Week 2 Workbook

Diving Deep Into Each of Your Life’s Categories

(Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses, Threats)

YOUR WEEK 2 MISSION:

Your mission, should you choose to accept it,

is to DIVE DEEP into the foundation
of your Life Balance Roadmap by pinpointing
your strengths, weaknesses and
growth opportunities in all areas of your life.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 1

 Weekly Check-In
Before you get started, I just wanted to check in with you.

Were you able to get the 3 section notebook I asked you to buy for week 3? You’ll be using this notebook
to create your life balance roadmap. If you haven’t yet, please carve out some time in the next few days to
buy a 3 section spiral bound notebook.

Also, were you able to carve out some time for a fun non-work related activity? If so, how did it feel?
What I’d like you do right now is to write down what that activity was and how you felt about doing it.

Describe the activity in detail:

• How was the weather

• Did you eat food? If so, what did you eat and how did it taste?
• Were you with someone special? If so, who is this person and how did being with this person make
you feel?

This is just a quick exercise to help you reflect and honor the incredible win you just had.

But what if I didn’t do a life-balance activity?

I totally understand how life AND WORK can get in the way of plans.

So if you didn’t get around to planning out and doing a fun activity in the last few days, don’t beat your-
self up. This happens to everyone.

But, if this is the case with you, I would LOVE for you to take a moment and schedule out a fun activity
that you can do in the next 1-2 days from now.

This is just one of many small steps you will learn in this Life Balance Method course on how to train your
brain and take action on several other areas of your life IN ADDITION to work.

As a reminder, your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to plan a fun and fulfilling activity that you
will do in 1-2 days from now that will make you happy and lead you one step closer to breaking free from
the modern overworked culture.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 2

 All Of Your Life’s Categories Are Connected!
Throughout this life-balance journey, you’re going to be focusing on each category of your life.

Why?

The big reason I’m having you do these exercises is because ALL YOUR CATEGORIES ARE CONNECTED.

These categories combined are what makes up you who you are. They craft your personality, your
uniqueness, and ultimately affects your MENTAL HEALTH.

So what does this mean?

If there’s a category in your life that’s severely problematic, then that stress can actually adversely affect
the other categories in your life as well. Its like a disease spreading to other areas of your life. For exam-
ple, a huge stressor at work can affect your family because you will be bringing that stress home with
you.

A negative breach in one category can spill over into other categories and spread like a disease or infec-
tion. By fixing one aspect of your life, you’re actually preventing other parts of your life from being nega-
tively affected.

So what’s the ultimate goal?

The ultimate goal is to focus on the positive elements in your life’s categories while eliminating or im-
proving the negative elements. This, in and of itself will lead you towards having more productivity,
happiness, and ultimately balance in your life.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 3

 A SWOT Analysis Of Your Life
What is a SWOT analysis?

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This type of analysis is commonly
done when developing business plans and analyzing the current situation and futuristic projections of a
business.

Many years ago, while I was consumed in work-mode, I was developing a business plan and SWOT Analysis
for a new venture I was undertaking in the music clearance and licensing industry. I was at my desk writing
out my plan when I had that big “Aha” moment on how to help myself to break free from the modern over-
worked culture. I mentioned this before but I’ll repeat it here too:

So many professionals treat their businesses with care. They craft business plans that detail future projections,
breaking everything down into small steps leading to a bigger goal. What if I treated and honored my life in
the same respect that I treated my business? What if I saw value, worth and potential in all areas of my life in
addition to my work-life? What if I created a business plan for my life?

This is exactly what you’re doing right now as you’re taking this Life Balance Method course: You can call
this a business plan for your life or a customized life-balance roadmap. In the end, its all the same. It’s guide
leading you towards a more fulfilling, happier, more productive and overall more balanced life.

So let’s dive right in and start working on a SWOT Analyses for your life.

Personally, when doing this exercise, I’ve found it easier to reorder these four items so that you’re first focus-
ing on positive aspects of your life, and then focusing on the not-so-positive aspects of your life.

In this case, we’ll start with Strengths, then Opportunities, then Weaknesses and finally Threats.

