Page 6 - Life Coaching Today January 2021

How difficult is it to maintain a work- life balance? What measures do you take to ensure that you have that?
For me, I've always worked very, very hard. I would say in my early days, I didn't have an outstanding work-life balance. I wasn't there for my first two children very much. I was on the road to give seminars, give lectures, speak, appear on tv shows, promote my books, book signings, and things like that. I think they paid the price for that, and looking back, I think I paid the cost as well. But, I learned that I didn't want to continue that by the time they were teenagers. I spent more time with my son from the second marriage, and now every Sunday, my wife and I have a date night (no work allowed). We play ping pong, play scrabble, make gloves, sit in our hot tub, go out for dinner but no so much this covid 19, but we used to.
Still, we ordered in, or we cooked our meals. We took a month off every year. One year, we took a month off and went to Mumbai, India, at the healing clinic just to detox. We did a lot of yoga, breathing work, and meditation. We ate a lot of Mung bean soup. In the previous year, we rented a house in Hawaii for a month. You know, with my kids, Christmas, Thanksgiving, summer vacations, family reunions all fit into the schedule. There's one year we spent 12 days in Africa visiting different villages. When my kids turned 16, I took them anywhere in the world for a week. We bonded and created memories.
Building time into your schedule is essential. For example, my wife and I sit down at the beginning of the year to plan out our long weekends, vacations, and the time we're going to spend with our kids (I have a seven-year-old grandson). At 5'oclock our time and 8 o'clock New York time (He lives in Brooklyn, NY), my wife and our grandson get on facetime, and they spend an hour together. She reads to him, plays games, and probably gets on there once a week. That connection is vital for both of them. It is essential to have that schedule.
Would you consider yourself a driven person? What makes you a powerhouse? What is the source of your strength?
Yeah, I am! Driven by a purpose. I believe everybody is born with an inborn sense of purpose. When you're fulfilling your goal to express, create, do or, learn what you enjoy, then you're going to be happy.
For me, my life purpose is to inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in the context of love and joy. So, inspiration from the Chicken Soup For The Soul stories, other stories like that I would tell, empowering people through books like "The Success Principles," "The Success Principles Workbook," and "The Power of Focus."
Writing books, doing workshops, and providing training programs for trainers, coaches, and speakers to teach and coach success principles gives me fulfillment. I love what I do. I'm 76, and my wife keeps saying, 'you should retire,' and do what? Golf? I love working with people; I love writing; I love working with clients, helping them breakthrough blocks; I love teaching; I love playing games, even singing and dancing.
All the things we do in our seminars that, to me, is the best time ever. I love it, and I would say early on in my marriage, my wife probably thought I worked too much, traveled so much, but now there is Covid, and I've stayed at home for almost a year. We found a new balance, and I think working online helped us and allowed me to do the work I do without traveling. I now do webinars, podcasts, and things like that.
What are some of the things you do to prepare for events, and how do you wind down to relax after grueling events?
I usually don't have to wind down from them. Just content when I finished it. Sometimes I do a 7-day training over training trainers. I've always built into that another day at the hotel where I make it a spa day. Get a massage; I'll sit in the sun, I'll sit in the sauna, relax and go out for dinner that night.
I'm a big fan of massages. My wife and I are both licensed masseuses. I took a massage training course once to do that. We trade massages which, is another way of winding down. But, again, I play ping pong, we have a pool table, playing scrabble, and watching movie series' is our way of relaxing.