My Top 10 Tips for Finding your Work / Life Balance

Because balance is mastery, and mastery is the way.. 

Yo, what's shaking? Here's a fun topic that just came up from an associate today who asked the question, and it's not the first time I've had the question asked. The question is, how am I doing all these things that I'm doing? Humbly, I appreciate the question from the recognition that I'm doing a bunch of stuff, business and otherwise, at the same time. He says, "How did you find the time to do the acting, and the trailblazers letter, and help public companies, and mentor, and post on the blog, and send out the newsletter, and have a life, and chat on the phone and do all these different things?"

I mean, it's a valid question because sometimes I do wonder, and it's active. I've got all kinds of different answers for this, which are terrific, and so in today's Fresh and Raw episode I'm going to chat about how I do what I do.

For those who think that I do it well, thank you and kudos. Here are some insights. For those who don't care, or don't think I do anything, well, that's your prerogative. Right? I mean, it's all good. For me, look, I love life, man. This is great. It's a blessing. It's a gift.

There is a kaleidoscope of magic, opportunity, adventure and abundance to experience and enjoy with such great richness and diversity, I feel, in our lives. We should explore, and we should look for different things to do and try different things out, taste different foods, live different lifestyles, explore different places. I mean this is it. It's happening now, our lives, and what do we want to do with them? There's so many people that I do know, and love you all, those of you listening or those who aren't, I send you good vibes, that just really, really repeat the same things all the time every day.

I am fundamental in my rituals daily that set the tone for me vibrationally to have an outstanding day, to have fun, to do amazing things, to be healthy and enjoy the rich pageantry of life. But I don't anchor myself in the methodology of it quite so much so that I feel trapped. I am constantly monitoring myself for that pattern or that draw into the matrix, as we call it, where all of a sudden, you're just like, man, every day, boom. This, this, this, this, and this. End of your day, eat food. Right? Go to sleep. Whatever, end of your day. I'm watching out for that. I'm constantly reinventing patterns so that I am continuing to live from a place of adventure and exploration for my vibration and from the magic and spontaneity that synchronicity brings. It brings it when I stop doing things that are mentally patterned that way.

Now, there are arguments of course, that we're involved in these mental patterns as a function of trapping us, our souls, our being, and you can look at that from a victim perspective if you like. If you think that that's the way, it's a grand conspiracy to keep us in place. I mean, there's validity, I'd suggest, in some areas of those arguments, that these paradigms, but do they serve us or don't they?

ENJOYING THE UNCERTAINTY

I think, without generalizing, you can really look within them and find ways that they do and that they don't. But that said, I personally accept responsibility for the choices I make in my life and whether I'm making choices that serve me in a way that makes me feel drained, and controlled, and imprisoned, or in a way that empowers me, and makes me feel good, and makes me feel free. Right? The latter is super fun, so it's the smallest thing from just looking up even if you're sitting at a desk and deciding, "Oh, I'm going to go for lunch," and saying, "Oh, well, every day I go for this lunch at this place at this time." We're saying, "I'm just going to go for a walk, and I'm going to let lunch find me." Right?

It becomes an adventure, which is the easiest thing. I mean, it's just from your desk to where you're going for lunch. We get into these patterns, I feel, of needing to know where that lunch is going to be or where that destination is going to be instead of just being here, now where we are and feeling into that uncertainty and allowing that to guide us to where lunches can be.

CONTRIBUTING TO THE ENERGY

This is the first thing. Right? This is the first thing about how I do what I do and make things flow and make them work is that I stay open in that way to my life and my world. But fundamentally, I stay open  to do a bunch of different things and contribute, I mean, one, you need energy, obviously. You need to have a great vibe as it relates to what's happening in the world and what you feel you want to do, and where you want to go and how you want to contribute.