IMPORTANT
The goal for this section is NOT to schedule out life-balance activities. You’ll be doing that next
week.

But before you build the house, you have to lay down the foundation. In this section, you will be
building upon the foundation you created last week.

This will help you get crystal clear on HOW you should balance each categories of your life.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 4

 STRENGTHS:
There are three strength exercises you will focus on for each category of your life:

1. What you’re good at

2. What makes you happy
3. Your mastermind

Strengths Exercise 1: What You’re Good At

For this exercise, simply write down what you’re good at in each of your life’s categories. To help, here are a
few questions you can answer:

What are your strengths and qualifications a work?

• Are you a good leader?

• Do you have great organization and management skills?
• Is there software or program that you’ve mastered?

What about your family category?

• Are you a good spouse or parent?

• Are you a good communicator with your family?
• Do you spend high-quality time with your loved ones?

Or how about your physical health?

• Is there a sport that you’re great at?

• How about being able to bench press 200 pounds when you’re at the gym?

Whatever it is, just write it down. You can write this in a list form, or full sentences. Its entirely up to you.

And remember, don’t get too caught up with this. Just write from the heart and move on. You’ll have plenty
of opportunities to dive in deeper and rewrite, readjust or get more specific with these exercises.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 5

Strengths Exercise 2: What Makes You Happy

Write down what makes you happy in each category of your life. Here, add some EMOTION to what you’re
writing.

For example, don’t just write down that your spouse makes you happy. In addition to writing that down,
explain WHY your spouse makes you happy. What emotions do you feel when you’re with your spouse?

What about your hobbies? What hobbies do you do that make you happy? How do you feel emotionally
when partaking in these hobby activities?

DID YOU KNOW?

Writing down and describing the things in life that make you happy is a simple but very powerful
exercise. In her book “Appreciative Living,” author Jacqueline Kelm says that this is about “finding
what works, where we excel, what we love, and what makes us come alive.” Its about appreciating
and honoring what we have in our lives.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 6

Strengths Exercise 3: Your Mastermind

Your mastermind is a very powerful strength. Every successful business is comprised of a group of master-
minds, all working together to achieve a common goal.

Similarly to a business, your life and life’s categories can have a mastermind or a team of people who help
inspire, mentor and guide you towards your life-balance goals.

“The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance

of two or more minds working in perfect harmony
for the attainment of a common definite objective.
Success does not come without the cooperation of others.”
– Napoleon Hill

JOURNEY FROM STRUGGLE TO TRIUMPH

I have a CRAZY FAST metabolism.

I’ve always been super skinny and this was something I was so uncomfortable about.

I really wanted to gain weight so I tried going to the gym during my high-school and college years.
But each time I’d go, I’d soon get overwhelmed and give up. This is because I had no plan. I didn’t
know what weights or machines I should use and I felt lost.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but these feelings of overwhelm were totally normal. There wasn’t
anything wrong with me. I just didn’t have the education and training to guide me on how I was
supposed to work out at the gym.

It wasn’t until I hired a great trainer that I started having confidence and motivation to keep going.

My trainer became my mastermind.

My trainer supported me, motivated me, and helped push myself to get out of my comfort zone and
grow. He explained the types of exercises needed to strengthen the different muscles in my body.
He also carved out a workout schedule and diet regimen. I now had a plan!

So where am I now? Yes… I’m still a skinny guy…that’s just how my body is. But because of my
mastermind, I was able to gain 20 pounds of muscle and look and feel better than I’ve ever before.

I couldn’t have done this with my trainer. I owe so much of this to my trainer for pushing me, moti-
vating me and giving me the plan on gaining muscle and getting healthier.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 7

Who are the masterminds in your life’s categories? Write them down.

These can be your friends, family, your boss or co-workers, or even people you don’t know such as celebri-
ties, social media gurus, bloggers and authors.

These are the people who inspire you, who you look up to and model, who motivate you to be the best ver-
sion of yourself.

Why Is This Exercise Useful for Balancing My Life?

Remember, the more you focus on all of your categories, the more balanced you will be overall.
Better yet, you will also see growth within all of your life’s categories leading to a stronger, and
more fulfilled complete self.

