I was reading this week in Daily Life that at a conference, Eat Pray Love author Elizabeth Gilbert had alluded to the notion that everything worth fighting for unbalances your life – or at least, “she wrote [on her website] of ‘balance’ becoming “yet another weapon in the arsenal we use against ourselves”.
The thing is, I agree. However, I believe the point is not to have a balance of 8 hours’ work, 8 hours’ play, 8 hours’ sleep. I think that the point is to get your life into the balance that you personally need at any given time. This balance is always fluid and changing.
If this balance that you need consists of 18 hours’ working towards something you really, really want every day, and you can handle doing that for a while, then that is the perfect balance for you right now. Because you’re going after something you really want. Or, if the balance is looking after a newborn child for six months (and doing not much else), then that’s also exactly the right balance for you now.
No, these things are not ‘balance’ in the sense of the word. But I personally define balance as having the right quota of what I need in my life – in every area.
I don’t need to have the same hours and routine day in, and day out for the rest of my life in order to have ‘balance’. In fact, I work every weekend and most nights on Daily Inspiration Board, outside of my full-time work. I have a busy life and barely any spare time – would some people consider that unbalanced? Perhaps, but it’s the right balance for me. I love working on my passions. It’s the right balance for me right now.
What does having balance in life mean to you?