I love when this happens: I am reading a book that inspired me to write about balance. When I searched my old blog posts to see when/what I last wrote about balance, I discovered that Balance Awareness Week is coming up (again). Almost perfect timing for another post about balance.
And maybe “almost perfect” is a good intro to my definition of balance. In the book I’m reading (it’s called “The One Thing” by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan and so far, so good!), the author says balance is a lie. More specifically, “a balanced life is a lie.” For someone whose motto/catch-phrase/blog name/book subtitle is “it’s all about balance,” I had to sit with this for a little while.
While I do agree with the author’s point that we can only truly focus on one thing at a time, I do not agree that a balanced life is a lie and here’s why: for me, balance means not hyper-focusing on diabetes. It means having a healthy respect for diabetes, managing it – giving it the attention it needs (and my health deserves), being prepared for situations diabetes can potentially create, and then living my life. In other words, diabetes is not the most important thing about me or my life.
While I work hard to achieve balance in my life, when I am in balance, it doesn’t feel like hard work. We often hear the line, “I know what I need to do; I just need to do it.” For me that rings true for many things in addition to diabetes: the biggest one I can think of is keeping my office clean. When my office is clean I feel more productive and less scattered (sounds familiar, diabetes?).
I strongly believe that balance helps me live more, live well, and enjoy life. So I’m sticking with my motto: it’s all about balance. Now I need to go clean my office.