The Myth of Balance

Striving for balance will derail your plans for greatness.

The pursuit of life balance is stressing us out. It’s a maddening juggle of self, others, career. Striving for equal parts exercise, home décor, loverly devotion, career ambition, and family tending—and we wonder why we get sick when we finally take a vacation.

If you do manage to get balanced, it’s only temporary. Success throws things out of whack. Just when you get it balanced, circumstances or a great idea turns everything around. You can never get it right. Balance: the losing battle.*

     - *Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions

Articles and books on work-life balance are everywhere. It seems we are all striving for that elusive point of equilibrium, where we are productive, well rested, buff, and the perfect partner and parent. Problem is - it doesn't exist! The philosopher Alain de Botton wrote  that “there is no such thing as work-life balance. Everything worth fighting for unbalances your life.” 

The most successful couples do not balance trheir work and home lives. Instead, they grapple with what it takes to be unbalanced well. It takes resolve to craft a meaningfully unbalanced life, and it takes defiance to claim this life when it appears unbalanced to others.

Remember, the goal is not work-life balance, but work-life satisfaction. 

When passion is a priority—passion for family, for vocation, for meaning—your energy intensifies. And when your energy is more focused, more “aimed,” you begin to care less about the things that don’t really matter.*