As mentioned before, focusing on all of these categories will help you train your brain and shift
your mindset from a work-only mindset to a life-balance mindset. These exercises will help you pay
attention to both work and non-work related aspects of your life so that you can stop neglecting
certain areas of your life over work.

This is especially true when focusing on your mastermind in each of your categories. I’ve taken
a lot of marketing courses throughout my professional career. One of the common themes I keep
hearing is to apply the proven successes from people who are ahead of you. In other words, be in-
spired by these people, learn from them, and model their success habits. In marketing, we call this
“swiping their ideas.”

This strategy has been applied since the dawn of civilization. As Isaac Newton once wrote, “If I
have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

What ideas or proven habits can you swipe from your mastermind?

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 8

 OPPORTUNITIES
So what exactly is an opportunity? When balancing and improving your life, an opportunity can simply be
one the following two things:

1. Things you currently don’t have or do in your life, but want to implement.
2. Things you currently have or do in your life but can improve on.

Opportunities are ways for you to get out of your comfort zone and GROW in ALL AREAS OF YOUR LIFE.

In order to grow in life, you need to get out of your comfort zone and try new things.

But let me step back for a second…

I want to really congratulate you because just by taking the Life Balance Method course and doing these
exercises, you are EXPANDING on your opportunities! That’s right!

You’ve gotten out of that comfort zone of focusing solely on work. You’re now taking the necessary steps
and actions to live a happier, more productive, and overall more balanced life.

Do you get this? You should feel GREAT about this. I sure feel great about you!

Next week, you’ll be taking direct and swift action by planning and scheduling out life-balance activities in
all categories of your life, including your work-life. And by taking action, not only will you see success, but
you’ll also see something even more powerful: CONFIDENCE.

As Tony Robins once said, “A belief is a poor excuse for an experience.”

What he means is this: Quit talking about what you want to do in life. Instead, go out and do it. Experience it.
Not only will you grow as a human, your confidence will grow as well.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 9

 JOURNEY FROM STRUGGLE TO TRIUMPH

Getting out of your comfort zone can be SCARY! I know this firsthand.

I’ve been a musician all of my life. The first time I got up on stage and played to a crowd of people I
was rally nervous and scared.

But eventually, after playing to the same crowd over and over again, I started feeling normal again.
I was now getting into my new and improved comfort zone.

But, there were times when the stakes got higher. I’d play bigger shows with more people watching
me, or there was an important industry person in the crowd. When this happened, that scary feel-
ing of nervousness would creep back in again.

I have to admit. I HATED it. It made me feel so vulnerable. I had so much anxiety.

But I soon realized WHY I was having these scary feelings all along. There wasn’t anything wrong
with me. In fact, I was having these nervous feelings because I was getting out of my comfort zone
and GROWING. I was expanding my opportunities. Wow… what huge Aha moment!

Once I realized this, I was able to switch my mindset to begin STRIVING for and LOOKING FORWARD
to having these feelings of nervousness. I knew that the more nervous I’d feel, the stronger I was
becoming and the more I was growing. Have you ever felt this way?

Opportunities Exercise 1: What Can I Improve On?

List up to 4 or 5 things you want to improve in each category of your life. These are your OPPORTUNITIES
FOR GROWTH. To help, here are a few ideas…

1. Is there a new skill-set you’d like to learn?

2. Do you want to ask for the raise you deserve?
3. Do you want to lose weight, get healthier, and eat better?
4. What about talking to a family member who you’ve lost contact with?
5. Do you want to learn how to cook an exciting new type of cuisine?
6. How about being a better parent for your child?

Don’t get too carried away or too stuck on one category. Remember, you can always go back and expand on
these lists later on.

*IMPORTANT: The point for this exercise IS NOT to nitpick at all of your categories, tear them down and find
weaknesses. If there are categories in your life that you’re completely content with, then honor them. Seri-
ously. Honor and celebrate the wins you make in life while improving any categories that need adjustments.
As the old saying goes, if it aint broke, don’t fix it.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 10

Opportunities Exercise 2: Expanding Your Mastermind

As Napoleon Hill said, “The Mastermind principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in
perfect harmony for the attainment of a common definite objective. Success does not come without the cooper-
ation of others.”

