Perhaps it is a well known fact that the hours we are allotted in a day are limited. Our days are in fact limited to 24 hours. 24 hours to work, sleep, exercise, love, be social, study, learn, and a plethora of other things. Therein lays the challenge of life which is to balance all of these arenas to reach the Human dream of having it all. The unfortunate reality of life is that you can’t have it all, but you can have some of what you want.
In the Modern world, perception is reality. People often envy the lives of others viewing their lives through tinted lenses where the lives of others appear to be filled with unlimited amounts of joy, euphoria, triumph, and wealth (personal, physical, and financial). The reality of the lives of others could be filled with debt (personal, physical, and financial), depression, loneliness, and despair. The latter is often hidden in a cloud of external displays of accomplishment through acquisition of material wants (i.e. expensive cars, clothes, large homes etc.) to appear to be wealthy personally, physically, and financially.
Many are reeling internally from the inherent need of humans to belong socially, and to be accepted. The latter forces many to endure high amounts of debt (personal, physical, and financial) to continue demonstrate “success” often as illustrated to them through our societal influences, and years of compulsory education in our public schools. Many of us have been taught a narrow view of success through our education system that if we work on a set of narrowly and pre-defined notions that are drilled into our consciousness by a set of professionals we ourselves will have a life of success by demonstrating high scores/grades on regurgitation of the ideas and thoughts of authorized curriculum from our teaching professionals.
Life and success are not as simple as X input = X output. Life is not as linear as school in the essence that it is not as simple as putting effort in to obtain an A in each area (although I wish it was). Chances are based on our limited resource of time, If you strive for an A in Family life, you may have a C in exercise arena of life, a D in external relationships, and a B in your work life for example. Life as I’ve read and experienced myself is akin to juggling several balls akin to areas in life while walking on a balance beam. Moreover, to quote an excerpt from Howard’s Gift
(http://howardsgift.com/) by Eric Sinoway,
“Juggling and balancing effectively requires that we make clear, legacy-driven choices about what we’re trying to keep in the air and how we sequence our movements down the beam. Because the ultimate grade in life is not based on how far and fast we’ve walked the beam or how many things we’ve juggled—it’s based on how much we’ve enjoyed the exercise.”
The key to it all is to score the best in the areas of life that mean the most to you. However, the unfortunate reality is that you can’t have an A in all arenas because once we concentrate in one arena; other things are bound to fall. The key to it all is trying to maintain a balance in all areas so that you are not scoring F’s in other areas because you are so focused on scoring A’s in areas that may impress others. Focus on your vision of a successful life, and the rest will follow.
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