Let’s Chat About Balance #ConsiderWithMe
"We can't do 100% of the things 100% of the time"
Dear Friends,
I wrote that a few years ago a big part of my journey was exploring balance. More recently, I’ve seen those in the self-development space questioning the pursuit of balance. If you haven’t done a deep dive into self-development, I’m sure you’ve heard “work-life balance” come up more than a few times.
So I thought, why not unpack and explore balance further with you?
I found the idea of balance pretty appealing for a little while, especially when my life was highly imbalanced (we’re going to come back to this). Yet, today’s critics point to how balance can equate to being stagnant, often referring to the analogy of a seesaw or teeter toter. I have another analogy, one that my fitness and sports conditioning friends will probably relate to—the balance board. If you’ve ever stepped on a balance board you’ll know that you don’t just get on and achieve equilibrium. It takes considerable training, work, and effort to get there. Trembling legs and core muscles come to mind, at least in my case. Chasing balance can be exhausting!
In the balance board analogy, one could argue that you get a benefit from the work and effort you put into the pursuit of balance. That you get stronger and build stability as a result. However, that state of balance is temporary. Of course, there are world records for the longest time spent on a balance board, I googled it! But, it’s not infinite, it comes to an end. Balance is ultimately not sustainable on an ongoing basis. Aiming for a constant state of balance may unnecessarily waste energy.
Revisiting what I said about times my life was highly imbalanced, I want to be clear that I’m not suggesting abandoning ideas about balance altogether. I’ve spent most of 2024 recovering from a lengthy period completely out of balance. I’m grateful for what I’ve learned from the experience and what the current year has brought as I’ve stepped out of that time. I also really struggled through it, often in ways that impacted others around me, and I don’t believe that all of that struggle was needed. Not to mention the guilt about not being balanced!
I’ve reminded my team members we can’t do 100% of the things 100% of the time. And in reality, we also don’t break everything down equally, if we did, our higher priorities would fail to be accomplished. So if we don’t balance the tasks within our work perfectly equally, why do we strive to do so in our lives?
I’ve concluded that we go through seasons in life, and sometimes we might spend a little more time and effort in one area before shifting to another. That’s okay, we can take steps in our current season to set ourselves up for the next, knowing that transition will eventually happen. Today, I washed my winter jackets and simultaneously hoped I wouldn’t need them until November. I’m still focused on my summer activities, time outdoors, and wearing shorts. You’re not doing a disservice to your immediate priorities by doing something small for your future ones.
When I was struggling with being out of balance, I also wasn’t doing anything to set myself up for my next season. I put so many things on hold because “this period was temporary”, but I also didn’t do anything to consider or prepare for the future. I didn’t do anything to create that sense of hope that the seasons would change. I believe that’s a big part of why I was miserable. My experience might have been different if I’d been out of balance, but done small things to nudge the scales.
I believe we can be a little more focused on one thing for a season, as long as we remember (and take small steps to remind ourselves) it’s not the only season :) <3
