Finding Balance

When I first bought a slackline in 2020 during Covid, I learned some lessons about balance that I didn't expect.

Looking back I realize that I learned a lot more about balance in life than I did about balancing on a slackline.

When I first set up my slackline on a breezy Spring day in Southeast Minnesota, I had expectations to walk, balance, and do all types of tricks I had seen on the internet.

I was sincerely disappointed to find out I couldn't even stand up on it for more than a fraction of a second.

Frustration quickly turned to motivation, and for weeks I set up my slackline and practiced - hoping each day that I'd be able to take my first steps, only to be disappointed as I fell down over and over.

Sometimes I focused so hard on my balance that I would realize I was forgetting to breathe. And yet I still fell down again and again.

But eventually, after falling down literally thousands of times, I began to see improvement.

Eventually I took my first step, and then another, and then another.

Soon, with great effort, I was able to walk the full length of the line.

Today (5 years later) I can stand and walk and do some minor tricks with minimal effort.

So what are the lessons I learned about attaining balance in everyday life?

Balance is only attained through practice.

When people try slacklining for the first time and realize how difficult it is, they often ask, "How do you do that? What's the secret?"

The secret is that there is no secret. There are some things that can only attained through many hours of diligent practice. I literally had to fall down thousands of times to be able to walk without falling.

In order to find balance in any area of life whether it's work, fitness, finance, relationships, or diet, you MUST fall down. It's simply how we learn.

We make mistakes, we fall, we fail, and we don't live up to our own expectations.

We skip workouts, cheat on our diet, hurt the people we love, and let ourselves down. Yet without these experiences we would never learn who we need to be in order to truly be happy.

We can only learn to find balance by falling. Which brings me to my next point

Learning takes time.

Don't expect to find perfect balance the first time you set an intention to do something.

We live in a time where we expect fast results, with the least effort. But the truth is that anything worthwhile is going to take time.

I'm still learning this in the process of growing my coaching business)

Your brain needs time to form new connections and new habits. You have to practice something repeatedly and consistently in order for change to take place.

So don't give up when things get hard, or when you keep falling, that's exactly the moment that you need to dig deeper and practice harder.

Because the next lesson is...

How you react when you fall

"Some people who fall rise some people who fall plummet" -Kota the Friend (My favorite rapper)

When you fall down in any are of life it is important to notice how you react. The people who rise forgive themselves quickly, learn from their mistakes, and keep trying.

The people who plummet get down on themselves, fall into the victim mentality, and accept defeat.

If you want to succeed in life you have to train your mind to view failures not as failures, but as lessons.

Imagine If every time I fell off the slackline I told myself what a piece of sh*t I am, how worthless I am, and how I never do anything right. I would not have made it very far and definitely would not have enjoyed the process.

But when you learn to treat yourself with compassion it's easier to accept your shortcoming, realize that it's normal to fall, and get back up to try again.

I hope that reading this article has inspired you in some way, if it has, it can probably inspire someone else too. Be someone who inspires others and share this article with a friend or family member who might find it valuable.

In the meantime, put what you've learned into action. Practice finding balance, know that it takes time, and treat yourself with compassion when you fall.

Thanks for reading,

Yours Truly,

Tristan