“Don’t seek for a balanced life. Seek for a balanced day. (over and over again).”
As we are now a couple weeks into 2022, I have been contemplating meaningful and purposeful areas for improvement. I have decided to strive for more balance across my time & energy allocations and output relative to family, work/career, mental health (and spirituality), training and fitness as well as all of the sundry things like maintaining our home, etc. I know from my own life experiences to this point that when something gets too out of balance, like my working more than 12 hours a day over an extended period of time, other areas that are important to me and my mental state really start to suffer. I feel it in a very visceral and sometimes physical way (such as a headache or feeling anxious which can express itself in my being a bit irritable). This reevaluation was also partly due to my black belt candidacy requirements; that to be successful and to not cause undue hardship or strife in other aspects of my daily existence, I must seek to achieve balance within the space of a 24 hour day. No more than that…no less.
I can overdo just about anything; I can train too much, work too much, put too much of this in front of much less of that (things of equal importance) and when this happens the impacts to my state of mind and ability to stay focused on the desired outcomes can morph into feeling overwhelmed. My intent is to practice the art of finding balance by being more mindful and alert to an over-allocation of time and energy in one specific area of focus that is in turn causing for other areas of concern to suffer or lag.
I suppose I have gained some wisdom over the years and as I continue to pursue various goals and objectives with one of my most significant being my black belt, I know that this must be pursued with discipline, continual willingness, motivation and possibly most importantly…balance!