Vlado,
What’s my take on balance in my life?  My outlook on everything comes
from a very Zen perspective of the world.  I guess you can say I take
my life as it comes.  This means for me actively practicing being fine
wherever I am.  So as far as mental training goes, I just try to be
wholly present whenever I do it.  However, being wholly present while
doing anything is exceedingly difficult and I have to say that the
intensity at which I do my training is making having a clear mind come
fast.  I think it is very important to have the right outlook going
into training.   In the most humble way possible, my perspective on
things is what is helping me get so much out it.
The quality of my conversations that I have with others continues to
improve.   I notice more and more how distracted my mind is.  Now that
it is easier to concentrate and that I am also practicing being
present,  I  find myself talking with people as opposed to past
them.   Do I feel brighter than others?  I definitely notice that my
mind seems a lot clearer than others.   I think having a calm mind is,
or at should be, a natural part of the brainworkshop process.
Training is hard and it is even harder in the beginning.   Now that I
have started taking my mind by the reigns my patience has gone up
naturally.  So when I talk with someone I usually feel fairly calm
without a whole lot of boredom.
Fixating on intelligence can become a huge problem.   Any appropriate
philosophy regarding training has got to involve some outlook that
makes it OK to be wherever you are at any point in the process.
Ironically, I don’t think we can ever be OK wherever we are until we
have enough control of the mind to turn it off.   With that said,
intelligence for me is not some external object that I’m looking to
get like some fancy car to compare to my neighbors.  For me, it is
really about attaining something purely internal that will directly
improve the quality my life by improving the way I experience it.