A need for balance…or something like that.
Ever since I can remember I have lived a life that needed more balance, or one that is all about balance. This could change on a weekly basis and in the moments that my life needed more balance, I wasn’t near as happy as I could have been. Flip that, and bring in a life that is all about balance, and I feel like my existence is typically a happy one. The problem has always been that I had a hard time realizing that I need a change, even if it was minor, and how could I make this change as seamless as possible? I look at it this way…if something is important enough to you, you will do everything in your power to make time for it. A life of balance may not be the easiest one to live, but it is one that is incredibly worth living.
Some things I need to balance in order to be as happy as possible (among other things):
- Family
- Career (a career in education has been a blessing)
- Friends
- Wrestling (coaching, spectating, etc…)
- Music (in all capacities)
- Writing
- Working Out (I need way more of this)
- Traveling
- Alone Time
Rewind to whenever I was in high school…this was a time in my life that I think balance was essential to any type of success and happiness. I had school, sports, friends, family, etc… I had to balance those things in order to be as happy as possible, plain and simple.
Fast forward a few years and I was in college. Self admittedly, I did not do a very good job of balancing things while in college. My priorities were not in order and my grades and just overall happiness suffered at times because of it. I was not an unhappy person, but I seemed to spend more time trying to find that path of least resistance than actually just doing what I needed to do. At a time when I was fairly lazy, I was lucky enough to get a wrestling coaching job at a high school…I finally had something to pour my heart into again and something to balance with other things going in my life that ultimately made me more successful at school and helped me build relationships that I still have to this day.
My problem in college was not that I was lazy by nature, but I just needed to find something to motivate me to succeed and I found that in coaching. As a coach, I have had kids that go to college and seem to go through the same slump I was in and I always ask them “What motivates you?” or “What’s missing from your life and what can I do to help you find it?” If you know someone in a similar slump, I challenge you to talk to them and have them brainstorm steps to take in order to have their “purpose” in life. I can promise anyone struggling, that if you find something your passionate about and work hard at it, the rest of your life will fall into place in due time.
As the years move on, I become more busy than the year before and at times my balance is way off and needs to be shifted. I always vow to “never take work home,” but typically I am not wired in a way to just forget about situations from work that I think I can work to fix. I cannot turn my brain off and I want to solve problems as they come…not put them off, but ultimately it is important to keep work at work as much as possible. As a coach, I brought work home with me every night. This could be a negative or a positive…negative because I needed to have balance enough to just enjoy time with with loved ones and positive in the fact that I cared so much that I would not let myself rest until I felt I had done everything in order to make our individual athletes and team successful.
Personally, I do best whenever I have “my hand in many pots,” meaning when I have many things going on in my life at once. With family and work being a constant, there are also many things that I shuffle in my life that help me. Whether it be playing drums, listening to music, helping coach wrestling when I can, writing, hanging out with my friends, traveling, and even alone time…these things keep the days fresh for me. With that being said, my calendar is my guide these days! Balance is something that I have learned as the years go by and without it life would be less fulfilling.
Ultimately, the work is not done. I need to keep striving to have as much balance in my life as possible and do right by the people who make my life worth living. I challenge anyone reading and myself to always keep things in perspective and have balance in life.