When I was growing up my mother had a system for managing household chores. Each day had particular chores associated with it. For example, Mondays were laundry days. We stripped and changed the bed linens, gathered the soiled clothing, and washed and dried the laundry. Each week I could count on Monday laundry day. The house ran smoothly with no sense of stress or pressure to fit every that had to be done into that day. This sense of order and ease stays in the back of my mind and has informed my concept of having a ‘life balance.’ It has meant getting everything that needs to be done, whether work, education, household chores, or appointments, and everything that I would like to accomplish contained in a smooth running and relaxed cycle of accomplishment. Ha!
I did some research on the topic of life balance. Here are two definitions, from www.halliecrawford, a life coach, the “balance between major dimensions of our lives,” and from Wikipedia, “the term used to describe the balance that an individual needs between time allocated for work and other aspects of life.” There were also worksheets. One from www.chalenejohnson.com/…/uploads/2012/04/Life-Balance-Worksheet.pdf has ten categories to evaluate, environment, fun/leisure, personal growth, spirituality/faith, purpose/career, financial, friends and family, relationships, romantic relationship(s), fitness/health, and emotional health. The client is directed to evaluate from 1 to ten how satisfied they are with each category and then work on goals and steps to improve a category with which they are dissatisfied.
No doubt there are concepts and information to learn from these sites and worksheets. But I want to examine the premise of finding life balance. With my family’s example in mind, I live in a more dynamic and fast-changing world. Don’t we all in 2018? The kind of crystalline, set routine of the past that in hindsight seems so placid, just can’t work today. Everyone experiences too many changes and demands in their lives. I think that the concept of finding life balance arose out of this very fact, our tumultuous lives now. I am concerned that trying to achieve life balance can sometimes be a frustrating even futile exercise. It might seem like a fruitless, unachievable pursuit.
Here is a possible approach to the topic. The concept is valid, balancing aspects of one’s life. The habits I saw in my upbringing make this obvious. There are two qualities from that past memory, the sense of a routine and the sense of a relaxed pace that stand out for me. I suggest that those qualities be kept in mind. To honor the sense of a routine, first know what your priorities are. Be clear about them. To acknowledge the sense of a relaxed pace, allow for the vagaries of life to stretch when and how you satisfy those priorities. For example, I can’t exercise as much as I would like today. Okay, then I schedule more time tomorrow or the next day.
I am reminded of a metaphor I heard about an airplane following a radar beam to land. Technically this metaphor may be dated, but it still makes the point. The plane is always calibrating a trajectory and is always adjusting a path to stay ‘on the beam.’ It is off and on, off and on, but observed over time, remains on its trajectory. I offer that we must allow this flexibility in our lives. Keep the priorities and goals in mind, and allow for room to maneuver.