I believe that the things we read, listen to and watch often have a certain level of impact and influence in our lives. These things also have a huge role on our perception and perspectives. And because I have seen how much time we invest on books, the media and people, I have become more cautious and “purposefully selective” about where my time goes.

I am an observant person by nature and often keep my opinions to myself most of the time. But one of the things I have learned is the importance of finding balance in life.

I am a fan of Olympics. There’s an event in the Olympics called “Pentathlon”. This particular event has five divisions in which the pentathlete has to try to succeed in all five events, not just one or two.

I view life as a “pentathlon” with five areas which we all have to try and find balance in. Namely our: spiritual; physical; professional; financial and social lives.

Keeping these five balanced may not be an easy task, but it’s necessary. I often see people, me included, who tend to overemphasise one or two of these areas, perhaps the area they feel more passionate about, and neglect the others. Passion is great, I am a cheerleader in encouraging passion in people, it’s awesome. I’m here encouraging YOU to develop passion in not just one area, or two, but in all five of these.

I have learned the hard way that overemphasis in just one area is unhealthy and can bring misery. A couple of years ago I found out I was struggling with depression, my first response to this, like most people going through depression, was denial.

Mr Denial kept me imprisoned from the possibility of breaking free from it for a very long time. I recently decided to acknowledge it, face it head on and break free from it. So one of the things that led to my depression was imbalance, yep that was one of the factors. I was so passionate about only one area of my life and neglected the others. This one area kept me happy for a while and I felt all the others weren’t necessary for me. Boy was I wrong.

I started having some kind of a meltdown when I realised that the other four areas of my life were slowly deteriorating and were seriously calling for my attention or else I was a pentathlete heading for a huge loss. I became miserable that even the one area I had been overemphasising for years couldn’t be a pick-me-up anymore, in fact I felt drained by it. I started being resentful to this one part of my life and towards any and everything that had to do with it. I was exhausted and finished. A hard knock of reality; it was like all my life I had been given a huge mansion but only been utilising just one room while there were a hundred more to my avail; what a waste! All this time I could have been here and there, but sadly I was just focused on living my life in this one room.

I am calling you to wake up today; there’s so much more to life than just one or two areas you’re focusing on, believe me. For a while it seems harmless until something happens to remind you of what you have been neglecting for too long.

So lastly I encourage you to do some self-evaluation, note down certain things, find someone who can help hold you to account on what you have noted. Then start bringing life and activity to all these other areas. And please try and keep record of your progress to help future evaluations.

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Tell us: Do you believe that finding a balance in life will help you progress?