7.31.2013

Balancing Success.

Well, look at me. Blogging at night! I don't know about you but I'm fairly impressed with myself right now.

So... life's been busy. But, you know, in a good way. Tonight was this surreal thing where I got home and realized that I had the time to do a spa night. I had almost forgotten all about those. And don't get me wrong, there are a million other things that I probably SHOULD be doing, which came to mind. And I immediately thought, "No. You need this. You need balance."

I talk about it all the time: Balance. It's probably the thing I have the most priority on in my life.

Balance.

Credit: Remain Simple

I've gotten a lot of work thrown my way lately. It's sort of ironic (...don't you think?...GET IT?? Okayno.) I keep having these "when it rains, it pours" scenarios happen to me. My personal life got kind of crazy, in a good way, a few months ago. Then that sort of mellowed out and suddenly all of this work-related stuff started piling up. I've gotten about triple the 'likes' on my Facebook page for this blog in this past month alone. This deserves due credit to a great friend of mine who has been advertising the blog to magazines and online bloggers for me, which I never even asked for and am beyond grateful to him for. Then I started my new job, and on top of that have been asked by my old boss to come do some consulting for him. Top that off with a magazine that I've been trying to write for getting back to me with my first assignment and you've got one busy girl over here.

I'm not trying to rub anything in here. I'm pointing out that life is very, very busy. Oh! AND I'm in my best friend's wedding in a month, NBD. But my point is that I had forgotten to relax. I had forgotten what it even meant to relax.

I had a boyfriend whose work ethic has, to his own admittance, consistently interfered with his social life. But the money made him happy, and so he kept at it. And I thought, for so long, that THIS was what success looked like: Working really hard and making a ton of money for it. And maybe for him, that's what success is.

I started thinking about it while I did my spa night tonight (and yes, I had a totally awesome green face mask on, you so missed out)... what IS success? What is it to me?

Success is, in my opinion, a universally case-by-case definition. Meaning that each of us determines our own definition of the term. To some people, success is making a ton of money. To other people, being successful means being in incredible shape. To some people, being a success might be as simple as getting out of bed in the morning. Life has different challenges for different people and scenarios.

To me, success is Balance. My visualization of my most successful self doesn't make unfathomable quantities of money, but she works hard and makes enough to live comfortably. She doesn't have to always be dressed to the nines with perfect hair, but she takes care of herself and works hard to keep her body healthy by eating right, exercising and getting enough sleep. It's more important to me to feel good inside than to stress myself out trying to look perfect outside. I want a balance between who I present to the world and the way that I think & feel inside.

Could I have gone on a run tonight to catch up with my fitness? Probably. But I haven't REALLY gotten to write in a while, and I need that balance of my creative outlet. This is why I have books by the Dalai Lama on my bookshelf: I need spirituality in my life in some form or another. It's also why I prefer hiking to running on a treadmill. I need the balance of the beauty of nature or else my life becomes robotic and monotonous.

Our lives are made up of so many components that we tend to forget about: mental challenge, soul food, social bonding... trying too hard to focus on one thing pushes all of that other stuff out of our viewfinders. We need that balance in order to life more fully.

So stop working so hard and have a spa day. Or if you've been "spa day-ing" too much, get out there and work on a project of some kind. If you're stuck in an office alone all day, call on a friend to talk about nothing in particular. Put a part of your energy in every compartment of your life, and you'll feel more complete.

Don't tip those scales, find your Balance.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Our bodies are incredibly resilient and usually speak to us when we aren't living in moderation. And moderation is what I've found to be the secret to those times where I've found myself to be in "balance." So it is important to find a balance, and trusting our bodies and ourselves to know how to get there is a part of that. So spa day away

=^.^=

Jack Lunar said...

Congrats on all the awesomeness you are that other people are discovering and being introduced to.

I totally agree with needing a balance. And that balance having nothing to do with someone elses definition of success.

And, quite honestly my own definitions of success have never really lived up to expectations. I've always thought it would feel like crossing a finish line at the end of a marathon. But no. It was more a realization that I just ran one without even enjoying whatever it was that I was running through.

It may take some time to get used to your life demanding so much of you. But as with anything else, I'm sure you're not only up to the task, but will find a way to narrate it with that unique insightful perspective of yours.