Life Is A Great Balancing Act
One of my favorite books of all time is “Oh The Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. It’s always a treat when I get to read it to my nephews. One of my favorite parts of the book reads:
“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed) Kid, you'll move mountains.”
It’s a book ripe with life lessons but the one on 'balance' strikes me most. When you think about creating balance in life, you think of it as striking an equilibrium where all of the important things in life are appropriately weighted. That’s not to say that you need to divide your work, loved ones, and self-care equally in thirds, but that you find your right amount that satisfies your best-life equilibrium.
But the thing that a lot of people miss about balance is that, like equilibrium in a chemical reaction, it’s a dynamic state. Reactants are consistently becoming products, and products are constantly turning back into reactants. Equilibrium is the state where the rate of each process is just about equal so that it offsets and appears to be static.
The same thing goes for riding a bicycle. Once you find balance you don’t have it permanently. You constantly need to adjust and shift your weight in subtle ways to maintain balance. It’s a dynamic process.
In “The One Thing”, Gary Keller puts it like this: Work-life balance is a verb. There are pressures and factors that constantly push us off center. A big work project pops up here, and family priorities pop up there. His recommendation is that we also know what the priority is. Work when you work, and work on the right things. Play when you play, and don’t allow your mind to wander on things happening in other areas of your life. It’s the rhythm of doing both work and life well that keeps you on a high-achieving and fulfilling trajectory.
The act of balancing is constantly evaluating what’s most important right now. Given the state of work, and life, and the context of the moment that’s presented in front of you, you make the choice about how you want to proceed.
That’s living with intentionality, and that’s my north star for everything I do.
