking good, and so ..right...at the end of a day. 

I’ll try to do the same in the morning as well, and if I’m lucky, I’ll let myself call someone, or go on a walk, just in the middle when I have a chance. 

Then give myself longer breaks on the weekend. 

What’s been key, for … knowing when and how to take a break

Has been to trust my intuition. 

This is what a lot of my life comes down to. 

I’ll create some space for myself, and then try to listen to my intuition. 

And I’ve repeated this dozens of times, but those steps I mentioned earlier to start developing self-awareness is what increased my intuition. 

My self-awareness, is what helped catch the moments when I was really steering away from balance. 

That’s what the Balance game is. 

It’s constantly managing all of these different aspects of my life

And just tweaking them as I go along.

I needed self awareness to be my flashlight

There have just been a couple of times recently where I felt really completely balanced. 

Content with my work, all of my work, 

Content with my relationships, all of my relationships, 

Content with my creativity, with all aspects of my health, etc..

It’s just not possible. 

And when I accepted that I just need to accept how this is, 

And when I developed my self-awareness to a level where I’m pretty aware of where I am in these different areas throughout my days, and which one I need to heal. 

Beyond that, developing my self-awareness is what helped me expose my Ego. 

The more I achieved, the bigger my Ego got. 

And I had to learn how to manage it better and better each time, in order to evolve further. 

It was always one of the last things that stopped me from enjoying a richer, and happier life. 

Only recently I realized that it’s not entirely bad!

I wouldn’t be where I am without my ego. 

I wouldn’t have wanted to achieve everything I’ve done so far, and my ambitions would be smaller. 

So there is a healthy component to Ego, and I was only able to see it, and use it to my advantage,

once I was aware of the unhealthy part of it. 

The unhealthy part of Ego ….oh man…

It’s so hard to look at myself even a few years ago. 

It's very difficult to control in the moment. 

The unhealthy part is what exposed the BOY in me,

The boy who needs attention and validation, the boy who needs to always be right, the boy who knows everything. 

Developing my mindfulness, and introspecting as often as I could over the past few years, is what highlighted this ridiculous part of me. 

This shows up in some form… in almost every interaction I had, without me noticing it. 

And especially with my family. 

The people I should have the least ego with, and love the most. 

But after all of this, what does it come down to?

I realized that Ego will always be there, and inside everyone. 

It’s a fundamental part of the human experience. 

The happiest people I’ve met, have been learning how to manage it. 

I tried myself to fight it for so long, until I realized that .. okay.. it will always be here. 

All I can do is be aware of it, and not let the unhealthy component of it drive my actions and interactions with other people. 

And slowly, in the interactions I had, I would be more aware. 

I would be more quick to see it pop up, and then pause. Take a bit of time, and react in a more controlled way. 

Each time I did this, I did another ego push up. 

So to summarize all of that, the best way to manage my Ego was just to continue developing my self-awareness, through training my mindfulness and reflecting often. 

It just took discipline at the start to get into these habits, and then 10-20 minutes of healthy practice (almost) every day. 

This same process that I mention every chapter…takes care of so much!

So Balance..is a constant re-learning. 

It’s a constant re-tweaking. 

It’s kind of like, a room...my room...that I need to clean as often as possible. 

Small cleanups almost every day, and larger cleanups once in a while. 

A few years ago...my room was very messy. 

I had no idea where to start. 

But I just needed to start somewhere. 

So just like the order of the chapters of this book,

Self awareness was the first step..to health..to growth...to mindset...to relationships..to purpose

And especially for Balance.

1) Being aware of what's throwing me off...is the first step. 

So sitting with discomfort, or confusion, and doing what I need to do, which was to

Give myself space. 

Write it down. 

Talk to someone. 

Meditate on it. 

Take a shower. 

After that first step, it was everything I mentioned in the earlier chapters, in pretty much the same order. 

2) Second, was to look into my Health. All aspects of my Health. 

I already started with Mental Health by starting to meditate and reflect. 

Then I looked into my physical health. 

3) Third, I started to develop my social and Emotional Intelligence. 

Look into the relationships into my life and if I needed to reevaluate them. 

Am I surrounded by a healthy ecosystem of people?

