The Myth of Balancing Life

I often hear people say they need a more balanced life.  I can remember being a freshman at Baylor University and being introduced to the 'Welcome Week Wheel.'  It was simply a circle divided into four sections each representing a portion of ones life:  physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual.  The idea was to keep these sections in mind as you were in college, making sure to tend to each section of life because if one was neglected it would affect ever other area of life.  Stephen Covey's 7-Habits uses this basic idea when it encourages us to 'sharpen the saw' and tend to these aspects of our inner-life.  Balance was never the goal, merely tending to each section was the goal.

I am not arguing or dismissing any attempt to grow personally, I simply think that being balanced will never happen.  Life does not work like a scale, life is too dynamic and there are too many things we encounter that we cannot control.  The take away - just keep tending to your life, you are important.  Don't make balance or a zen-like state your goal, make continual improvement your goal.  When we do this perfectionism and its adverse affects on our lives ceases to have impact on us and we are free to be.  The way the human life works is when we improve one area of our life, if it is true development, the other areas of our life will improve.  This is why you emotionally feel better after a workout.

One of the reasons I love 'life-coaching' is that it is focused on incremental development.  Grab a coach today and start to tend to you...you matter.