Excerpt

This article explores the act of balancing. There are substantial and weighty arguments for balancing as a pearl of time-tested wisdom from many varied sources, such as science, religion, philosophy, pop culture, etc.

Cause and effect are closely related cousins to the concept. Learned scientists, published professors, and medical professionals could weigh-in with much imperial evidence in support. Just turn on the radio, your television, open the laptop to connect to the internet, and you'll be awash in some form of personal life/work balancing (1).

Historical Perspective

The word itself is much used and crosses all forms of advertising to our family's expressing their own opinions about how it will benefit your life. Haven't we heard this in some form or another? Yes? No? Who cares, and why bring it up?

Our point is we wish to put our paddle in the community boiling pot and stir. We want to turn this highly reasonable concept up-side-down or side-ways to allow you another perspective.

What might you gain or lose? How could or would you derive value from looking at something differently?

We say allowing other ideas into your world holds possibility and benefit to you. In the vernacular of yesterday (Old-School) and today (Boom), we want to get you out-of-your box; look at things in another way.

The unusual rock-ocean picture we have selected for you visually depicts another perspective. Look closely at the rock in the middle of the arch and answer some questions. What would occur if the ground shook rapidly, dislodging one of the sister rocks? Yikes and holy-cow to this impending danger or crisis. Or consider this – if you were the middle rock, how might you be feeling? Pressured? Squeezed? Powerfully supportive and even Herculean? Prepared for launch? Need to relieve yourself? Skinny? Fat? Is minority uncomfortable?

Well, the imagination opportunities are endless. Please keep it up since many of your ideas will fuel more, rumble your engines and get your mind working feverishly.

Behavioral Premise

Here is more thought-food. The word balanced and any of its derivatives will contain powerful meaning for you. Your thinking of it will probably explain something about you and your associated beliefs about it. Before getting too deep into pondering your meaning (i.e., you could get lost between your ears), consider the following as a potential critical insight that may explain something about you.

"Our beliefs lock us inside them," regardless of whether we understand or recognize this.

An example of a belief held by many people is that we can't change, and we don't even want to try. Or, we'll push on change, temporarily giving it a chance for a while, and then wait to see what might occur. Our suspicion about success and failure might be faulty or elusive, with us being unable to grasp how we perceive it for ourselves. This is normal and scientifically proven because while we can see others easily, we can't see ourselves and what we do; re-read this last statement – please. This may explain why we see more people in January (early starters) and February (late bloomers) at gyms, libraries, churches, meetings, etc., because people act upon their new year's resolutions. For those of you who are regulars at these activities, your grumblings (e.g., "I lost my favorite seat" or "He took my weight machine – darn it!") will recede after the increase subsides when these New-Be's begin to leave, usually within the next thirty to sixty days. This happens mainly because their resolution(s) and/or their new habit(s) cannot be sustained without an underlying belief to support it.

Does this rationale track with you? Have you seen it happen before – right? Yes, you bet – because this is what is actually happening. When these people in our example quit, give up and stop, their belief system is ever-more hardened with and about their inability to sustain something. Beliefs are complex and simple at the same time. But, you can figure them out all by yourself – we'll help you accomplish this. Apologies to the writers and actors for this similar now-famous over-used line in the film "Jerry McGuire."

Try This On Personally

We invite you to keep working and creating, balancing your check-book (i.e., whether on your iPhone or paper register), stay upright on the bicycle or motocross, try not to trip too often when walking or running, get enough sleep and food to sustain your energy, take your med's and nutritional supplements, and whatever else provides you daily health and well-being. Aside from those basics, begin by thinking about how you can attain some unbalancing in your life. To help you along, we will show you how to start small with some simple baby steps. You ask, "What does this mean"? Our steps are merely suggestions, primarily intended to offer some concrete things to try.

OK, we are not gyroscopes sustaining level flight, and we'll not plunge you into the sea by turning off these electronics. We are human beings, with many things righting us all the time – faith, love, and support of our family, friends, colleagues, beliefs, experience, ideas, and the practicing we do. So you can try these things on at home, at work, in the car (while parked or as a passenger), and just about anywhere you're not operating heavy machinery (e.g., don't do this while flying your Cessna).

Step One

Your first step is to choose your place, keep it quiet or loud, but don't blow your earrings off with your music choice. Pick a spot on the wall, or a page on your laptop, or a picture. Then concentrate your focus with intensity. Second, un-focus your eyes so that the clarity becomes foggy. Remain in this state for about one minute. This may take you a few attempts to attain this fogginess; keep practicing until you gain the unfocused gaze. How did this feel to you?

(Special Note) If this state produces a headache, stop and don't do this exercise. This exercise is not for everyone. But it can produce some insights with practice.

Step Two

Step two involves thinking about something while in this un-focused state. Pick a subject that you are interested in understanding more about it and how you perceive the subject. With this subject in mind as a starting point, in the state of un-focused, ask what the means to you: how important, how valuable, or what can it produce for me?

These activities should provide new perspectives that you had not thought of before. Keep in mind that the exercise is intended to help produce new ideas and different thinking.

After you have completed the exercise, write down everything that came up for you during your un-focused state. We suggest recording your ideas in journals, a notebook, Evernote/Notes, or whatever CRM platform you use so that you can retain the exercise effort and insights. Write extensively about …

Unbalancing for Business People

We expect that you might have become a little curious about the business side. We will discuss some more practices to come here too soon….Stay tuned!

Footnotes

(1) Mallinson, Trudy R.. "Activities of daily living". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Nov. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/topic/activities-of-daily-living. Note: Britannica requires an on-line subscription or trial to access this cited link.