I also look at some things as ways of balancing yourself and aspects of your personality. An introvert balances the fatigue of interacting with others by spending more time alone. Spending more time alone seems unbalanced, but for them it brings them into balance.

We talk about balance all the time with so many things. “Nature’s Balance” – no, nature is not balanced. “work-life balance” – that’s ones companies tell their employees they must employ, but they don’t really mean it and don’t seem to mind when people kill themselves working for the company.

Maybe the only balance is accepting that there is no balance.

I’m spending this year focusing on playing to my strengths and appreciating my natural skills and tendencies more. It’s not that I think there’s no room for improvement, but I’d like to fight myself less. I’d like to spend less time trying to “fix” myself and more time improving my inherent strengths. Ever since I’ve chosen this as an intention for this year, I’ve been feeling healthier, happier and more present.

Thank you for the reminder that one formula doesn’t fit all, and that forcing ourselves into a mold can actually be detrimental (speaking for myself, of course).

My dad is fond of telling me, “You can have ANYthing you want, you just can’t have EVERYthing.” I actually hate it when he says that – mostly because I know it to be true. In order to attain any goal – I don’t care how small – you must sacrifice something else – might be time, money, privileges, your favorite food … whatever.

The only thing that makes me feel better about this reality is adding “… at least not at the same time” to the saying. Like many of your readers, I often find myself spread way too thin over way too many projects. The result is that I end up doing a half-assed (or worse) job on all or most of my endeavors … and then beat myself up for the mediocrity of my performance.

If only I let my passionate obsession take hold and let myself set aside some things in favor of others. That’s the way to make big strides and accomplish big things.

Last November, I took the entire month to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Along with over 140K other participants worldwide, I set out to do a really dumb thing – write a 50,000-word novel in 30-days. The way I accomplished this, for me, Herculean task was to dedicate myself to the cause and let other things go. I stopped reading blogs, working out, going for walks. I took every offer of childcare that came my way. For one month I shifted my priorities in order to reach my goal.

There’s a saying about well-behaved women rarely making history. I think the idea of living an unbalanced life shares a certain sentiment. Sometimes playing it safe and keeping that boat from rocking does nothing but give you a one-way ticket to boredom-ville. If that’s what you’re after – power to you. But if what you’re after is an amazing experience that helps you grow as a person – you’d better be prepared to get a little unbalanced and maybe even misbehave some.

Happy 2010, everyone!

Honestly, this blog stands out from the rest mainly because you have different ideas and skeptics about what they are saying.

Other blogs say “go for personal growth”, you write a brilliant post about fake growth.

Other blogs talk about “balance and schedule everything”, you say in order to accomplish what you desire you most likely become unbalanced.

On both points you are right, and more importantly to me, I feel that you are right. Thanx for clearing my head up for me. =)