Balance
I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again: Balance is the key to everything in life.
I know that my own personal tendencies are to put out fires as soon as they pop-up. If there’s anything that causes my natural state to be uncomfortable, I channel all of my resources towards getting it done - case in point, moving to the States and furnishing my new apartment. The problem with this is that it is often at the expense of other things and it is out of alignment with my grander vision of what my life should be like.
Is there a solution? I don’t know, maybe there is. I’ve been trying to read Eckhard Tolle’s book over the past couple of weeks, but there’s just something about his way of expression that makes in really hard for me to digest it. It almost seems like what he professes is at the opposite end of the spectrum to what more goal-oriented thinkers suggest (e.g,. David Allen or Tony Robbins). I think though, that my personal application of Tolle’s principles would be something like this:
Underneath the larger framework of goals, time management and all that stuff, when you are working on a specific task, forget about everything else. Focus your mental, physical and spiritual energies (yeah as I said, something about his way of expression) on getting the job at hand done, and when it is done, clear your mind and move onto the next thing.
Maybe THAT is the key to balance - being in the moment at every moment, and really focussing on every single thing as it happens… but doing so intelligently within a more productive framework.
Aaron @ April 21, 2008