That support me, that inspire me?

And what kind of people do I need to meet more of?

What is lacking in my relationships? 

So I started to meet the right people, at the right places, and closer to my interests, purpose and community. 

I also found mentors, and learned the life lessons of as many wiser. More experienced people as I could. 

Doing all of this, is what brought me to closer alignment. 

It brought me more balance. 

It’s a holistic effort. 

There are many things to look into. 

And when you got to clean a messy room, you just need to start anywhere. 

Eventually everything... has to be touched. 

But you need to start somewhere, and have a plan, because its an ongoing process that times time. 

It takes months…and years...of starting/failing and restarting...to start developing healthier habits...but every small step closer is a good one. 

All I can wish for, is to have someone listening to this, just think a bit of the various aspects of balance, and then take a small step closer to more balance. 

So I wanted to share a small activity :) 

Take a piece of paper, or open a blank document on the computer. 

And look at the different chapters of this audiobook.

Keep a separate section for the different chapters. 

• Look at them, and think, how is your level of balance for each area, and where can you improve?

I’m going to walk through them now and ask questions. 

That you can write down and reflect on... if you want.

1) The First Chapter was Wake Up, 

• Is there anything constantly in the back or front of your mind 

•  A feeling inside you, that you feel like you’re not listening to. 

• What comes to mind first?

• Write it down. Its very important. 

2) Second is our favorite, Self Awareness

• How self aware do you think you are on a scale of 1-10?

• How can I develop this further?

• Do I have at least one mindful activity and one reflection activity that you’re doing regularly? 

3) Third, was Health. 

• How is my Mental Health? 

  • What right now in your life, is making it worse. Right down whatever comes to mind. 

  • Now, what are ways that you can improve your mental health? There are things I mentioned that chapter that worked for me :)

• How is my Physical Health?

  • How can I develop it even more? 

  • Write down how you can improve it, you probably know how.

• Are you developing your Emotional Intelligence? 

  • It’s the same process of starting to develop self awareness and then tackling different aspects of health

  • And taking it a step further and talking to more people, listening deeper, reflecting on some interactions 

4) Fourth, was Developing Antifragility, so growing from challenges. 

• What current big challenges are you facing right now in your life? Personal, Career, etc.. write them down and rank them

• Then if you want, write down how you feel about these. And what you’re doing to actively face them. 

• If there’s anything lacking, check out this chapter. 

5) Fifth, was Growth Mindset. 

• How can I create a better environment to foster my growth? 

• Have a look at the 3 areas I mentioned that helped me grow very fast

  • Planning & Reflection

  • Powerful Habits

  • Mentorship

• Which areas can you improve with and how? 

6) Sixth, was Connections

• How can I surround myself with more people that I love? Just having one is more than most. 

• How can I meet more people that I like, that have similar interests and mindsets as me, what are the best platforms to find them? 

7) Seventh, was Purpose & Community 

• What do I currently know about my purpose? Even if its not a lot, just write down whatever you know! 

• Reflect more on these, and ask yourself

• How can I take one step closer to my purpose

• Who are my community, where can I find them, and then go there. Meet them!

Even if you didn’t write this down, just thinking of this is such an important first step.

But man, if you wrote this down, bravo. Thank you so much. 

It means everything to me if I’m able to convince even ONE person to take the action of writing down, its such a huge wall to overcome. 

And it brings me so much peace to have things written down, my challenges, my plans, my goals and how I’ll get there. 

So yes, its a lot of stuff. 

But start somewhere. 

For true balance, which takes a lot of time, eventually, everything here has to be looked at, and examined, and improved. 

The only way to get there...is to first right them down, take action, reflect and repeat. 

One step at a time is the only way. 

This is a main theme of this audiobook. 

One step closer to 

• A more balanced diet

• Finding the type of exercise you like the most, and maybe doing it with others because its more fun

• Finding at least one type of mindfulness exercise

• Doing at least one type of reflective activity

• Then just learning from smarter, wiser people 

To conclude,

I’m cleaning my room almost every day, and I won’t stop.

I’ve found the best ways for me to clean my room, and I just keep on doing them when I can.

Because Balance is just so important to make more out of the moments

It's all about a holistic effort

And going on a personal journey