In this exercise, you will expand your mastermind as an opportunity.

In our modern world, we have unlimited access to so many helpful resources. One of these resources, of
course, is the Life Balance Method which you’re taking right now.

To start, go back to the list you just wrote down. This was the opportunities for growth list.

What masterminds are not in your life right now, but you’d like to include moving forward?

Are there any friends, family members, gurus, or online courses you can take to help you improve on the
items you listed?

If you don’t know off hand, that’s totally fine. At this point, you’re just laying down the foundation for your
roadmap. Nothing you write here is set in stone. You can get more specific with research later on.

JOURNEY FROM STRUGGLE TO TRIUMPH

When I switched careers from a music career to marketing for nonprofits, I was faced with a pretty
big challenge.

There was a lot of computer programs that were required for my marketing position, but I had no
idea how to use them.

So, I expanded my mastermind by enrolling in a few high-quality but affordable online courses
through Lynda.com and digitalmarketer.com. Here, I was able to learn programs like InDesign and
WordPress so that I could succeed in my job.

Lynda.com is an awesome resource. The video tutorial topics are vast and wide. In addition to
helping you improve your work skill-sets, the video tutorials at Lynda.com can also help you with
your hobbies such as photography and music lessons.

Check out the courses that Lynda.com has to offer. You never know. You may find that perfect video
tutorial to expand your mastermind!

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 11

Bonus Exercise:
As humans, many of us tend to focus on the things that aren’t working in our lives…the negative stuff that
keeps us up at night and brings out stress and anxiety. Its so easy to get caught up on these stressors while
ignoring the awesome, positive, and inspiring things right in front of us.

Your bonus assignment is to take out a new piece of paper and write down the list of your masterminds
from both your strengths and opportunities exercises. Tape this piece of paper next to your desk or on your
refrigerator… somewhere where you can see and read it every day.

This list is your mastermind. It’s the positive people and resources in your life who will help you grow, be
more productive, and ultimately more balanced in life. Reading this list on daily basis will help you VISUAL-
IZE the positive people you want to include in your life balance team.

WHY VISUALIZATION IS SO POWERFUL

This act of visualization is just one of many components you will learn in Week 3 of the Life Balance
Method course leading you to success, growth, and balance in all areas of your life.

In fact, visualization is a key component in many successful people’s daily lives. In order to prep for
the big game, many professional athletes visualize themselves winning, making it to the finish line,
and giving it their all.

The reason why so many people visualize their goals is because visualization subconsciously moti-
vates you into believing you can achieve these goals. This in turn, leads to confidence which is one
of the strongest features of successful people have and why they follow through with their life-
goals.

Recommended Books on EXPANDING Your Opportunities

Here are two books I’d highly recommend for anyone, no matter where you are in life:

1. Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

2. Millionaire Success Habits – Dean Graziosi

Remember earlier how I discussed modeling yourself on the successful habits from people ahead of you?

Similar to Life Balance Method, these two books can inspire you to not only grow in your own business,
but in your whole life in general.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 12

 WEAKNESSES
So far this week, you’ve focused on two of the four core elements in our SWOT Analysis: your strengths and
opportunities.

Now its time to switch gears and focus on the opposite side of things: Your weaknesses and your threats.

There are two types of weaknesses:

1. Weaknesses stem from FEAR you have in each category of your life. For example:

• I fear I won’t make enough money

• I fear I’ll never be able to lose that weight
• I’m afraid to invest money because my parents lost money in the stock market.

2. Other weakness are things you’re just not good at, despite how hard you try.

For me, I’m horrible at math and accounting. I’ve spent so much time trying to learn these subjects but its
really like a foreign language to me. Despite all of my efforts, I barely passed my college economics class. I
even had to beg my economics teacher to give me a C minus instead of the F I should have received.

In my case, math is just something I’m bad at. No question about it.

But, there are also things in my life that I’m inexperienced with:

I never knew how to run a WordPress website until I took a Wordpress online course. I was inexperienced
with going to the gym and having a good workout regimen until I got a trainer to teach me the ropes. I was
inexperienced with playing guitar until I took lessons and practiced every day. Do you see the difference?

