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Are you Balanced?

wildambitions

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We have heard of the Law of Attraction, Laws of Prosperity and Universal Laws - this is about the Law of Balance. To be a "Law" insinuates that it applies to many areas in our lives.

We attempt to maintain balance in our lives every day when it comes to our weight, our relationships, our chores, our job, our business and our finances to name a few. We know when things are in balance and we can certainly feel it when things are not in balance.

Violations of the Law of Balance will show up (primarily) in 3 areas of your life.

1.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Harvest
You have heard the adage, “Reap what you Sowâ€. Well this is the perfect example. When we don’t maintain balance what we are sowing is likely not much of anything. Our fields are dried up because we never watered them when it did not rain. You get the point.

2.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Relationships
The people or things in your life are likely not what you thought you would (or should) have in your life. Perhaps it is a marriage that you never should have entered, or an addiction to drugs or alcohol, or even an obsession with money.

3.[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Children
And eventually your children (or who ever is being influenced by you directly) will follow your lead and have the same pitfalls that have been set by your example.

It is a life of circumstances that have resulted because of our lack of attention to making the correction when needed - A life full of making bad decision after bad decision. A life we find easy to place blame on others for and ignore our own accountability.

So what can we do to stay in balance?

There are three things to focus on to maintain balance.

1. The Reference Point
Find out exactly where you are. What is your starting point. You have to be brutally honest with yourself here and look deep inside yourself sometimes to find the underlining truth. When you find it, you'll know.

2. Constant Correction
Just like the circus act where an individual spins plates on the top of a pole, in our lives and to maintain balance to prevent the plates from falling, we must make constant corrections. Inevitably, the moment you think that you no longer need to make any corrections, your plates will fall. And fall they do. Often crashing to the ground and shattering into a thousand pieces.

3. Clear Objective
The last focal point in maintaining balance is having a clear objective - something to look forward to, or focus on while making the correction, a destination to reach or a goal. Lets use the image of a ballet dancer. A ballerina that is dancing in toe shoes and spinning around and around. She is up there, balancing on her toes and each time she goes around, her head whips quickly to find that focal point thus maintaining her balance and reaching her objective of completing the maneuver.

I wish that I could say that I have completely mastered this Law. But alas, it is not so. It is, however, something I regularly ask for strength in being able to accomplish and I do have certain areas within my life that I have been successful (at least thus far) at keeping in balance.

If you want an in depth lesson in this area, there is no better resource (IMHO) than from this classic Fastlane thread: http://www.thefastlanetomillions.com/your-goals-your-fastlane-plan/544-how-develop-your-plan.html

 
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Salinger

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This is a very interesting topic, and one I've thought a lot about over the years.
At this point in life I feel that an ongoing, continual state of 'balance' is next to impossible to achieve.
Let me elaborate. I believe it is possible, but a state of balance is very elusive. The pendulum is always swinging through that balance point and over to the next area of focus.

More importantly for this forum, I strongly believe that any exceptional achievement requires one's life to be dramatically out of balance, at least temporarily.
For example, you can be a decent amateur golfer with a life that is in balance. However, If your dream is to join the professional tour and play at a level where you are winning or placing in professional tournaments, your life will be out of balance, at least while you are getting your game to that level. Golf will need to be the primary focus of your life.
In business, if you are an entrepreneur starting the next big thing, you need to eat, sleep, live and breathe your business until it reaches a certain level of success. Eventually, you can bring your attention back to other things in your life.

Balance in any given day may be nearly impossible, over the course of a year, or five years it is more achievable. Looking at balance over a longer time horizon allows you to more easily accept a short-term imbalance for the sake of achieving something significant. The risk is that you begin to accept imbalance as a normal state for your life and constantly neglect areas of responsibility that need attention. Balance is always a challenge.
 

wildambitions

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Yes, the "ways to stay in balance" section refers to each individual area in our lives, not an overall picture because it is always changing (hence or need to make corrections). Sometimes the correction is to balance one area but it may cause imbalance in another.

But, being aware of that imbalance and watching for any harmful violations of balance is still noteworthy.
 
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Living a balance life in more than just having fun with friends on monday, going to the mall on Sunday and eating a salad once a week. We must be balanced within our mind, body, spirit and social life style. Keeping your mind positive is essential to living a balanced life. Having an attitude where every glass is seen through your eyes as half full is great. Meditation can also bring balance to your life causeing clamness, and peace within your inner world.

Allow yourself to stay healthy from exercising, and eating right. It may not be easy to chomp down a salad instead of a checkers burger, but its the price you pay for Balance. Making daily progress can only break up the old habit and reconstruct a new one.

Now i ask you guys, Have you been balancing out your inner world to reflect your outer reality? Are you learning how to be positive with a balanced life?
 
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yveskleinsky

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Balance may work for some, but it doesn't work for me. I learned awhile ago that if I try to balance everything I quickly get overwhelmed--so instead of balancing, I just prioritize. If I keep my priorities straight, then everything else just kinda shakes out.
 

wildambitions

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I learned awhile ago that if I try to balance everything I quickly get overwhelmed--so instead of balancing, I just prioritize.

I think prioritizing is part of balance. It is when you feel overwhelmed that you make your corrective action (prioritizing). Dana, you are one of the most balanced people I know. Balancing will be different for each of us on all levels.

It doesn't have to be (and rarely is) equal keel and level across the board. The analogies were an attempt at visualization not hard and perhaps not great ones. I might even go so far as to say the Law of Balance is similar to Cause and Effect. I see similar principles.

imcmillionaire:103922 said:
Now i ask you guys, Have you been balancing out your inner world to reflect your outer reality? Are you learning how to be positive with a balanced life?
I agree it is first the inner balance that is needed to reflect outer balance. Personally, I would like to think I am, but typically it is just when I start feeling comfortable that I realize I have SO far to go. It sure keeps life interesting - and a constant challenge.
 

AroundTheWorld

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I first started thinking about balance in a new way when I spent a lot of time in prep for homeschooling my kids.

One of the books / schools of thought that I researched was to go with the natural flow of learning cycles and interest cycles.

Humans are naturally curious. When we find a topic that is interesting to us, we tend to dive into that area full throttle. When it comes to education, the argument, then was to go with the current interest of the child, and cater lessons to those interests. It also meant that you do away with the bells and the idea that math starts at 11:00 (even though the children might be currently in the middle of a project that they are excited about.)

I've also read / thought about this when it comes to our children and food. As long as they have only healthy choices available in the home, does every meal really need to be balanced? What if the child is craving a whole bunch of orange juice on a Monday and nothing but milk on Tuesday?

Both situations come to the same conclusion. Unless something has become seriously out of wack, balance can be viewed over a long period of time - rather than on a day to day scale.

These are the work-my-a$$-off months (years)
These are the raise-a-family years.
These are the explore the world months (years)
Right now, I need to focus on my spiritual health.
Right now, I need to focus on my mental health.
Right now, I need to focus on my physical health.

Life ebbs and flows. If at the end of your life, you have spent time focused on and paying attention to a variety of items, then you have lived a balanced life.
 
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RealOG

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I totally agree with ATW.

I would also add that "balance" is relative. What may seem balanced to you, is imbalanced for me.

Finally, too much balance brings mediocrity. If you are totally balanced, then you are an expert in nothing, right? Experts are the ones who impact the world and make a difference, so don't get too hung up on balance.
 

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