Embracing Life's Seasons: Beyond Work-Life Balance

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Welcome back to the show Today with summer coming up, that means our kids are going to be home. At least my kids. And actually when this, this airs, kids will already be out for a week or two out of school. So. But with that said, school's, you know, gonna be out. Kids are gonna be home. I work from home.

I've been fortunate enough to work from home since 2020 in Covid, so actually about five years I've been home fortunate enough to basically see my kids, you know, while they're little and growing up, which has been absolutely awesome.

And that made me kind of start and, and someone sent a meme last week, kind of made me kind of those pieces put together, made me start thinking about, you know, like, what people call work life balance, which to me there's no such thing. I think there's this misconception of, you know, you can balance work, you can balance life, and everything's 50, 50, it's not the case. If you're chasing that, it's probably going to be hard to succeed.

And if you're working a 9 to 5, and I see this a lot to wear and I'll get to it later, but filling up your cup, I, I see a lot of people that work 9 to 5, especially like parents that are working 9 to 5 and have multiple kids in sports activities, maybe both parents work. I have no idea how they do it. To me, they. There's no work life balance. Well, there's no, I don't even say balance. It's just, it's almost like they're getting by day to day.

And I feel for those people and, and that's kind of why I do this podcast, just to hopefully at some point, you know, there's people that find value in it and realize there's more to life than grinding out a 9 to 5. And that there is more. And you can have. I don't like work life balance, but you can, you can dictate how your life looks, I guess is probably the better way to put it. So with that, yeah, again, there's no such thing as worth work life balance.

I try to, you know, I look at, I like to study other people in all assets of life that, you know, are somewhat successful. And I look at people that are successful in the business world, sports world, entertainment world, and life in general. And I try to take pieces from them. And you see the people that have sacrificed something. Right? So let's, let's say Steve Jobs, he probably sacrificed family, right?

I think that's pretty well Known that he sacrificed family to do a lot of good in the world. And while he's made our world probably a better place, and some may argue maybe not, but he's definitely contributed to society in probably a productive way. But I don't know that his family would say that he was all that valuable to them because I don't think he was around much. So he completely sacrificed.

There's no, again, there's no such thing as work life balance, but there's no balance there whatsoever. And you know, that is the, that's what he sacrificed to be great at something. And you can go down the line with athletes, entertainers, great business moguls. You know, it's tough to be absolutely world class at something and have a great relationship with your family. I'm not saying it's not possible because I am trying to. I guess I'm. I'm trying to do that in my own way.

And that looks different, I, I believe for all of us. And I think there's also seasons in life too. So when my kids were again, when I quit my 9 to 5 and during COVID things were obviously a little different. I was able to scale during that time, but I was around all the time. I mean, my kids were, what were they, 6 and 3, I believe at the time.

So I was home with them, but also still growing my business and actually scaled and bought more storage then than I have in the past few years where I'm probably quote unquote working more. Although it doesn't feel like work to me, it feels more like play because I enjoy it. But I was fortunate enough to do that and be home with them. And I probably did sacrifice maybe buying more properties during that time because it was kind of peak time to buy.

And while I did buy some pretty great properties, they're probably something that I definitely missed out on. And I definitely don't regret that because again, I was home with my kids. That's the perfect time to be home with them. It's absolutely awesome. But that was kind of a season for me. Now seasons are, are changing, you know, all the time. And for me, my kids have gotten older, 11 and almost 8. And my seasons look a little bit different.

I'm not as, I guess, wanted as, as a dad by my kids. As they get older, they enjoy their friends a little bit more. They still enjoy their parents, but they want to hang out with friends more. So now my seasons are changing a little bit to where I can focus a little bit more on business. That's you Know, not just mentally, but also being in, you know, knees deep and, and improving systems and operations, finding more deals, all those things. So I'm.

It feels like I'm kind of an adjustment period right now to where, especially this summer. I know the kid, the kids will obviously be around, I'll be around. Although I am getting possibly when this air, this show airs, I may have my office ready, but I'm getting an office that's out of the house, which I think will be good. And that's another season for me to where I'm gonna have to adjust.

The family's gonna have to adjust that I'll be gone at least for probably a few hours a day. May not be every day, but I think I'll be more productive. I think it'll be. Be able to separate work and it's not work to me, but be able to separate my real estate investing business, podcast and my family. Right now, with everything at home, it's hard to separate that. So back on track here? Yeah. Balance to me is more.

Again, there's no such thing as work life balance, but to me, it's more about fulfilling yourself. Fulfilling your cup is what I like to call it. And there are times where I'm starting to figure out ways, and I think I've talked about it, how to fill my cup daily. Now with summer approaching, I'll probably have to change a few things and tweak some things here and there.

But I've noticed that if I get up earlier than the family, and for me, that's about six o' clock in the morning, I wake up, I work out, have my protein drink, do, I don't know, 15, 20 minutes of stuff on the computer, whether that's just basically checking in, answering a couple emails, whatever it may be, and then have breakfast with the family, I feel like my cup is full and I'm crazy energized. After that, I've found that to work for me. Now I can't do it every day. I do it six days a week.

