Everyone Wants It, Or Do They?
I spend a lot of time with my clients helping them create more balance in their lives. And of course I work on it myself as well. Let me revise that. I spend a lot of time helping my clients WANT to create more balance in their lives. Some of my clients are afraid to want balance, fearing they'll have to give up too much to have it. For those, balance comes with retirement. It's a stage of life thing. While dreaming and envisioning the life you want is an important step leading to creating a more balanced life, at times you have to step more firmly into reality. How many hours are there in the day and how many of them do you want to be working? Really truly, how many hours do you have to work? At these moments with clients, Byron Katie's 4 questions often help: Is that true, is that absolutely true, how do you react when you have that thought (that I have to work 10-11 hours a day) and how would it be to not have that thought? Then she offers the "turnaround" which is to take the statement "I have to work 10-11 hour days to be successful" and turn it on its head, "To be successful I can't work 10-11 hours a day". Then I wonder, how relative is balance? Is my balance complete imbalance to someone else? My sense is yes, that this is a personal definition which requires us to be completely honest with ourselves. Truly, what does it mean for me to have a sense of balance? How would I know it if I saw it? What would be possible for me if I had it? What are the really big ticket items I'm wanting in my life that only more balance can bring me? Then you get to that planning place - what changes need to be made, what schedules need to be tweaked to get me to a greater sense of balance?