I mean, this is the thing. We can go live in the middle of the forest with no internet, and no phone, and no nothing, and communicate with no one ever about anything. It's a pretty fabulous place out there. It's pretty sweet but then is that type of isolation the answer of how we choose to live our lives? I mean, we have an opportunity to contribute to the evolution and the grand fabric of our world. How do we choose to do that, and in which ways are we meant to do that? Now, the more we look after ourselves, the more I suggest we vibrate at a particular level that fuels us with the energy and the enthusiasm acquired from our hearts into our craft, into our missions, into our activities that give us energy to do a whole number of great things, but to do them and a number of them, and to do them well.

How do I organize myself? I mean, I do have multiple things going on. I am assisting where appropriate with one public company, and I'm a large shareholder of that company. I'm a strategic advisor to another public company, and I have other public company holdings that I keep an eye on and drop my two cents every so often, when it makes sense. I have my own brand, and blog, and podcast now, and social channels, and newsletter. I have more to come with this brand. I'm moving into co-branded products and all kinds of cool stuff. I've got eBooks coming. After this one, I have a couple more on deck that I'm looking forward to publishing very soon, to hopefully benefit those who need to find this information, and seek it, and are interested in my insights.

I have my creative work. Right? I produce music. It's been a little since I've really got into the room and produced, but I do it, and I love it, and I'm an actor. I produce my own video content of course, for YouTube and otherwise, but I'm also a performer and the acting is liberating.

It's a fantastic thing. It's so rich and valuable to me as individual spirit, my being. It's tremendous, so the question is, "How do you do all these things?" It's about a number of different things, I think, and I appreciate the question.

I want this content to be about the questions people ask me about who I am and what I do as I do them, so I'm always listening for these questions, so to provide some insight in this regard.

• Taking care

I mean, I'm organized. I'm on my game. I get sleep every night. I'm not out drinking. I haven't had a drink in over four and a half years. I eat well. I'm vegan, plant-based diet. Gluten-free, because gluten makes my energy level crash. Took a long time to learn this. I make sure I'm fueled up properly, so I have the energy to do what it is I seek.

• Doing what I love and making adjustments

I do what I love. I make sure that the things that I enjoy are what I'm doing, and if I'm not doing things that I enjoy, then I take note of that and adjust. I trust in the evolution of the work. Perfectionists like to not start things because they need to be perfect out of the gate. I start things because they aren't perfect. In that journey of growth, then perfection finds you, we'll say. The evolution towards perfection improves the circumstances of whatever that may be.

That is your starting point. It takes us from where we are right now to where we want to go, and there's so many different layers. I mean, think of them multidimensionally. Do you want to do this thing, that thing, the other thing, and in each of them, you're in different places. You may be an exceptional business person, but a rookie actor, or you may be an exceptional traveler but with not a lot of corporate experience, or a really great singer but not a really great writer. I mean, there's different ways to look at it. What are you an expert in, and what are you an amateur in, and how do you do the work to improve those things? Very much tying that to love and using the fuel of the heart and that passion for the adventure, that passion for learning, as the fuel for what I do and what we do.

SHIFTING TO FIND MY UNIVERSE

I mean, this said, remember there's nothing that says you have to do one thing for 30 or 50 year, or 70 years of your life. You do not have to be the same thing for your whole life. I mean, there's all these magical things we can explore and try and do. For me, I seek to shift. I seek to change these things up. I seek to explore the unknown in a way that invigorates me, and inspires me to grow, and challenges me to grow in these different areas. I don't go stand on a mark in a studio, or in an audition room, or on set, because I have to, per se. I don't feel there's anything I do in my life that I have to do. I do it because I want to do it, and I do it because the growth that comes from doing it and the joy that comes from doing it is so deeply fulfilling. It brings good vibrations into my world. Doing this work on set is an example.

Just connecting with amazing people, having huge laughs, putting on exceptional costumes and bringing these stories to life in these sometimes far out circumstances. The other day I was a medieval warrior. It was like a dream to get into that, Ridley Scott, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Game of Thrones type of vibe. You're fully decked out, and you just roar like a lion, and you're just “Man, I'm in it." This is precious and magic and so fun. To just explore different parts of our own spirit.

