I love the symmetry of today's date: 1/2/12. It feels and looks balanced. It brings to mind perhaps the most common coaching question I'm asked: How can I do this work and live a balanced life? My first response is: What does a balanced life look like to you? My second response is: people who are drawn to mission-driven work,who are compelled to shift the dominant paradigm of injustice, aren't the kind of people who lead a balanced life. But we CAN lead a healthy life. We can make the usual New Year's resolutions: eat well and exercise. And we can:
- Laugh a lot: science tells us that our immune system loves hearty laughter http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/laughter7.htm. Stanford University is offering a course in learning how to be compassionate beginning January 17, 2012: http://ccare.stanford.edu/sct/2012-stanford-compassion-training
- Practice compassion: http://ccare.stanford.edu/content/being-compassionate-healthy
- Practice kindness: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=kindness-emotions-psychology
My favorite post so far, and a great way to start the new year!
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think that I would like to have a more balanced life, I think of Newton's First Law. It is not balance, but an *unbalanced* set of forces that are needed to change the trajectory of something. With hundreds of years of momentum carrying things in a direction that we'd like to change, our forces must be pretty heavily unbalanced.
Nobody wants to be the person to look a parent in the eye and say, "you know, I'd love to help your child, but your child's principal needs a little more work-life balance."
On the flip side, it's nice to be able to spend time with my own kids, teach them to read and navigate life's difficulties, cook dinner once in a while (though usually on weekends), and, yes, do nice things for people.
All the best for you in 2012!