It’s great to be passionate about something, or to try your hardest at something, but it’s important to make sure that your success in one area doesn’t come at the expense of another area. It’s all about keeping a balance in life.

There are lots of people who are extremely successful in business, but at the expense of their family and relationships. There are people who are great athletes, but at the expense of their own personal lives.

Go ahead and strive for greatness in whatever you want. Just remember that there are other parts to your life as well. Don’t be great at one thing and terrible at everything else. Think about the balance, and you’ll be much happier.

We all have stress in our lives, and we all have to figure out how to process it in the healthiest way possible. But sometimes what we are calling stress is actually fear.

When you find yourself stressed out, stop and think about what it is that you are really feeling. Is it actually stress, or are you afraid of what the outcome might be, so you’re feeling fear?

Stress is a normal response to change and uncertainty. Our lives are constantly changing due to things we can’t control, and feeling some stress in response to that is okay.

Fear has a place in life, but fear in response to change creates symptoms that are bad for you. And living in a prolonged state of fear is definitely bad for you.

So before you call something stress, try to really think about what it is that you’re feeling. If it’s fear of the unknown outcome, try to work through some scenarios in your mind of positive outcomes, and let the fear go.

James Clear said, “We don’t rise to the levels of our goals, we sink to the levels of our systems.” He wrote a book called Atomic Habits, about how the small things we do add up to huge things in our lives.

For example, if you want to watch less tv, you make small changes to your “systems” to make it less convenient. You can move your couch so it doesn’t face the tv, or take the batteries out of the remote, or keep the tv in the closet, so you actually have to make an effort to watch it.

So many of the things we do in life, we do out of habit, or routine, not because we are living our lives on purpose. If there is something that you want to change, or improve, or do better or differently, think about what small, intentional change you can make that will alter your routine.

Don’t try to change everything in one shot. That’s why new year’s resolutions fail. Think instead about changing a small aspect of your habits or routines, which can help lead to a larger change.

Nothing works out the way you planned it, but it does all work out.  It’s okay to make plans for your life, but it’s important to remember that almost nothing is going to work out the way that you planned it.   I believe that if you stay positive, and continue to believe that things are going to work out, then they will.

Don’t worry about it when the plans you made all go sideways.  That’s what life looks like.  Just keep believing that even though things aren’t going the way you thought they would, it’s still all going to work out in the end.

Last summer we went to France. Among other things, we went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa. To be clear, the painting is not at all depressing.

What was depressing was the crowd of hundreds of people who weren’t looking at the painting. They were holding their phones up in the air, taking a terrible, useless picture.

Did anyone in that room actually enjoy seeing the Mona Lisa, or were they all just thinking about how everyone in their social media circles will know that they went to the Louvre? I read that the Louvre had record attendance last year, with over 10 million visitors. I wonder how many of them actually looked at the Mona Lisa. The rest of them really don’t know what they were missing.

The next time you’re looking at something at you’re tempted to take a picture of it, stop for a moment. Before you take that picture, make sure that you’re really looking. Take a moment to truly appreciate what you’re seeing. Give yourself the gift of looking at it just for you. Then, if you feel like you want to share it with someone else, go ahead.

Sometimes, when things are hard, you can feel like there isn’t a solution to the problem. Remember that just because you can’t see the solution yet, it doesn’t mean that the solution doesn’t exist.

I get really stressed out when I can’t see the solution to the problem.  If I can find any solution to the problem, I immediately feel better, because now I know that there is a solution.  Even if it isn’t the solution that I want, at least I know that the problem can be solved. 

Once you accept that there is some solution, any solution, to your problem, you can relax about it, because you know that it’s going to work out in the end. Probably not the way you wanted it to; maybe not the planned; but it will work out. And you’ll be fine.