I have, as well, on my bathroom wall a piece of art. I feel like I mentioned this already in a different segment, but it just says, "Keep trying to find the universe in you." Which means I am a universe, and as a universe, I am creating, and I'm exploring and creating myself at the same time. What a fantastic gift to embrace life that way. As opposed to suggesting that I need to be the same universe shape, size, dimension, vibration, etc. for my whole life. There's nothing that says you have to. To explore these things, we open up in these ways, and I open up in these ways, to try them on. "Sure, I'll go paint this thing." "Sure, I'll go check this concert out," or, "Sure, I'll go on this trip somewhere." "Sure. This sounds very interesting, starting this type of company, or acquiring this type of asset, or rebuilding a certain situation," or whatever. I mean, I'm in. Right? Who wants to play? If you're listening to this right now, you have ideas. Hey, you want to go shoot a movie? Let me know. Right? You want to go build a company, let me know. You want to go on a super cool trip somewhere into who knows where, Central America or elsewhere? Right? I'm a major adventurer. Hey, man. We can work from coffee shops. Let's go. I mean, life. Right? I'm blessed and grateful to be here, and so I bring that spirit and energy to my days.

TECHNIQUES

Now, deeper into actual techniques. I use all the tools. I think I have some, 120 maybe, software apps and tools that I use for my phone and otherwise to just kind of connect with and run my world. Some, I use more often than others, but generally speaking, this is the thing. I find the ones I like and try them out. I let some go, but I keep the ones that improve my flow, my efficiency, my openness, my ability to communicate, my connectivity with others, their ability to find me. I research for these things like, "Oh, I need this. Oh, I need that." Check out more on the tools I use here.  

We recently started a company called Subscribe Technologies, which you can look up at subscribetech.com, and super stoked on it. The reason is just that. We walked around, and we go, "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if we had this? Wouldn't it be nice if we had that?" Really, this company is all about building solutions for those requests.

It's really that simple, so I use a lot of these different things in everything I do and everything I work on, so it's very, very important.

RITUALIZING MY EXPERIENCES

Ritualizing some of these experiences, like I said. In the morning, I wake up. I meditate, which sets me my ground and my base. I fuel up with a smoothie. Sometimes in the early morning, a workout, depending. I check the social news to get a feel for what's going on out there. I get into my phone a bit, and check notes and messages, check emails. Start aligning my content.

Or not, I mean, I don't hold my breath for it all day either. But I will assure you this, that this pattern of thinking, I've sold your stock, right, and now because I sold your stock, I want to see your company fail, Well, guess what. Beat it. It's not going to happen, right? I've been through more crap, we'll say, and I'm just trying to keep this a bit PG for the segment here, I don't need to get into some sort cursing like a sailor tirade, but I've been through more things here in my life than the Beatles. I've been through a lot of really far-out stuff that many people have not.

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY

It’s a ritual to share my content. Why, and why this content? I mean, this content I don't have to put out there. I don't have to share my ideas with people, my strategies. I don't, but the reality is, this is a gift. Every day, I wake up and I do my best to consistently offer you as a listener here and the reader here, and a colleague on my journey, a like spirit or a curious seeking spirit on my journey, the opportunity to participate, receive and learn from what I have to say and what I think about how things work in the world and all over.

I mean, you don't have to listen or read either. It's up to you. This is here for those who seek it, and to each their own. Each day a different day, a type of content that speaks to someone versus not. We get to choose, but it's out there for people, and so every day I align myself with this gift of sharing this type of content with the world.

I've got layers to my days. The thing with acting is an example. I mean, I'm not a full-time working actor at present, but I'm open to working on a project-by-project basis insofar as I'm invited and insofar as there's opportunities for growth.  

