You Don’t Need Balance. You Need Purpose.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The problem with balance is it only works when everything is calm, when life plays by the rules. When all the pieces fall into place perfectly. But life doesn’t work like that. It throws curveballs, shifts timelines, and breaks routines. And when your peace depends on keeping everything equal, even a single disruption can cause the entire system to collapse.
That’s why the people who last—the ones who rise to the top—aren’t the ones balancing plates. They’re the ones planted in purpose. Because purpose doesn’t panic when chaos knocks, it doesn’t rely on smooth waters or perfect schedules. It holds steady because it’s rooted in meaning, not maintenance.
Balance is Reactive. Purpose is Built.
I remember early in my coaching career, people would ask how I managed the long hours, the travel, the pressure, the losses. They wanted to know how I kept it “balanced.” The truth is I didn’t. I wasn’t looking for balance, I was focused on building something no one had ever done. I was trying to turn broken programs into championship cultures at every level of the game. Trying to show young men that discipline was love, that accountability was respect, that their story didn’t have to end where it started. None of that came with balance. It came with brutal focus. When deciding that one thing mattered more than everything else. Balance would’ve told me it was rest. Purpose told me I needed to keep showing up.
You Don’t Need More Time. You Need a Reason.
The world will sell you solutions: planners, time-blocking tools, stress-reduction apps. They make it sound like balance is something that can be downloaded or purchased from Amazon. But here’s the truth: when your purpose is clear, your priorities follow. You stop trying to fit everything in. You start cutting out what doesn’t belong. You stop living like a manager and start living like a mission-driven leader. That shift changes everything. You move from survival to significance. From scattered to steady. From noise to clarity. Not because the world calmed down, but because you did.
Purpose Doesn’t Protect You from Pain. It Gives It Direction.
I’ve been through some hard things. Things that I have written about, others that are part of my seminars, and then there are things I don’t talk about. Pain that doesn’t care what time it is. Pressure that doesn’t ask if you’ve had enough. In those moments, balance never saved me. Purpose did. Purpose told me to move anyway. To lead anyway. To get back in the weight room, even when my body was loaded with the poison from chemotherapy, and my soul felt heavy. When you have something bigger than yourself, something anchored in your passion, it pulls you through what motivation can’t. Feelings do not drive you. You’re driven by fire that burns deep inside of you.
Five Ways People Find Purpose
· Through Pain: Life is hard; there is loss, failure, and betrayal. As the dust clears, some people choose to rebuild with what’s left. Their purpose rises from the pain they endured. It’s not by choice, but by necessity, and it’s real because it came from this place, it holds.
· Through Service: The moment life stops being about “me” and starts being about “we”, everything becomes different. Purpose rooted in working to lift others is steady. When the energy is outward-focused, you stop chasing applause and start chasing impact.
· Through Stillness: Stillness allows the noise to fade so you can finally hear what’s been calling you all along. Purpose isn’t always loud. Sometimes it whispers. But if you’re moving too fast, you’ll miss it. If you are not on your path, but trying to live for others' approval, you will walk right past your purpose and end up where you were never meant to be.
· Through Calling: For some, purpose strikes like lightning. A specific mission grabs them and never lets go. It might come through faith, an epiphanic moment, or a burden they can’t ignore. This kind of purpose doesn’t fade. Each breath you take pushes you along your crusade. Time has no meaning. All that matters is that the needle has moved farther than the day before.
· Through Struggle: Repetition. Grit. Climb. Fall. Repeat. Those who stay in the fight eventually realize that the grind itself is where identity is forged. Struggle doesn’t just test you—it reveals you. And this is where people often fail to meet their purpose. Fear stops them from understanding that the struggle they are living in isn’t there to stop them; it is only to see how strong their purpose is.
It doesn’t matter how, when, or where you realize your purpose; the most important thing is that you understand how it has changed your life in positive, far-reaching ways. You will find new energy. Your climb will become easier, directed, and thoughtful. All you need to do is to push through whatever struggle or chaos that you encounter.
You Don’t Need Balance – You Need Purpose
You won’t find your purpose in a perfectly curated life. You’ll find it when everything goes off-script, when the comfort fades. When the balance breaks. And you’re still standing. Which means we all have a chance, because our lives are full of struggle.
You’ll find it when you stop chasing comfort and start chasing the things that people don’t think you can accomplish, the hard things. It becomes apparent when you stop asking for less pressure and start asking for more responsibility. When the old version of you finally breaks under the weight, a stronger one emerges from
That’s when you stop needing balance because you’ve been forged by something deeper.
Purpose doesn’t keep things from falling apart. It keeps you from falling apart when they do.
Here’s the challenge: Don’t waste your life trying to hold everything in place. Start building something that can hold you. Build it with your values. With your convictions. With the pressure that is always around you. Because once your foundation is purpose, nothing can make you flinch.
People will tell you to find balance. I’ll tell you the truth. I have found that balance is temporary, but purpose is transferable. Balance works in calm, while purpose works in storms. Balance looks good on paper, but your purpose allows you to leave your mark!
When you’re doing it right, your purpose won’t just carry you; it will lift you, it will lift all of those around you who look up to you when times get hard. You won’t have to brag about it, you’ll live it. Quietly. Boldly. Consistently. Over time, it becomes who you are. Because real power doesn’t need to be announced, it’s proven daily. You don’t rise by managing everything.
Your purpose comes through deciding what matters most... and letting the baggage go.
