A new perspective on life balance: grow or survive

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you do a lot, achieve a lot, if you are just a generator of crossed out cases, but at the same time do not feel satisfaction from life, then this article is for you.

Often, when it comes to life balance, people mean contextually equitable distribution of time between our life roles: employee, subordinate, boss, father, husband, son, friend … And this is undoubtedly an important aspect of life balance. Therefore, you must always support him and know.

But today we will look at the side of life balance that many do not even know about. The idea for this article was born while I was jogging while listening to Steve McCletchey's book From Urgent to Important: A System for Those Tired of Running In Place. I can't say if I understood the author's idea correctly - it's not always easy during a run - but the illustration I want to start with was taken from a book.

Garbage disposal as a goal of life

Imagine a weekend during which you repeatedly thought to take out the trash, but did not. And then on Monday morning, during breakfast, you suddenly hear a garbage truck passing by your house.

As in a real action movie, you jump up, grab a bag of rubbish and rush after the garbage truck to the cheerful hooting of communal workers. In the end, you catch up with the car and manage to throw a bag into it before it disappears around the corner.

You are well done! You have completed the task, you can cross off one more thing from the list. Moreover, you managed to do it at the very last moment. Heroic deed! Now, until the end of the day, you can be proud of yourself, you can enjoy the freedom until the next garbage disposal. And it will definitely be, because garbage appears all the time. And this process will never end.

The life of many people is an endless series of "garbage truck chases." Submit a report, develop a media plan, write an article, finish an object, pick up a child from school, make repairs … It can take a long time to list. All these are tasks-problems, and the activity to solve them can be called in one word - survival.

This is not to say that taking out the trash is unimportant. No. After all, garbage will eventually start to stink and ruin our lives. Solving some problems becomes quite important for our well-being and happiness. But, being engaged only in survival, we begin to mark time and do not feel satisfaction from our life.

Investing in Success

There is another kind of task as well. They are aimed at our growth and are investments in future success.

For example, I have lived happily ever after without knowing English, but I am increasingly faced with the fact that a lot of good and useful information has not yet been translated into Russian or Ukrainian. I can cope with today's tasks without knowing English, but if I do not want to mark time, growing into the asphalt, then in my daily schedule I should have an item "Learning English".

In the past, I did not have the goal of becoming a magazine production editor or Lifehacker author. I just wanted to share my knowledge, best practices and experience in the field of self-development, self-education and productivity. It is unlikely that without this experience I would have been offered the position of editor of the magazine. But even if they did, I couldn't do it.

But the balance between survival and growth, between solving problems and investing in success, is important not only for a brighter future. This is very important for the present.

If we are fixated on taking out the trash, we may feel like a hero and feel excited, but due to the lack of balance, we will not know what life satisfaction and true happiness are. Without this, we quickly get tired, exhausted and burn out.

There comes a time when "taking out the trash" no longer makes us feel like a hero and we cannot understand why. After all, we seem to cope, increase productivity, improve results. But "taking out the trash" is not our goal. Man was created for constant development and growth. And simple understanding is not enough here.

Balance issues

Problem tasks always have a deadline, a visible and even tangible cause-and-effect relationship between their failure and the pain of our life. They look like ugly, red-assed baboons that run around and scream. In such a situation, the desire to put them all in cages is natural and almost irresistible.

Investment tasks do not have deadlines, nor do they have a visible causal relationship. Like cute pandas, they sit in a corner and quietly chew on their bamboo, not bothering anyone or attracting attention.

But if monkeys can still be caged, then problem-problems never end. They will always be. This is an endless respawn. We can never remake them.

That is why intentions such as “I’ll hand over this urgent report and start learning English”, “I’ll deal with the renovation of an apartment and then - for my professional growth - I’ll work on the book“John Yanch”have always failed and will fail.

Never, remember, never more free time.

Output

To solve the problem, you just need to choose the direction of development and strictly plan time for it. One is enough for a start. The solution is obvious, but not as easily feasible as it seems.

Life will not let you get busy with your growth so easily. But remember: when more urgent matters appear that threaten unpleasant consequences, do not give up and do not forget that problem tasks will never end, they simply cannot be redone. Stand firm on your own.

Of course, you will have to think carefully about what time to choose for investment tasks. This should be the time when you are least likely to be distracted. Many choose to do this. But even after you study and become, there is still no one hundred percent guarantee that no one and nothing will bother you.

The battle for growth, the battle for development and success is an endless battle. And one more thing: when you are fighting for time for investment tasks, do not fight against family, friends and colleagues. Remember balance, seek it consciously and be happy.