LAYERING OUT MY PASSIONS

Really interesting thing, I find with acting and performance, as an example, is that it's synchronistic. It's very serendipitous, how this occurs. When things line up, they really line up. Here's an example.

Vancouver film fest, two years ago I went and I saw one movie at the film festival. I would have liked to see more, but I didn't have the chance. I was invited by a friend to go see Manchester by the Sea. Which, with Casey Affleck. A big, popular movie, and it won some Academy Awards and all this good stuff, and it's a real movie. There's meat. It's heavy. It was quite a story and very humbling, and just thick. Like holy shit. It was just raw and real. I wasn't sure. I'm like, "I might go see this movie. Do I want to see this movie? I don't know. Well, whatever. Let's go check it out, and we'll just, we'll see." I was kind of like, "Oh, sitting in the theater tonight." I wasn't really sure if my energy level was there, and if I really wanted to. Nothing about the movie, per se. It was more about me. Right?

I'm like, "Okay, well, this is an invite, and it's an old friend, and I'm invited, and it would be nice to go, so yeah, let's go." I went to watch this movie. It was powerful in all the ways many of us are aware and watched it. Again, the only movie I went and saw at the Vancouver International Film Fest that year. Now, two months later, I get the call from my agent, and Casey Affleck and his team are in Vancouver looking for someone to work with them on their production, particularly as his stand-in and photo double for the whole movie. I mean, here's a guy who is in that stride nominated for the Oscar, for Best Actor, and he's working on his next project in my backyard.

I know it already that I'm looking pretty much just like him at the time, which is my natural vibe and essence anyways, and they were looking for someone like me, so I got the opportunity to go down in the office, the studio office, and say hello. I walk in, and it surprised me, because I didn't necessarily expect him to be there, and boom, he was right there. There it was. We chatted, and we realized we measured up very, very well standing next to each other, and we looked very much the same, and the vibe was good, and so they offered me the gig, and we had a camera test to see if it was going to work out. They offered me the gig and I did it, and giddy-up.

Two months of shooting and tons of fantastic insights, lessons, and experiences, and great people, and just amazing, amazing stuff. I mean, that's such a unique, special opportunity. Right? I had the space. I wasn't active on any other projects at the time. Everything was open, so there is alignment. What I'm saying is, in some respects, to do a bunch of things, what you're doing is, you're seeding the plants. Right? You're putting the seed in in the pot, and a little bit of soil with nutrients. It needs to grow. Right? Then every day you just water them a little bit, and they'll grow on their own. You'll need to water them at the right time that they need to be watered, but that will also align with our lives. As we open our hearts and our souls, I suggest that we realize that all of this is just a vibrational alignment, so we don't have like a coming in and a coming out of existence.

We don't have a coming in and a coming out of experience, and activity, and presence. We are just in it, and all these things connect, and in support of the things we're doing and connecting with, we build these tools, or we use these tools and we organize ourselves in a way to support that.

Further to that line of thinking touching on systems, I'm a big system builder. I'm not looking for a job. I come in on a gig, or I come in to work with something and set something up in many of my business exploits. The nice thing, as it relates to performing and acting, is like I'm there on my mark, and that's me, and all the stuff that comes up comes through me and in me and my experience in the moment and connecting. That's special, because it's using a different part of my being. That's the reward. That's the gift of being able to participate in the world in such an open, and sacred, and creative way, to allow myself that space to explore that and to be gifted that space by those who hold the space for me, be that in a studio, working out, be that in an audition room, presenting my offer for a project, whether that be on set. I mean, find a lot of that magic together, or opening a lot of that magic up on the day.

SETTING UP SYSTEMS

It's beautiful, but then around that, we need systems. What is the system of managing my brand, and the system of putting out my blog posts, or my podcasts, or my videos, of optimizing the same, of my system of preparation for auditions, or there's my system for running public companies or raising capital for public companies or startups?

