The Pursuit of Balance: A Moving Target

Spring break often serves as a valuable time to pause for personal and professional self-reflection.  As I intentionally and successfully pulled myself away from work to enjoy other aspects of my life for a good portion of the week my mind kept revisiting the idea of balance.

A good friend and colleague of mine often states that balance is a myth.  He argues that there is not enough time in the day and something always has to give between work and personal life despite best efforts.  This is one of the very few times I disagree with him.  Instead, I believe balance is something that takes incredible focus and planning in order to achieve what is often an elusive and moving target; a target I personally value and cherish, but have not acquired on a regular basis.

As an educator the idea of balance is a daunting one.  The field of education requires expectations that far exceed almost any other career in existence.  Each school day we exert a herculean effort to serve our schools in ways that are both rewarding and exhausting (See Teaching Isn’t Rocket Science.  It’s Harder).  At the end of the day when we drive out of the lot our job does not end; the work often only take a brief intermission to be picked back up later in the evening.  Like it or not, these are the demands and realities of dedicating ourselves to excellence in the field.  The simple truth is that our work in education can be all-consuming…if we allow it.

So where does the balance come in?  We need to carve out time for family, we need to carve out time to exercise, we need to carve out time for hobbies and passions, we need to carve out time to disconnect, we need to carve out time for ourselves, we need to carve out time to eat and sleep (or so I have heard!).

The pursuit of balance is a constant work in progress as the target regularly moves.  Just when we think we have things figured out and develop a routine, the variables change.  Perhaps those variables include new projects at work, an addition to the family, a new home or home project, furthering our studies, etc.

To be effective in regards to balance it takes an uncanny ability to constantly recalibrate.  If we do not reflect and adapt then life will fly by us and the important elements of who we are, who we want to be, or what we want to do may be missed.

Although I certainly do not have all the answers I do know that one measure that I am going to take in this area is to more regularly reflect on how balanced I am…and recalibrate as needed.  For those of you that come across this blog, I would love to hear suggestions you may have for how you pursue balance.  Please feel free to leave a comment regarding what has worked well for you.