Up until a few years ago, tobacco smoke was a constant in virtually every indoor space. It hung in the air, permeated fabrics and porous building material and placed a “grey haze” on almost everything. Even non-smoker’s homes did not escape because many more people smoked and did so wherever they went. It was so pervasive that indicating you preferred for someone to not smoke in your home or office would have been considered inhospitable. Hard to believe now, isn’t it?
In the late 1970’s non-tobacco users began to assert their desires and non-smoking spaces began to appear, slowly at first. The air did not clear immediately so the remarkable difference between smoke filled and non-smoking spaces were not immediately discernible to all, but as new construction was completed and interior space that had never been exposed to smoke began to be occupied, the movement really took off. At that point the great difference between smoke saturated and truly fresh air in enclosed rooms was clear and there was no turning back.
Today, with so many of us living in a highly distracted and challenged mode that I have come to call Imbalanced, it feels like low energy, behind the 8 ball, confused, frustrated, unsatisfied, inefficient, burdensome living with high potential for burnout and wasted effort. We each have so many files open in our heads that it is difficult to do a really good job on any one task for all the distraction of the work we are NOT doing. Sound familiar? I see it in most people around me including young and old, male and female, executive and blue collar. A couple of nights ago the father of twin high school seniors girls told me one of his daughters has dropped out of her long love affair with dancing so as to pursue better grades and a more impressive array of activities to go on her resume for college and beyond. He was sad about it as you are only a kid once.
We are a nation of sleep deprived, caffeine fueled, out of shape, frantically busy people who live with feelings of guilt for not doing better and little knowledge of true joy and almost no personal satisfaction and peace. Like the smoke filled rooms of a few years ago, it is the same to varying degrees for almost everyone around us, so we don’t detect the fact that there is a different way to go. If we can ever get a little balance in our lives, the improved feelings, increased productivity, and joy of living more of each day aligned with our authentic purpose will give us a deep craving for much more of this sanity balance and focus offers us.
How can we improve our balance? Start by staking out some time to think through what is happening to us. How are we really spending our time and how are those choices determined? How does our actual time use compare with what is really important to us? Such a review can begin the process and once we pay more attention to the relatively simple principles that drive progress and well being, physically our energy and self confidence increase providing real encouragement we can do the same in the other important aspects of our being. But rather than seeing the analysis and planning step being proposed here as one more task to add to the list, it should be seen as a multiplier of your personal power, too important to ignore. Put some time on the calendar this week. Refer to www.ImprovingYourBalance.com for some more help.
