In my daily training practice, I’ve recently taken on a few clients whose lives are completely dominated by their profession, and their health has suffered for it. While I find it an all too common view for fitness professionals to have contempt or pity for these kinds of people, I find that I have an opposite view. Their physical health may have declined, but mentally they are incredibly focused, always on, and driven to do more and more. They have come to me because their health is interfering with their ability to keep driving and pushing towards greater success.

Now, I know it has become quite popular in the last decade or so to discuss work/life balance, how to minimize stress, and how American society as a whole is too obsessed with work and not enough with relaxation. I will readily agree that too much negative stress can be detrimental to health. I will also agree that people may do stupid things for the sake of victory or competition, and I will agree that kids shouldn’t be in club sports year-round and that recovery and variety are important. But guess what? If you really want to accomplish anything in this sport, or in any sport or business venture, you’re going to go crazy at a certain point. I'd rather be crazy pissed off for greatness than semi-excited for being “pretty good.”

And past going crazy, if you are truly going to dominate something, you have to allow yourself to be consumed by that one thing.

I recently placed a very large order for lifting gear from elitefts™. I was extremely happy about this, and I was probably more excited than a three year old on Christmas morning when I received my P2 belt in the mail. At work, though, I had a number of people who went from being intrigued to puzzled as I described my equipment, training, and how fired up I was over all of it.

“Why would you spend that much?", “All that just for training?!”, and “Why is weight such a big deal?” were all phrases I heard.

Because it's not supposed to be balanced if you are going to dominate it.

Now, there is a certain animalistic part of me that wanted to knee these people in the spine all Bane-style, but I am a mostly understanding person...so I refrained. What it did illustrate to me, though, is that many people are generally devoid of passion for anything. I have never, nor will I ever, discourage anyone’s passion for what it is that he or she does—be it powerlifting, selling insurance, or pole dancing (and I’ve trained a few of those women as well. They are very sweet girls with many, many issues).

The biggest flaw in perception is that the majority of people seem to think that being passionate should also entail having some sort of “balance” to their lives. “Balance” then becomes one of the cutting edge buzz words that people throw around when they can't handle stress or are unhappy with their careers, relationships, or general state of being. “I need balance”...whatever the hell that is supposed to mean.

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“I need balance” is not going to get you a six-figure income or an elite total. It will not lead you to owning your own business or to landing a level-10 girlfriend who makes all of your buddies envy you (shout out to my brother, Tully, and his drop-dead gorgeous girlfriend). The most talented people and successful people I’ve encountered were utter fanatics about their passions. They didn’t talk about “balance.” They talked about how they wished they had even more time to devote to what they did, not less.

I have friends in a multitude of different professions—lawyers, dancers, writers, actors, trainers, nurses, etc. Yet, however disparate their careers are, the ones that are succeeding mightily all have one thing in common: They are not just “into” what they do, they are in it—and they Are It. They are their profession, and by God if they aren’t killing it and getting better every time I talk to them.

One of my team members, Jennifer Petrosino, is a great example. Every time I’ve talked to that girl on the phone, she talks about 1,000 words a minute. Bring up training anything and she’ll keep frickin' going. I love talking to her because her love and fire for the sport is so damn obvious. The same goes for Donnie Thompson (Mr. 3,000-pound total). I recently went to a seminar of his in Arizona and saw how excited he gets about everything (be it briefs, shoulder rehab, or meeting a fellow meathead), and it's immediately obvious why and how he totaled 3,000 pounds. The guy is made of passion. He can get fired up just talking about loading plates on the bar. He didn’t just make a goal, he believed day-in and day-out that he would total 3,000 pounds, no matter what it took. It was just a matter of when it would happen.

I thought for a bit on what constitutes “balance” for people that are 100% consumed by one thing. I happened to be watching the film 13 Assassins at the time, and I realized that my perspective was all wrong. It’s not about balance for people that live for what they are. It’s about taking the time to sharpen what we already are. It’s like the forging of a sword.

Balance for the most passionate people is simply a cooling down from the fires of the forge. There are many metaphors that say something along the lines of “the hottest forge makes the strongest steel,” and that is entirely true. But steel also needs to be cooled before it can be sharpened. That’s what I consider my “balance”—when I take a break from coaching or training or lifting or researching and writing and coaching and training and lifting. Every day I build a fire and periodically I need to cool down. I need to take a physical and mental break from the fire and then return to what I’m doing—better and sharper than before.

Whatever your respective passion may be, light that thing up until it burns like nothing. Find like-minded people who share that love and build it and stoke it and let that thing consume your life. You'll learn more, you’ll live more, and the love you have for that thing will be far more rewarding than simply “liking it.”

Don’t be afraid to start a fire.