Weakness Exercise:
Write down two lists for each category in your life:

• What things are you just plain bad at?

• What things are you inexperienced in, but would like to improve on?

REMEMBER!
The point is not to seek out weaknesses in all categories of your life.

If there is a category that you’re happy with, simply write that you’re happy with that category and
move on. If it aint broke, don’t fix it!

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 13

 THREATS
Threats are outside forces, circumstances, or people who are blocking you from achieving productivity and
balance in each category of your life.

Outside forces could be external things that you don’t necessarily have any direct control over. This could be
the economy, housing prices, or the environment.

Another type of threat to your categories are certain people in your life. I like to call these people your “Anti
Mastermind.”

Are there people in your life who have told you you’re crazy for trying out a new business, or taking a risk by
quitting your soul sucking day job, or majoring in what you want to major in?

What about people who discourage you from exercising and getting fit?

Do you have a boss or co-worker who pressures you into working too hard and never taking deserved breaks
or holiday time? In this case, are there people in your life who are enabling you to become a workaholic?

These are the people who hold you back. To move forward, you must look for mentors who are one or more
steps ahead of you in the direction you want to be. In other words, your MASTERMIND.

AVOID THE ANTI-MASTERMIND!

Dandapani is a spiritual priest and entrepreneur. He says that there are 3 types of people:

1. 1. Uplifting people: These people are your mentors. They lift you up, make you feel amazing
and inspire you when you’re around them.

2. 2. Neutral people. These people are neither good nor bad. They’re just neutral. These people
could be a faint acquaintance or co-worker you sometimes make small talk with.

3. 3. Not Uplifting People. These are the toxic, draining people who hold you back. Your ANTI
MASTERMIND.

Threats Exercise:
Write down the most relevant and active people within each of your categories. Who are they and what kind
of a person are they? Are they Uplifting People, Neutral People, or Not Uplifting People? What threats, other
than people, do you have in your life that are blocking you from achieving a work-life balance?

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 14

 CONGRATULATIONS!
You’ve Come A Long Way
You’re now at the end of the SWOT Analysis exercise. Congratulations!

On this SWOT Analysis journey, you’ve discovered the following about yourself:

For your STRENGTHS, you discovered:

• What you’re good at

• What makes you happy
• Who and what is your mastermind

For your OPPORTUNITIES, you discovered:

• Things you currently don’t have or do in your life, but want to implement
• Things you currently have or do in your life but can improve on

For your WEAKNESSES, you discovered:

• Things in each category you’re just not good at, regardless of your effort
• Things in each category you could be good at, but you’re not experienced enough in

For your THREATS, you discovered:

• The outside forces, circumstances, or people who are blocking you from achieving what you desire in
each category. This is your ANTI MASTERMIND.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 15

 Your New Life-Balance Assignment
As you finish up this week’s workbook, think about how you can eliminate or reduce negative or unfulfilling
elements in your life by filling that new space with the positive elements in your life.

For example, instead of spending time with that toxic, negative, and depressing friend of yours, use that
time to better your life – Go to the gym, learn a new skill-set and hang out with more inspiring people.

Or, stop spending time on social media or reading negative news. Instead, carve out time daily to take a
walk, go out in nature, or read an uplifting book.

Also, remember to take breaks while working. Taking breaks is proven to increase your productivity
and overall happiness and mental health. If needed, revisit the “balancing work with rest” section in your
pre-training workbook.

Lastly, do you have weaknesses, obligations and chores you can outsource? Outsourcing tasks is a great way
to help free up time so that you can focus on other areas of your life.

These are all just things to think about until you start to really take action on your life’s goals next week.

YOUR NEW MISSION FOR THE WEEK

Your mission, should you choose to accept it,
is to REPLACE 1-2 weakness or threat elements in your life
with a positive strength or opportunity in your life.

Lastly, if you haven’t already,

go out and buy a 3 section spiral bound notebook for week 3.

Copyright 2019 | Life Balance Method | Week 2 Workbook | Page 16