Balancing On An Uneven See-saw

There are very few people in life that succeed in every aspect of their lives. Finding the balance between family, work and hobbies can be very difficult especially when you are a successful business man.

I recently spent some time at a friend of mine’s house. Her family was very different to mine and I was intrigued by their relationships with one another. I hardly come from a broken home, but my “real” parents got divorced when I was seven. I say “real” because, as far as I’m concerned, my step parents are just as much my parents as my own.

That said, my sister and I have always been at boarding school and my late father owned a company that required him to work on weekends until recently. This meant that for all of us to be together was a miracle!

So, as I sat there, watching her family, it intrigued me that they spent so much time together and that they had formed more of a relationship as a group. A foreign concept hit me; one could be a successful business man as well as a family man. A feat I had never known possible.

It doesn’t stop there however. Not only is her father a business man and a family man, but he is also in the process of having his book published and he paints regularly. By painting I do not mean an average sort of mess on a canvas, I mean stunning, gorgeous paintings; landscapes, portraits and all sorts. Oh, and every now and again he writes beautiful poetry.

 This man is extremely talented, but has an even more amazing ability to balance his life; spending time with his wife and his two daughters as well as making time for his hobbies. This is the essence of what life is really about – BALANCE!

There are many important things in life. Some things have to be done, others we want to do and at some point in the middle is a place that balances your life out perfectly. That point on a see-saw that ensures that neither end is up or down.

So how do we create this balance? Well it is directly proportional to the ratio of things you NEED to do and WANT to do. One needs to realize that you cannot spend your entire life doing only what you want to do. No matter how much you say you enjoy your job there will always be other things that you would rather be doing, unless you’re a professional SCUBA diver I suppose. However, having a job is a necessity (for most of us anyway).

Ensure that you balance the amount of time you spend working with the amount of time you spend doing other important things. Make sure you find a healthy balance between the good and the bad; because without the bitter, the sweet isn’t as sweet.