They say that ‘two is one and one is none,’ so I have three alarms set on my phone.  My alarms are set for 4:20, 4:23 and 4:26 a.m., but I always wake up on the first ring. Like any good football coach, I have motivational titles to all of my alarms: ‘Operation Fight the Darkness’ and ‘Up Before the Enemy.’ That said, all my motivation comes from the desire for work-life balance, which may sound like a contradiction at 4:20 a.m.

Strength Coach Vernon Griffith (a great motivational follow on Twitter) once posted, ‘You only balance things that are equal. Family and work are NEVER equal, therefore they can never be balanced. They are A and B’. This is why I get up early. It’s not my place to judge anyone else’s actions or thoughts, but I wanted to share how I got where I am, and my intentions behind my scheduling.

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I come from a foster/adoptive family. There are now nine of us who share the same last name, and we had 40-plus children who came and went through the foster side of my parents’ work. Now that I am a father of two children, ages 1 and 3, it’s time to be the father I always desire to be.

In all reality, I hate getting up that early, but I would find it selfish to work out after the workday. You see, if I work out in the morning, my little ones are still sleeping, so I am not ‘stealing’ any time from them. When the workday is over, and I get home, my children are awake, and we get to play. If I slept in, went to work and then hit the gym, I would be working out while my kids are up, awake and at home playing – without me. I’d be stealing their quality time for my own selfish wants. A little personal sacrifice to achieve the time with my little ones that gives me the balance I seek. It makes me not just a better father, but a better employee and man.

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To be fair, I am a clinic coach and a tackle consultant, not a full-time coach. Coaches are often fathers to 30 to 100 youngsters, depending on the size of their program, so they are serving many children in a truly honorable way. All of my mentors were coaches, so I love the profession, from my high school head coach, to Penn State, to the great gentlemen of USA Rugby. These men molded me. We need these selfless leaders to support our game and the youngsters who play it.

This is the challenge I ask everyone to undertake: When we talk about balance, when we talk about values, when we talk about what is most important to us, look at your day, look at your week, look at the hours and measure the balance. How balanced is it? How balanced could it be if you tweaked a few things in your schedule? What small sacrifices can bring you closer to the balance you hope to achieve? 

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It may be children, if may be your partner or older parents, it may be the at-risk youth in your school or on your team. It may change over time as your situations and life demand changes due to age. But to find balance, to find fulfillment, I’ve found it a useful exercise to examine the balance in your life critically, forensically and ruthlessly look at your hours. Where is your time going?

The concept of A and B changed my life for the better. It’s balance without balance because my time is where it's most important to me. "A" gets the positive results of my sacrifice and made me a much happier man and father, and in turn, a better coach. So "B" still wins. Just like a coaching clinic, here's to hoping this concept can help just one coach out there better find themselves. Be it an off-day standing brunch date or an alarm clock, balance can live with football.

Andy Ryland is senior manager of education and training at USA Football. A former Penn State linebacker and member of the U.S. men’s rugby team, Ryland helped develop the Heads Up Football and Master Trainer programs.