Hanging in the Balance

There's no such thing as work-life balance.  There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences. -- Jack Welch

So why now?  Don't you have enough to do?  You're always complaining about balance...aren't you just piling on to the 28 hours worth of stuff you have to do in the 24 hours you have?  

I know.  I get it.  Trust me.  Picking to do this HIM, this year, is a very deliberate choice.  In some respects, it is to help put some balance in my life.  I have passed through some difficult times at work, pushing myself to achieve and achieve and achieve.  But now the urgency is gone for these work projects and I find myself still pushing.  I am having a hard time slowing down to a sustainable pace at work.  Likewise, my family life is a bit erratic and frenzied now - but instead of taking it in stride and making the most of it, I am flailing around -- wasting some opportunities, missing others, and taking on things that don't need to be.  My balance problem results from my mindset...DO, DO, DO, DO, DO.  There is no STOP.  There is no REST.

OK.  Sounds like a recipe for disaster.  Why do you think this will help your balance?

Because the training schedule for the HIM is fixed -- I know what workouts I need to do and how long they will take.  The classes that I will take this spring/summer to get over my open water swimming (OWS) issues are set.  These are things I have to do and my life will need to be scheduled around it.  I looked at the schedule for training and, because most of it happens over summer -- a less structured time at work -- I can fit it in.  I can't do any more training than what's on the schedule, because I'll get hurt.  I'll be tired, really tired, so I'll need to stop and rest.

After I put the training sessions on the calendar, everything else will be scheduled around it.  I'm not going to have time to overdo obligations at work or at home, because there will be something else on my calendar that CANNOT be ignored.  This doesn't mean that things will come up, but when asked to do something or when my little mind contemplates signing up for another obligation at work or at home, I can look at my calendar and I can say no.  Does this mean I won't be working hard this summer?  No.  But it means that I won't be killing myself.  And if I find (as I'm expecting) that I can succeed in getting my work done (without overdoing it) and have fun with my kids and train for something like this, then the mindset that I currently have -- DO DO DO -- will disappear.  I will understand the value of STOP.  And REST.  And I will have balance.

You're crazy -- you know that, right?

Yeah.  A little bit.  But some of you knew that already.