How does a gymnast maintain that perfect balance? I have always watched this

sport  with dropped jaws. Balance is a key to any gymnastics discipline, whether you’re tumbling on the floor, swinging on the parallel bars or landing at the end of a vault.

All of us wear many different hats in our life. We could be an employee/employer, a parent, a partner, a friend, a sibling etc etc. Is it possible for us to maintain that perfect gymnast like balance while we swing, land and tumble on the floor vis-a-vis our responsibilities towards all of them? Can there be a perfect balance in our life? Or is life a game of mastering the art of leading a life of perfect imbalances? I am trying to investigate further. 

Growing up in the land of spices, the food I ate was always full of flavors. Each dish had a characteristic and unique flavor. I am reminded of something that a good friend, who is also an excellent cook, once told me. “In order to make a dish tasty we have to make sure that there is one attribute/flavor that overpowers the others. It could be the tanginess, the heat, the bitterness or sweetness. Even in the presence of all the flavors, there is one that stands out. There has to be a perfect imbalance of flavors to make a dish delicious.” I couldn’t agree more. 

Coming back to our topic, we aspire to lead a balanced life every day. We want to work hard and play hard. We want to be a good employee/employer, a good parent, a good friend and  a good partner every day. 

One reality check and we know that we are always and always prioritizing one aspect over the other and then trying to compensate for what is lost. Spending an extra hour at work today and then a couple of extra hours with kids tomorrow. A lunch with friends to catch up on all the happenings and a long call with parents over the weekend to tell them we have been meaning to call them every day.  

As I was searching for information on this topic, I came across an article written by Dr. Todd Dewett. In the article he says, “Work-life balance is largely a myth. Perfect imbalance, however, is a challenging but achievable goal. “ You can read more of his article here. 

Though it sounds like an oxymoron, a perfect imbalance is a reality in our lives. I think it is okay to work a little extra on one day and play a little extra on another. I think it is a more practical approach to both work and play. 

After coming to a conclusion that, we can only look for a perfect imbalance in life, I tried to come up with some pointers to find out how this can be done. 

These are some ways to achieve that perfect imbalance: 

1. A top down approach: Rather than the daily to do list leading to the weekly plan, let the weekly plan be the deciding factor for the daily actionable. 

When we make a daily list, we try to fit more into one day. We like to see big action items for each day and end up filling our planner with those items. Instead, if we fix a weekly plan first, we can pick and choose items from that list depending on where we want that imbalance to project. We can choose more work on Monday and more play on, say, Friday. We get the flexibility to create that perfect imbalance.  

2. Keeping people who matter to us on the same page: Rather than upsetting people in our life when you have an extra load of work it helps everyone if we let them know about it. 

When a friend took up an extra project for a month, she announced it at home and then she overheard a conversation between her kids:  “Mom is gonna be occupied with some project for this month and so we will have to give her a little more space. If she is worked up about something, just let her be. We can ask for more treats next month “.  Her friends also knew that she would not be available during that month. She promised them to make up for lost time after the project was over. 

3. Not feel guilty: When we know life is about that perfect imbalance, then there is no point feeling guilty about it.

The key here is the word “perfect”. When we call something perfect, it means “as good as it is possible to be”. I would rather have a perfect imbalance to an imperfect balance. 

Here is to a perfectly imbalanced life! 

Image Courtesy: Pixabay 

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