Living in Balance
Life is about more than just work. It's about living with a sense of purpose. Living in balance allows you to do that.
The Charity Cases
Life is about more than just work. It’s about living with a sense of purpose. Living in balance allows you to do that.
Lifeonomics is ultimately about living a balanced life. Rob Holdford was new to cycling when Steve Biermann, then president of Creative Marketing Solutions and now Producer and head of content development at Lifeonomics, invited him to join the Tour de Nebraska, a 250-mile ride across Nebraska to raise money for emphysema. Together with their friend Bill Burnette, they decided to raise money for the American Lung Association when Steve’s mother passed away from emphysema during the training. Steve had lost several family members to cigarette smoking. With Rob’s mother then in a nursing home in Little Rock and suffering from dementia and Bill retired from the Air Force, they also decided to raise money for causes very personal to them: the Alzheimer’s Association and the Wounded Warrior Project. They called their team the Charity Cases and documented their progress. That initial ride in 2017 became an annual tradition. Although they had to pause their rides during the worst of COVID-19, they continued their cycling and have since resumed their annual rides for charity. It’s all part of living life in balance.
Living Your Passions
In Lifeonomics, the measure of a quality life is spending as much time doing what is truly important to you with people who are truly important to you. That’s it. There’s nothing magical about that statement. It simply depends on what speaks to your passion. For Rob Holdford, music, cycling and great wine are what keeps life inspiring. What you’re passionate about may be completely different.
If you are fully aware of what fires your passion for living, and you live fully engaged with that passion, then you will always make decisions that serve that passion. If your passion is your family, and you turn down a job that would have paid more money but taken you away from your kids, you will never regret saying no to the job. If you have a passion for archaeology, and you take an opportunity to travel for six months to participate in a dig in Egypt but spend the time away from your spouse, you won’t regret it, because you’ll come back so engaged and joyful and full of life that your relationship will be better than ever. Passion drives out regret.
But to live this way, you must be aware of what and who matters to you most. We’re not used to thinking in this way. Instead, it’s because we focus so much on money as an end, not the means to an end, that we forget that we’re supposed to be living, not just earning.
So how do you get started? The most important questions you can ask are: “What is truly most important to me?” and “Who is truly most important to me?” Once you know those answers, you will always do your best to make your life what you want it to be.