Life Balance

Life balance is a popular topic; however, it implies trade-off’s and compromises.  I do not like to live with compromise; I prefer the idea of “preference.”When I live with compromise, I am losing something.  When I live with preference, I am always choosing the best I can find from the choices given.More important to this idea of life balance is what I call “Life Crafting.”  Life Crafting is when we truly see our lives as a work of art and an expression of what we feel is true and beautiful about life.  Life Crafting is a life-long work of art that is never completed but constantly refined.  Our lives are a statement to the world, using the tools available, to express who we are into the world and to understand how our expressions will impact the expressions of others.  People who see and admire another’s life will incorporate some of that expression into theirs.So instead of the concept of “life balance,” let’s craft the most amazing expression of life that we can, using the resources we have at hand or can create, borrowing from what we like in the expression of others and inviting and sharing our perspectives so that others can craft lives that fit them.Lets get practical.  How do we start?Life Crafting begins with a bird’s eye view.  What do you value most?  What things do you want to experience every day?  Every week?  Every year?  Write them down.How much time do you want to work?  What work?  How much play?  What play?Once you have an idea of what you want in your life, I recommend what I call “Templating Your Life.”When I Template My Life, I use my schedule to block out time to have the life I want.  This is like the canvas on which I am going to do my life-art.  With my schedule, I block out time for work, time for play, time for exercise, time for writing, and time to do anything else that I want to include in my life.  Now I have truly created balance, but it is more than balance; it is a life that has been crafted to be just the way I want it to be.  Now all I have to do is follow it, with the respect that is due to my “work of art.”  If things get out of balance I just need to go back and change the template (NOT VIOLATE THE TEMPLATE).Sorry for the pun, but now, by templating your life, time serves you rather than you serving time.Anything you want to have in your life now goes into the template.  If it can’t fit, then you either have to change the template or not do that activity.  I put calls, appointments, paying the bills, or anything else I want to do into my template, and then as an added bonus, the scheduling of these things takes them off my mind, which is then free for better things.What art do you want to do with your life?  How are you going to make the life you want?