And by the sixth day I'm ready for a break, which is good. So I've learned that I also need a break in there to kind of reset. And then come Monday, so Sunday I take off, then come Monday, I'm ready to go back at it again. I'm energized again. So it's interesting. It's taken me a little bit of time to really refine that. And it's always. I'm always adding tweaks too, because, listen, I don't I don't enjoy working out every day.

In fact, I heard somebody say, actually, I think he was on this, on our pod before. I think he said, what Was it like? 20 of the time? He's really excited to work out. I don't know if my level's that high. I may be 5 to 10% of the time I'm excited to work out, but I know that afterwards I'm going to feel energized. It helps fill my cup and that helps me kind of balance things. So then in the morning, I am as productive as can be in my business.

I usually try to do something, some type of second workout that may be golf, that may be going for a walk, something around after lunch time. And then when the kids are home, it's probably more kid, you know, hanging with the kid time. Kids time or. And again, my kids are getting older. So now during the summer, that may be more. More business work. So we'll see. And I didn't want to get off, you know, I didn't want to get off track here and talk kind of what I'm doing.

But this is what I'm doing to fill my cup so that I am. I can be present with my family the best that I can. And I've noticed too, that I've got to go back and sometimes refill my cup, right? So if I'm.

And I notice, especially on vacation, if I do some kind of stick to this same schedule on vacation, but then after a few hours, you know, doing whatever we're doing at the beach, vacation, whatever we're doing on vacation, I've noticed that I've got to refill my cup and do something quote, unquote, productive in my business and able to. So that I'm able to give 100 to my family after that. So it's. Again, I'm always tweaking, but I'm. It's. It's a work in progress.

And I think people need to think more about that, about filling their cup rather than work life balance. Again, there's no such thing as work life balance. It's more about filling your cup so that you can be 100% present and on. You can be, you know, the best version of you to your family. And who knows, maybe that's only a few hours a day with your family. And you've got to spend eight to ten hours a day being productive through work. Maybe that's two hours a day.

You can be productive the rest of the day. You can be 100 all with your Family, obviously, if you don't have a family, you know, maybe you've got a spouse or, or friends or network or whatever that you can give yourself to. But I do think instead of work life balance, I think we need to tweak that to, to fill in your cup and also want to kind of talk that's somewhat, I guess, related. And for me, I've learned that, that I guess filling my cup routines are great.

For me, I need to be in a routine. When I don't have a routine, I feel like I'm all over the place. I'm not at my best, and I'm not at my best in my business or my family or anything else. I need to have a routine.

So I think that's kind of going back to the vacations. I think that's kind of why I struggle there. Again, everyone's different. You got to figure out what works for you. But I've realized that being regimented, having routine, staying disciplined, minimizing my distractions as much as possible, and that could be anything.

That could be watching too much sports, that could be, you know, scrolling Instagram too much, whatever distraction it is that's getting in the way of things that are a priority of me, it's a distraction, right? And then being disciplined with that. And I think that as, as entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs, that's kind of what we're good at. We're good at. We're good at having routines, we're good at being disciplined. And that's kind of how, how we have success.

And I think to add another layer to that success is crazy boring. And I'm starting to realize that more as, as our business is growing to where there's so many shiny objects out there, right? And I've talked about trying to buy service businesses, other businesses, maybe other asset classes, but success is boring. And the longer you're in a certain niche, more than likely there's a pretty good chance you're going to have more success. I'm. I'm learning that.

I'm also learning how to stay in that lane because it can be tough at times, especially when you see other opportunities that, that may present themselves that could be vertically integrated into your business or just a way to diversify. But without a doubt, riches are in niches. It's boring, it can get boring. But, and, and this kind of goes back to my routine. I keep trying to tweak things to, I guess freshen things up.

But with staying within my business, staying within self storage, I mean that honestly, that's Part of the reason why I started this podcast and, and hopefully the information we're putting out is valuable.

But honestly, for me, there's some selfish reasons because just me talking, just talking through this, I'll learn things about myself that I can apply in my life. So, yeah, back to my last point. Success is boring. It's, it's very important to stick to your niche, I believe, at least for myself. Now there are some people that do a pretty good job of, you know, of setting up their business.

Great systems, great operations, great employees, great people working for them and they can step out of it and then maybe start something else. I don't know that I've gotten to that point. I probably could, but I don't know if I've gotten to that point where I want to do that. I think there's still room for me to keep growing in self storage. That's what I'm focused on. And I think, you know, being bored with that is probably a good thing for myself. So it's all I got today.

Bottom line is I don't believe in work life balance. I believe in filling your cup, making sure your cup is full, and try to also measure that every day during the day, you know, probably multiple times a day. I do my best to, you know, none of us are perfect, but do your best to measure it and, and see where you're at. Is my cup half full right now? Am I not 100%, you know, 100% with my family mentally? Am I not 100 active in my business right now?

What do I need to do to fill that cup up so that I can be 100? Present to me. That's, that's what we're all striving for. So again, appreciate everyone for listening. Hopefully this, this show was valuable. Hopefully this show is valuable. If you're interested in coming on, please reach out. We do have some changes coming up that I've kind of, you know, said we'll have changes coming. They are coming soon.

I'm excited and still working through some of those changes, but I'm excited to see where this show's gonna go. And again, appreciate everyone for listening. Thanks for following subscribing and listening to this episode of the Do More podcast, hosted by John Varling. To learn more or ask questions, go to L4Investing.com.