Some people are already back to work. The holiday(s) is seen as something to get through, something to bear while the motto of “there’s so much work to be done” is still at the top of the priority list.
Others use December as an excuse to take a whole month off of work. Well, not actually. Some in the music business merely say “the music business closes down during December” as a means to only selectively respond to email the feel like responding to. And letting the rest wait till after the New Year.
Which segues into the idea of life-balance.
Balance of work, life, holidays, friends, family, goals, kids, spouse, yard work, paying bills. The list goes on.
I’d like to offer up a different twist. Perhaps it’s just different language to say the same thing…but it says something different to me so here goes.
Life imbalance…pointed in certain directions at certain times.
I think of it like on a teeter-totter. It’s REALLY hard to get both people up in the air equal heights off the ground. You’re in balance and then a little out of balance…in balance for a few seconds and then way off.
Balance is an elusive (perhaps undefinable) point.
So I’m shooting for imbalance. Where I put all the weight on one end of the teeter totter and then simply point my vision where it needs to be at different times.
I.E….When I’m working, I’m all in. I’m not thinking about “am I working too hard, should I be working less hard in order to have balance somewhere else…how much work time is too much work time”.
When it’s time for vacation mode, it’s vacation mode. I’m not doing work or fixing things. I’m not searching for balance whatsoever…I’m fully IMBALANCED toward vacation.
And that’s really it, rather than searching for some perfect metric of balance its…how can I be FULLY IMBALANCED toward the thing I’m currently doing?
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t arrived. I’m still being transformed by this idea. But I’m way better at it than I was ten years ago.
And I’m not against finding “balance” either. But flipping the semantics has been helpful to me.
So enjoy today. Enjoy tonight. Fully. What would it look like to be completely imbalanced toward tonight, to be completely partial and biased toward the now?
…and to all a goodnight.
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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com