Big Life Solutions is an adventure. It flows from a burning desire to unleash a better world – to stir up a revolution that equips and empowers an entire generation to live the life it was made for.

But, as admirable as it may be, this burning desire to unleash a better world is the same desire that has been the downfall of many valiant adventurers, and the death knell of many an adventure, because they did not heed a simple principle: the desire to help others must come second to the reality that, first, you have to help yourself.

That may sound selfish. It isn’t.

If you don’t help yourself first—if you constantly put yourself second—eventually you run out. You run out of money, time, energy, patience, emotion, resilience. You run out of you.

And, if you run out of you, you can’t help anyone.

Airlines know this. The pre-flight safety video clearly instructs you that you must put your oxygen mask on before helping anyone else. Why? Because if you’re passing out from lack of oxygen, you are no use to anyone, and both you and the person next to you will be in trouble.

This principle—to help yourself first—is not confined to airlines. It applies to much of life, and most definitely to the pursuit of your real life adventure.

As you drive deeper into this adventure, you draw on your resources—not just financial and practical ones, but your emotional, physical, spiritual and mental resources, too.

These resources are finite and require regular replenishment because, if they run dry, your adventure will derail.

That is exactly what happened to those adventurers who put others’ needs ahead of their own: their adventures, and with them the quest to unleash a better world, derailed because they gave without taking time to replenish; eventually, the well ran dry.

The fact is that you cannot give away what you don’t have.

If you have no money, you cannot give it away. If you have no emotional strength left, you cannot offer emotional support. If, physically, you are a spent force, you have no energy to help the people you want to benefit from all of your effort.

It’s common sense, right?

Of course it is, but so many let common sense disappear as the needs of the world around them become overwhelming.

Think of it this way: your car requires oil, anti-freeze, washer fluid, fuel and many other things to keep it going.

If you take a trip, the fuel tank empties as the engine uses it. Each journey consumes oil. Each time you clean the windscreen, washer fluid disappears. And, if you don’t periodically fill up the tank, top up the washer bottle, or change the oil, your car will eventually stop working properly.

Because you know things run out on your car, you don’t expect to never have to refill it, So, what makes you think you can get away without refilling your vital resources: your emotional and physical strength, spiritual wellbeing, mental capacity, and finances?

You want to live your real life. You want to be the best you can be. You want to bring your revolution to life and change the world.

And, central to all of that, you want to help others. You want to give yourself away to usher in that better future you have seen, and that is a special thing. But you cannot achieve what you want to achieve if you don’t learn to look after yourself first.

And that’s not selfish, it’s common sense.