The Failure in Balance
Daily Meditation 99–6/1/2022
How often have you heard the phrase “Work-Life balance?”
However, name one time where it’s been in reference to working more and not in reference to relaxing more.
It’s very likely never happened.
Balance is a two sided equation.
Just as there is the “life” side you so desperately insist you don’t have enough of each week outside your 40 hours at the office, there is other work, as well.
“Work” isn’t just your job.
Work is cleaning your house acceptably.
Mowing the lawn often enough.
Folding laundry (and not three days later!)
Washing your dishes.
Work is so much more than the 9–5. These “chores” don’t add much to our life, directly, but must be kept up with…In their absence, you would be miserable. If you’ve ever been inside a hoarder’s home, you’ll know they often are unbelievably stressed and sick.
But here’s the thing — there is other work, too, that so many of us simply aren’t doing.
Getting in enough steps every day.
Balancing your budget.
Making homecooked meals of nutritious food.
Taking time to volunteer, or to pray, or to meditate — finding spirituality.
Reading and watching material that helps us ascend to a higher level of self.
This is the work in the work-life balance we should be giving more emphasis to. This is true self-care.
Self-care doesn’t mean laying around like a slob with every free minute.
It doesn’t mean masturbating to porn every day whenever you want.
It’s not going to the bar with your friends or abusing alcohol multiple times each week.
More to it than blowing hundreds shopping frivolously.
This is what society has manipulated you to believe self-care is. We’ve bastardized the idea of self-care into slothfulness and over-consumption.
We don’t need to be perfect.
I’m not preaching, as I make mistakes, as well. Hell, I quit drinking altogether because I couldn’t do it in moderation! I’m no paragon of perfection.
No man is.
Each day, ask yourself:
If I found out I had terminal cancer or aggressive MS, today, and my quality of life was about to become essentially non-existent, or that I’d be dead within a couple months…
…Do I feel good about my life, as it is?
No?
Then, rebalance your work-life equation.
Add a dash of Eudaimonia…
Financial prudence.
Nourishing relationships.
Physical wellbeing and activity.
Spirituality.
And overwhelming gratitude.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
