Build A Portfolio To Thrive
Balance Is Overrated, But Smart Rebalancing Is Another Story.
🚀 Exciting News: My Second Book is Coming Soon!
My second book, My Perspective, is on the way! It’s a collection of insights on decision-making, learning, and navigating life’s complexities—packed with real-world strategies and lessons I’ve learned along the way. Stay tuned for the official release date, and thanks for being part of the journey!
In the spirit of thriving, here’s one powerful idea from the book:
"The key to thriving isn’t doing more—it’s doing less of the wrong things so you can invest in what truly matters.
We often hear that balance is the key to thriving in life. But progress doesn’t come from balance, it comes from strategic rebalancing.
You only have so much time, energy, and attention. Every improvement in one area takes away from another—but not all trade-offs are equal.
The trick isn’t to do more—it’s to stop doing the least valuable things so you can invest in what truly moves the needle.
Using the Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule), we can identify the few things that drive the most progress—and deliberately cut the activities that don’t contribute.
The goal? To thrive by reallocating effort, not by adding more. Be lazy, it can help you waste less energy on the things that don't matter.
Step 1: Find the 3 Most Impactful Areas in Your Life
Instead of trying to improve everything at once, diagnose where you’re held back the most.
"If you want to be successful, you have to give up all the things that are making you unsuccessful." – Warren Buffett
How to Identify Them:
What are the top 3 things limiting my ability to thrive? (Health, career, mindset, relationships, stress, etc.)
Which ones, if fixed, would have the greatest positive impact?
What can I cut or deprioritize to free up energy for improvement?
Limit yourself to the top 3 and adjust as these things get addressed.
🔹 Personal Example:
"After 'retiring,' I overloaded myself—teaching, writing, training, and learning new skills. Stretched too thin, I wasn’t making real progress in anything.
After stepping back (from the brink of a breakdown), I realized:
Most of my meaningful work got a small fraction of my time. Deep thinking, writing, and maintaining my relationships were almost treated as afterthoughts. The majority of my day went to things that didn’t matter.
My biggest bottleneck was sleep. Fixing that one thing improved everything else.
I was wasting time on distractions that didn’t contribute much. They all felt like progress, but I had to stop and determine what direction I truly needed to progress in. When you dig in the wrong hole, all your efforts are wasted.
Select an action to improve your position that doesn’t worsen the other important parts of your life.
✔ Fixing sleep gave me the mental clarity to improve work and relationships.
✔ Dropping unnecessary commitments freed up time to focus on high-impact work.
You can do it all, but you can’t do it all at once.
Step 2: Reallocate Energy Like an Investment Portfolio
Think of your life as a portfolio of assets—but with limited capital (time, energy, focus).
"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything." – Warren Buffett
To thrive, you must move investments from low-yield areas to high-return areas.
The 3 Core Asset Classes:
Growth Assets – Learning, skill-building, and taking calculated risks.
Stability Assets – Health, relationships, and recovery.
Micro-Risk Assets – Small, asymmetrical bets with high upside and low downside. Strike up a conversation with a possible mentor, ask for that raise you have earned, and jump onto that project before you’re entirely ready.
Growth, Stability, and Micro-risks
Rebalancing Strategy:
Invest More In: The areas that will yield the most improvement.
Maintain: Areas that are already strong and don’t need major changes.
Cut Back On: Low-value activities that drain energy, don't contribute to your goals or move you in the right direction.
🔹 Example:
Early in my career, I learned I was wasting time working on low-value tasks like generating gorgeous reports that could have been simple bullet points. I lost some opportunities because I appeared to be super busy. Instead of adding more to my schedule, the boss picked another manager. That was my wake-up call.
✔ Cut back on perfectionism (low return). Nobody was reading the gorgeous executive-level reports, but putting the info into a short, bulleted email delivered all the necessary information in a format that the key people actually used.
✔ Reallocated that time to accepting new projects (high return). I kept finding new ways to be more effective by looking for low-value work, automating, delegating and even letting it simmer on the back burner until it died a natural death.
✔ Within a year I became the go-to person for rescuing troubled projects. Within 3 years that led to international and then global projects.
Step 3: The Power of Asymmetrical Risks
Once you reallocate energy, try placing small, high-upside bets.
These are low-cost actions that could yield massive returns—without a serious downside.
"Take risks: if you win, you will be happy; if you lose, you will be wise." – Unknown
Examples of Smart Asymmetrical Risks:
Career: Ask for an opportunity you’re not fully "qualified" for.
Health: Test one small habit change (better sleep, walking breaks).
Relationships: Reach out to a high-value contact or reconnect with a mentor.
🔹 Personal Example:
I once hesitated to pitch an idea for a new business because I thought I wasn’t “ready.” But after considering the asymmetrical risk, I realized:
✔ Worst-case scenario? They ignore it. No loss.
✔ Best-case scenario? It opens a major door.
I took the shot. It worked. One conversation led to a partnership that launched my publishing company. I wouldn’t have started it otherwise.
The beauty of micro-risks? If they fail, the loss is minimal. If they succeed, the impact is massive.
Step 4: The "Thriving Ledger" – What to Add vs. What to Cut
Every improvement requires a trade-off. Instead of adding more to your plate, use a simple Thriving Ledger to decide what stays and what goes.
Category: Invest More In (High Return) Cut or Reduce (Low Return)
Invest: Health Prioritizing sleep, strength training
Cut: Mindless snacking, excessive caffeine
Invest: Career Learning negotiation skills, networking
Cut: Low-impact busywork, excessive meetings
Invest: Productivity Deep work blocks, automation
Cut: Random social media, checking emails constantly
Invest: Relationships Meaningful conversations, strategic networking
Cut: Surface-level interactions, people-pleasing
By actively deciding what to cut, you make room for meaningful growth.
🔹 Examples:
Try these:
✔ Saying “no” to two low-value projects
✔ Blocking deep work time on your calendar
✔ Spending those reclaimed hours on skill-building and high-value work.
…without working more hours.
Final Thought: Thriving Is Rebalancing, Not Balancing
Forget trying to do everything. Instead, focus on:
✔ Identifying the 3 biggest blockers.
✔ Fixing one at a time while cutting a low-value activity.
✔ Rebalancing your energy like an investment portfolio.
✔ Placing micro-risk bets to accelerate progress.
Now take action.
1️⃣ Identify one major blocker.
2️⃣ Cut one low-value activity this week.
3️⃣ Take a small, high-upside risk.
Drop a comment: What’s one thing you’re cutting or investing in?
That’s my perspective
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