Making Adjustments

“Life is like riding a bicycle. In order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” (Albert Einstein)

As I consider the times I’ve found myself out of balance, I realize that I only become unbalanced when I fail to adjust. When I neglect making adjustments as my life changes and struggles arise, I lose my balance and fall over.

Maintaining balance involves making constant adjustments and continually finding a new normal as circumstances change with the seasons of life. This requires honesty with yourself along with humility to admit the need to adjust. As we learn to live in this constant state of adjustment, which is really what balance is all about, we find are improving in our ability to stay balance.

Habits to Help You Stay Balanced

These habits are ones that, when done regularly, help me to stay balanced.

  1. Slow but don’t stop. Refuse to give up and quit. Take time to slow down and rest if necessary but keep moving forward.
  2. Maintain focus. Establish core values and align focus daily.
  3. Be a team player. Don’t attempt balance alone. Have regular accountability.
  4. Evaluate regularly. From work commitments to relationships, make sure priorities stay properly ordered.
  5. Find ways to simplify. Life is chaotic enough on its own; refuse to add complication.
  6. Be yourself. Balance and simplicity are unique to the individual. Find your balance. Find your simple. Find your normal.
  7. Know yourself. Find your niche, not someone else’s.
  8. Avoid comparisons. I can always find someone better and worse at balance, but neither does anything to help me stay balanced.

All too often, I go from simply trying to balance the various elements in my life to juggling them. Trying to balance and juggle at the same time is hard, maybe impossible. Yet all too often that’s exactly where we live. It’s a place where I’m not just trying to keep my life balanced, but I’m also tossing appointments and commitments and projects and people around like juggling balls. In this place, I’m losing the strength, ability, and margin I need to adjust for consistent balance.

When I continually adjust for balance, though, I’m better able to discover and live a harmonious life. In that harmony exists the margin of peace amidst chaos.