The pendulum of life is about to swing again for me.<\/p>\n

Those that know me, know that I\u2019m a big believer in balance.\u00a0 This concept was first introduced to me by my coach many many years ago.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until about 3 years ago that I finally took note of it.\u00a0 Now, every couple of months I redo the Life Balance Wheel exercise.\u00a0 This helps me focus on the areas of my life that need it most.\u00a0 If I ignore it, other areas of my life will get dragged down too.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I start back at a job after being off on a 2-year leave of absence.\u00a0 Even though I\u2019m only planning on being back for 2-3 months, it will be interesting to see the impact it will have on me with my new mindset.<\/p>\n

My emotions over the last couple of weeks have been up and down.\u00a0 Part of me felt shitty because I was going back to a job and losing much of the freedom I had over the last couple of years, and part of me was excited about the extra flow of money and what it would allow us to do in the short term.\u00a0 As it got closer and closer to my first day back at work, the feelings of excitement outweighed the shitty feeling.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I will continue to have my ups and downs over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

You might be thinking, if you are so happy being away from your job, what the heck are you going back for?\u00a0 Good question.\u00a0 One that I have been asking myself many times over the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n

For the money!\u00a0 Well\u2026not just for the money, but that is a big reason \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

There are some things in the short term that we would really like to do, and having some extra cash will make these things happen sooner.<\/p>\n

I created a vision board years ago.\u00a0 I put it up in my house in a spot where I will look at it often.\u00a0 On this board are pictures of things I would like to be\/do\/have.\u00a0 There is a handful on there that focus on adventure and nature.<\/p>\n

I want to share a quick story with you.\u00a0 A couple of weeks back, I was at one of our student rental houses.\u00a0 In our houses, we have a landlord drawer in the kitchen, and every time I do an inspection, I check this drawer for any mail that came to the house.\u00a0 On this particular day, when I went to open the drawer, it would not open.\u00a0 It appeared to be jammed on something.\u00a0 I was able to open it a little, and peak in.\u00a0 It was a magazine that was put in the drawer the wrong way and got caught in the tracks.\u00a0 I maneuvered a hand in there and was able to free the magazine and open the drawer.\u00a0 When I did this, I must have caught the track with my finger and cut myself.\u00a0 It was a good-sized cut and was bleeding for a bit.\u00a0 This got my attention.<\/p>\n

Another interesting part of this story is what happened next.\u00a0 The magazine that caused me all this extra hassle was from a company called G Adventures.\u00a0 One of my previous tenants had subscribed to be on the mailing list.\u00a0 G Adventures focuses on group travel for people who like an adventure.\u00a0 In my high school days, my nickname used to be G, as that was the initial of my last name.\u00a0\u00a0 I love adventure, and the name of the company is my nickname, so I thought I would open it up.\u00a0 As I was reading through it, it was almost like it was written for me.\u00a0 G this, G that.\u00a0 Lots of pictures in the magazine were similar to the ones on my vision board.\u00a0 This made me pay even more attention.<\/p>\n

For whatever reason, I took the extra time to open that drawer that day. \u00a0This led to more questions.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like I was meant to see this right now.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 Looks like I\u2019m off on an adventure trip to Costa Rica or Peru at some point this year to find out \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Over the last couple of months, I\u2019m finding that I\u2019m more mindful of signs like these.\u00a0 I\u2019ve really made an effort to simplify and get rid of the clutter in my life.\u00a0 I think this allowed for greater peace of mind, which created the space to be able to be more aware of the things going on around me.\u00a0 These signs were probably always there before, I just never noticed them, because I had too much shit on the go.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also super excited to be going to see Robin Sharma in a couple of months for the first time.\u00a0 He is one of my top influencers.<\/p>\n

Going back to my job now will also help me expand on my \u2018Escaping the Rat Race\u2019 program that I\u2019m currently working on.\u00a0 This will give me a fresh perspective.\u00a0 In hopes of inspiring others, I share strategies and tools that I used to help Escape from the Rat Race.<\/p>\n

When starting back in my job, I will be mindful of…<\/p>\n

* Healthy eating habits<\/p>\n

* Peak physical health<\/p>\n

* Regular exercise routine<\/p>\n

* Energy levels<\/p>\n

* Happiness<\/p>\n

* Strong relationships with family and friends<\/p>\n

* My 5 am wake ups<\/p>\n

Watch for updates on my experiences in my Happy, Healthy & Wise newsletter.<\/p>\n

Thanks for listening.<\/p>\n

Mike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pendulum of life is about to swing again for me. Those that know me, know that I\u2019m a big believer in balance.\u00a0 This concept was first introduced to me by my coach many many years ago.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,31,35],"tags":[47,69,45,57,51],"yoast_head":"\n