“Forget about balance, that is impossible.”
A leader at a recent conference I attended said this after they were asked for leadership advice from the audience. That struck me. I thought, “It’s possible, but it’s the job that doesn’t end.” When you watch someone walking a tightrope, and they’re at balance in one moment, they don’t stop adjusting themselves as they walk. They’re always rebalancing.
We read books that help us with balance. Heck, many popular non-fiction books designed to help us were written because of a noticed imbalance by that author.
A few that come to mind: Essentialism (priority), 4,000 Weeks (time management), Brave New Work (adaptability), and Multipliers (leading).
We look for balance out of urgency, we look for it in other people or books, but regularly checking in with ourselves on what we need could be the rebalancing we need.
What do you need now?
Ask yourself…
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What’s something I can pay less attention to that will help me balance?
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What’s a conversation I can have that will help my balance?
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What’s a weight I’m carrying that I can let go of to help me balance better?
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How can I be of balance to someone else?
Try reflecting on just one of these questions, I’d love to hear what happens after you check in with yourself. I’m renaming my newsletter to “Bring Balance Back” because it’s what I hope it gives some of you, a nudge of balance when you need it. Here’s to more “kinkou”, or “balance” in Japanese.
Here are a few related resources that I’ve liked recently and have been sharing:
1 // “No is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.” A classic James Clear post on the power of “no”. (3 min read)
2 // We all need more of a sobremesa mindset, finding more ways to better connect with each other. The Spanish have dinner figured out. (5 min read)
3 // Optimizing is a rebalance. In this Stumbling Towards Clarity post, Claire writes about her past as an optimizer for “one of the world’s largest math problems” and what it taught her about rules, flexibility, trade-offs, and clearly communicating what you hope for. (5 min read)
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