How to plan your growth
Balancing life is essential, but striving for balance can sometimes lead to mediocrity. This article explores the debate between maintaining a balanced life and pursuing intense focus in certain areas
This week it will be a short one. But long enough to trigger some thinking in you.
Some people advocate hard for living a balanced life. Pay attention to work but only a little. Take care of your health without big indulgences…
That’s a great message to ensure people don’t grow too imbalanced.
But this can also make everyone very average — a regular job, with regular health, and regular relationships.
There’s no right or wrong, I’ll make an argument for both sides and it’s up to you to find your sweet spot.
🧪 An argument to push with a laser focus.
If you quit the moment things get hard, you are going to amount to nothing.
If you play slow in all areas of your life, you won’t have the strength to push through the dip. Only those who push through the dip reap the results. (Recommended reading: The Dip)
Getting into the software engineering industry can be daunting for many people. Most readers will think it’s not “that hard”, but we are all biased because we are success stories. Just look at the abandonment rate of most universities.
I checked mine. The abandonment rate is 40% and for the people that stick to it, it takes 7.2 years to finish a 4-year program.
But pushing through the dip can bring you great results. Software engineering is a field that always needs people and you can earn a very good living.
🧺 An argument to pivot rather than staying in the same focus for life
You pushed through the dip and got great results at a young age. Then what?
You can keep pushing, but you’ll hit diminishing returns. A unit of effort is not bringing you anymore the same amount of reward, but less.
To push through the dip you had to make sacrifices in other areas. That’s great, but if you keep the same prioritization, you’ll grow very unbalanced.
I like the concept of having a strategic imbalance. You choose to live unbalanced for a period of life to get high rewards. But then comes the strategic part to realize about it and change your prioritization.
Another example: I have listened to a lot of episodes of the Dave Ramsey show. It was hard to believe to me, but people with million-dollar net worths would have a hard time spending money. What got them here won’t get them there. At some point, you have to change your prioritization.
Instead of continuing to push to become TOP 1%, be fine to be TOP 5% and focus on another area in which to become good.
If you are a great video editor you may have a good job at Hollywood. If you are a good video editor, communicator, and marketer you can build your own business.
We are biased. We play the lottery because we pay more attention to the winning marble than all the losing marbles. We want to "have a chance', that's the possibility effect. (Recommended reading: Thinking Fast and Slow)
🎯 Conclusion:
High risk, high reward. But would you play your chances?
Imagine the case of athletes. You are trying to become the next Cristiano Ronaldo or Leo Messi. But the chances are so slim that you may end up dedicating all your life to a purpose that ends in your 30s. And then start again.
Sometimes the high reward is not worth the risks of putting all the eggs in the same basket. But spreading your eggs all over the place will make no meaningful impact anywhere.
Instead, distribute your eggs as you make progress.
It’s hard to notice the passing of time. I recommend you journal and make planning a habit. This way, you will see in front of you what your focus and prioritization have been for the last few years. You won’t say to yourself that you’ll get into the gym or make that career change in the future when “the time is right”
P.S. I’d love nothing more than hearing different opinions around this topic. If you disagree, don’t just close the article but write down :)
🗞️ Other articles people like
👏 Weekly applause
Why Is Redis a Distributed Swiss Army Knife 💭 by
. This article explores real-world use cases you can implement with Redis.Hungry minds by
. A great newsletter to catch up with tech news weeklyFancy or Fragile? How to Hit the Sweet Spot by
. An article about finding the balance in another area: under-engineering vs over-engineeringHow to keep up with all the digital content by
. Good article to keep up with online content. Most times we are consuming content due to FOMO and we create an unrealistic expectation.
Thank you so much for the shout-out Fran!
Really connected to the post here 🔥
Great thoughts, Fran.
Balance is individual, and you have to figure it out for yourself. No framework, course, or coach can tell you what to do to become happy or have a sense of purpose.
We developed and spent a lot of money on tools that tell you otherwise, but nothing substitutes the real thing: your personal, inner balance.
Thanks for the shout-out!