Life Balance — Be Careful What You Wish For.

For many Americans, anything worth doing is worth…overdoing. Perhaps we have unintentionally done this with the idea of Life Balance. I think we can agree that the basic concept of Life Balance is a pretty solid notion. The execution, however, might be leaving a bit to be desired. Truth is, I’ve taken great pride in creating a robust balance in my life. When I treat myself to a Dinkel’s donut, I tack on a couple of extra miles on the treadmill. Volunteering for stressful projects at work is offset by doing more yoga. A late night Netflix binge is made up for with a weekend filled with naps and sleeping late.

So you may be wondering to yourself, “…yeah, so what’s the problem?” Well, here’s the issue. While it’s true that I have achieved a certain equilibrium in my life, over time keeping this balance has, in itself, become a bit of a chore. It is often just too much.

Picture this. If you put an elephant on each side of a scale it could very well be perfectly balanced — right up to the point that the scale itself collapses under stress. Maybe, just maybe, a better strategy is to minimize our negative choices as much as possible in the first place, so that less effort is needed to set things right in the second place. Shrink your elephants. Save the scales. Enjoy both balance and buoyancy.

• **When you pictured the scale & elephants were you picturing a huge scale or tiny elephants?… asking for a friend.

Julia A. Kalish is a speaker, thinker, writer, thought leader, sleep advocate, defender of the Oxford comma, and a “NO” evangelist. www.JuliaAKalish.com