People cause themselves all kinds of stress because they compare themselves to an illusionary standard – the illusion that there is such a thing as a perfectly balanced life. There’s no such thing!

Life is a dynamic thing with many moving parts. And at any given time, many of these parts are careening out of balance.

So rather than thinking in terms of balance, it is much more useful to think in terms of counter balancing – of not letting things get so far out of balance that damage occurs. For example, if I’m out of balance with a bunch of work on my plate then the counter balancing might be to take a short break and consciously and intentionally connect with my wife and daughter in a way that lets them know they are loved and valued and then get back to work.

Imagine a bunch of marbles rolling around on the table. These marbles have names like family, career, faith, health and wellness, play, giving back, romance, etc. Ideally, we’d like to keep herding all the marbles so that they stay in the center of the table. But we don’t have the capacity to pay equal attention to all the marbles at once. So, some get close to the edge. That’s when it is time to shift our attention from the marbles we are focused on and give those outlying marbles a nudge back to the center. Then soon a different marble will be near the edge and will require counter balancing.

Counter balancing is something we can do – creating and maintaining balance is not.