No such thing as balance

I was in a meeting where a brother I deeply respect said there is no such thing as balance in your life. Being the bull-headed person that I am, I was certain he was wrong.

Of course there can be balance in our lives. The self-help gurus are constantly telling us to strive for balance. Don't work too much. Carve out time for those you love. Get sufficient sleep. Find time to exercise. No problem. And if you haven’t got there then you're just not working hard enough for it.

But, as I’ve got older, and marginally wiser, I realize my wise friend was correct.

We should strive to ensure the most important areas of our life are attended to, but we will never achieve the "perfect percentages”.

Sometimes work needs to a priority. Sometimes family. Sometimes you need to be the priority. A permanently “out of balance” life is not sustainable, but in the short term, prioritization is both necessary and inevitable.

If we believe that balance is the only successful goal it will only lead to feelings of continually falling short. Peace and contentment can only be achieved when we become OK with not being perfect in every area of our life.

In this great clip Elder David A. Bednar confirms the thought of my wise friend.

“One of the questions I’m often asked is, Brother Bednar, with all the demands in my life, in my home, in my employment, needing to take care of myself, serving in the church, how do I ever achieve balance?”

“Quit worrying about it, because there’s no such thing as balance. It doesn’t exist.”

“We can drive ourselves crazy if in every moment we’re worried about all things we’re not doing.”

“Don’t spend all of your time trying to achieve this perfect equilibrium, because it doesn’t exist. Focus on the things that matter most in the moment, and you’ll have the Lord’s help to be able to juggle and attend to all of those important priorities in your life.”