Bo: We get asked that question all the time. Balance. People love to use that word. I think people use the word ‘balance’ so that they don’t achieve anything. I do. I think they use that word if somebody’s really successful at something. Like say somebody is a really great basketball player. People go, “Well, he’s got no balance in his life. It’s all basketball.” And I’m like, “Yeah. You’re using it like it’s a bad thing. I’m saying that’s probably a good thing.”
Dawn: Yeah. We don’t have balance.
Bo: We don’t have balance.
Dawn: Our house is insane—I’m running in, he’s running out, I’m passing him, he’s pulling in, and kids are getting home. I’ve been in the car before with all the kids and I’ve said to them, “Don’t talk. I have a conference call. For 20 minutes, I need pure silence.” And they’ll actually do it. It’s hysterical. I think everyone just learns to make it work. “Oh, mom is on a call.” I don’t know. There is imbalance and it’s hard. You have to just get through each day, knowing what you want, what you want for your family and what you want for your relationship and just continue to fight for it. It’s going to be shitty sometimes. It’s going to have no balance. And then some days it’s going to be great. But, you know, it’s just part of life—ups and downs.
Bo: If you think of balance in the art of sprinting, for example, the fastest man or the fastest woman in the world. For them, running fast is a function of being off balance, out of balance. Their feet are catching them before they fall, which propels them forward and makes them the fastest people in the world. So I always think of that too.
Dawn: Well that’s interesting because if I’m falling, you catch me and vice versa. We just pick up where each other are off balance. You always need someone like that to help you.
Bo: Right. I think 10 or 15 years ago people used to live a life where they had the office and then they had home. They had their marriage and then they had their golf buddies. It was all compartmentalized. We won’t do that. We never even tried to do that. It’s a big homogenized world we have with our kids, with our kids’ sports and activities, and our work—and our relationship. Last night we tried to go on a date night and one of the kids was a stowaway.
Dawn: He was like, “Can I go with you guys?” We go, “Alright. Put a better sweatshirt on.”
Bo: So I think it might be a relief for a lot of you to hear that I think this balance thing is overrated. I think somebody made it up and it’s trying to keep you from achieving anything. “Hey, stay balanced.” That way you won’t do anything and you can just be mediocre. I think that’s why that word was invented.
Dawn: Here’s to no balance.
Bo: No balance, people.
