Balancing Act ... That's all life is!

Written by Edward B. Toupin


One ofrepparttar most knowledgeable and intuitive ladies I know imparted upon merepparttar 101888 ultimate knowledge of living a fulfilling life. As I awaited a long, heartfelt soliloquy, she took a small breath, pointed her finger and said, "balance." That was it. My only question was, "what?" She simply chuckled and walked away.

Overrepparttar 101889 years, I slowly began to understand her single word. It wasn't an easy lesson as, in my head, I was balanced. But,repparttar 101890 true understanding of balance comes when you realize that you are truly out of balance. In life, whether you know it or not, you're always out of balance in one way or another. But, your "only" job in life is to work toward attaining balance and keeping that balance in your life.

--- My only job? ---

To reiterate ... your "only" job in life is to attain balance and keep balance in your life. That's it! Life is just that simple. That is, if you want it to be. To explain this concept, let's consider a few elements of an average life:

1. You have a job. 2. You have a wife. 3. You have kids. 4. You have a house. 5. You have a car. 6. You go fishing on weekends to get away from it all. 7. You have a hobby.

For most people, each one of these life components seem to exist as separate entities and they all affect one another. This is whererepparttar 101891 problems begin. You spend too much time at work and you're tired when you get home. In turn, you don't have time to spend withrepparttar 101892 wife and kids. Your money goes outrepparttar 101893 window to pay for everything includingrepparttar 101894 house andrepparttar 101895 car. You have to get away, by yourself to go fishing, or whatever, so you can re-gather your strength to do it all over againrepparttar 101896 next week. You love your hobby and want to do it full time, but you just can't findrepparttar 101897 time. This situation can drag you down and cause strain on your job, your family, and your life in general.

However, did you ever stop and think that all of these "different" life components are actually smaller parts of one larger component? Instead of viewing them as separate pieces of life, view them as beingrepparttar 101898 aspects that make up your "one and only life." Since it's obvious that these individual elements all interact in one way or another, why not let them? Instead of allowing one to interfere withrepparttar 101899 other, learn how to allow them to enhancerepparttar 101900 direction of your life.

--- It's a lonely job ... ---

Once you are able to understand howrepparttar 101901 different components of your life all fit together and enhance one another. Your next task is to determine how you can balance these components to provide a greater level of satisfaction and fulfillment. This is your first project as "Manager of Your Own Life."

* Job

So many people are scared to lose their jobs so they pour their souls into it for hours at a time. The single job appears to berepparttar 101902 only thing that can help you survive and eventually becomes your entire life. But, what isrepparttar 101903 benefit from overworking yourself? Since most people are on salary, whether you work eight hours or 18 hours a day, you're paidrepparttar 101904 same.

A job is only a part of your life and a way to provide security for yourself and your family as well as satisfaction for yourself. It is not your life. Evaluate your abilities and determine if it'srepparttar 101905 job orrepparttar 101906 money that you want. If it'srepparttar 101907 money, then you must learn to find something that pays you what you want. If it'srepparttar 101908 job, then you must learn how to rearrangerepparttar 101909 job for greater fulfillment and prioritize to best meetrepparttar 101910 needs ofrepparttar 101911 rest of your life.

Realize that "loyalty to employees" is a thing ofrepparttar 101912 past and thatrepparttar 101913 old family-oriented corporate giants no longer exist. You have to watch out for yourself and ensure your own security. Security is important to you and your family and it is something that you must establish for yourself.

I found that, in my time in Corporate America, regardless of what I achieved, I was not happy. After much searching and reorganizing of my life, I found that I neededrepparttar 101914 freedom of freelancing. I found that once I was able to center my talents and use them to their fullest, I could make more money working for myself than in an office for someone else. I was able to obtainrepparttar 101915 balance I needed by working a flexible schedule at home to be with my family, doing something that I loved, and still makerepparttar 101916 money necessary to providerepparttar 101917 security for my family.

* Family

In most cases, when it's a toss-up betweenrepparttar 101918 job andrepparttar 101919 family,repparttar 101920 family will lose out. However, pressures from home and family can affect your job and other aspects of your life. By adjusting your priorities at work and determining what it is that's important, you can better balancerepparttar 101921 conflicts that exist betweenrepparttar 101922 need for security with work andrepparttar 101923 need to satisfyrepparttar 101924 family.

Believe it or not,repparttar 101925 family does provide an intense sense of purpose and satisfaction in one's life. It is something to be proud of and cherished because it is something that you've created. If you feel that your family has stalled or it doesn't providerepparttar 101926 satisfaction you desire, then you need to evaluaterepparttar 101927 reasons why things have changed. Perhaps your time at work is taking away from your family. Perhapsrepparttar 101928 stresses fromrepparttar 101929 outside world are affecting your family life.

One ofrepparttar 101930 things that I've learned with my family is that, when all else fails, my wife is always there. We've been through some serious situations ranging from fires and floods to death and destruction. We even built two homes, remodeled another, and relocated to another state. Yet my wife and I are still together and we are happier now than ever before. The reason is that, even though we are two totally different people, our objectives arerepparttar 101931 same. Our objectives were not alwaysrepparttar 101932 same, but we tookrepparttar 101933 time to sit down and decide on what we wanted together and what we wanted separately. Now, we are able to help each other as well as stay out of each other's way so that we can reach our objectives.

* Finances

Many people place a lot of value on money. But, money is not an objective. Money is a way to provide security for yourself and your family. Money is a way to measure success. Money is a means to reach an objective. However, this one needs some explanation.

How much money is enough? If you say you want to make a lot of money, how much is that? The amount of money that becomes "enough" is not measurable. It is simply a moving target that becomes consuming because there is no real metric to determine when you've reached your goal. However, if you set an objective that you want to live comfortably and own a nice house, then you now have a metric to measure your success.

Chickens And Pigs Help Define Two Things We Need For Success

Written by Gordon Bellows


This article is about involvement and commitment, two ofrepparttar things we need to be successful. This applies to our jobs or businesses, relationships, and even our recreational pursuits. Any type of success, whether it is personal, professional, academic, or athletic, will usually require a combination of involvement and commitment.

I hoperepparttar 101887 headline stirred your interest. Here is how chickens, pigs, and even cows, can help define involvement and commitment. Think about a meal consisting of eggs and ham and considerrepparttar 101888 contributions made by a chicken and a pig. A chicken providedrepparttar 101889 eggs and a pig providedrepparttar 101890 ham. It can be saidrepparttar 101891 chicken was involved, becauserepparttar 101892 chicken continues to live as it lays more eggs. It can be saidrepparttar 101893 pig was committed, becauserepparttar 101894 pig gave its all to providerepparttar 101895 ham and other pork products.

The same principle can be applied to two cows and a cheeseburger. The cow that providedrepparttar 101896 milk to be processed into cheese was involved, whilerepparttar 101897 cow that providedrepparttar 101898 beef forrepparttar 101899 hamburger patty was committed.

It is not my intention to make light of animals that lose their life to provide food for humans, nor to offend anyone that does not eat beef or pork for religious or dietary reasons. These examples simply illustrate that being involved may mean being a participant with little or no effort, while being committed takes time and energy, and means much more than just being involved.

Consider a recreational activity, such as a game of chess, or a softball game. You can be involved by just playingrepparttar 101900 game, no matter how good you are. However, to really be successful, to win more than you lose, you must have made a commitment at some point in your life. For chess, it means takingrepparttar 101901 time to understandrepparttar 101902 game and study winning strategies. For softball, it means at some point you practiced hitting and throwing a ball. There are a few fortunate people with a large degree of natural ability to do certain things, but most of us need to work at it.

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