What are my systems for people to find me who are interested in my ventures? What are my systems for launching my newsletter? All these types of things, and all of these are super important to align with as it relates to everything I'm building, everything I'm executing on.

I have systems. I have a team. I have people that focus on the different elements, and different tasks and things, but there's a circle of people that I connect with through the tools I use in organized ways. But that are always like the plant. I don't put a lid over top of the plant pot as it's growing to impede its growth. I keep the lid open, so it can grow up and in any direction it wants. The point is to put the seed in place with the right tools and the right systems and support to allow that to grow and flourish and really scale in the direction it's meant to and the direction that it wants to. That's really how I set these different things up, and there's more to come.

As I build into them, I find the epiphany creatively of what I seek and what I want in my life, and as I listen to my heart, my wants and needs, wishes, and as I go into those, then with those I start planting the seeds. If those seeds then start attracting what's required for them to grow, and as they begin to grow, I scale with them and continue to bring them the water they need, which is any type of things. Resources, tools, applications. People, just to do it. It doesn't have to be a lot. I mean, I have a number of different people that work on different types of timeframes, so maybe they need one thing to do, or I need them to do one thing a week. That's fine. Maybe it's an hour. I mean, that's their role as it relates to the whole system. Not everybody needs to be full time all the time, and, "I need to keep them busy." It's not how it works. It's that they're connected to me in ways that they're all available for me, equally mutually respecting each other's time to assist me along my path in alignment with my goals in exchange for what's appropriate for them to be compensated for doing the same.

That's how you grow anything and everything. With that, we don't get too tense about it. I don't get too worked up about where people work from. It's more about whether they do what they are meant to do and do it in the timeframe that we targeted, and do it well, and all those good things. That they have great taste in their craft, that they're talented in the work, and that they're open to growing and improving the same. Then we have like a mutually symbiotic working relationship on those things that allow me to do a whole bunch of stuff.

TAKING TIME FOR MYSELF

Then around that, I do other cool stuff too. Right? I do go traveling. I do go on adventures. I do take time off. I do take weekends off. I do just go for walks that have no direction, all the opportunity of the day in front of it, and I blend all these things together. Those things are all blended together with the people I care about and people that are close to me and my world that respect me, and then enjoy my presence, and want to have me around, and enjoy the connection of our mutual experience, and so we go.

As we go, we vibe, and as we vibe, we attract what we seek and want, as we vibe everything aligned, as it's meant to. All good things, and the world's our oyster, and all kinds of beautiful magic, joy, peace, happiness, abundance, prosperity, freedom, harmony, connection, community, contribution, so on and so forth.

All of these magical things meet us here, and that's the state of living that I live in, so everyone's invited to do it. I welcome you all to join me here. Happy to get much more detail on these items if you seek it for yourselves. Maybe that's a book that goes deep, deep, deep through the exactly specific how, but this is really it.

Look after yourself. Get some rest. Do what you love. Organize yourself. Flow with what the world brings you. Don't try and control it. Know where you want to go. Build systems. Delegate tasks, because you're also meant to provide opportunity to others. It's not just about you hoarding opportunity for yourself and try and do it on your own. You're a conduit. Right? You're a channel, the lightening, the electricity.

What you do, create, attract comes into you, and you share it with others as well. It flows through us. It's not an endpoint. There are points on either side of us. Like a battery, how a current goes right through a battery. We are the battery, and that's how we vibrate. This is how I do it.

Rock and roll. Right? World's our oyster. Everything's possible. I'm going to keep going. I'm just getting started, and we're going to keep flexing it, and want to keep bringing it.

If you like this content, let me know. Comment in the comments and share it as you see fit.  If there are others you feel that'd also be interested, vibes are high. Potential is amazing and great.

Everything is in front of us, and we are certainly surrounded by magic, blessed and grateful in this moment.

Until next time, wishing you the best of your day and your days, and we'll chat with you soon.