Balancing the balance

Every website, and their subscriber, on lifestyle / fitness will at some point start to describe how to can achieve balance. I, however, can't provide a definition of my own, or a formula, or a roadmap 10 point list, to achieving balance. I can however point out some observations from my experience that might, or indeed might not, illuminate a small corner of the subject.

The first and most important observation is to me an obvious one, and one that is often overlooked in the name of compelling content or salesperson-ship... we are all different. And with that said though we can put ourselves into associations or groups that can provide direction in how best to achieve some balance... the early risers, the late night work fiends, the long slow eaters, the grazing snackers, the all day I dreamers, the all day I doers. So the art of balance starts first in identifying, well, you. What is it that makes you move and gets you started? There is little point subscribing to a fitness regimen that expounds "get your workout done before breakfast!" if you have never ever functioned well before 11am. Similarly there is perhaps little point joining a club in the evenings if you get up before everyone else and have pretty much completed your day by mid-afternoon.

So behind my punchy little blogpost title is this message... in identifying a way of balancing your life look at systems, training groups, session timetables, meal plans, team sports, etc. that fit your own physical / psychological balance, your basic make-up. Going against your own innate tendencies will only make you unhappy with your efforts, much less likely to stick with them, and ultimately further out of balance than when you started.

One final caveat is to look at your balance over time and reassess now and then. I had a whole different balance and pattern to my days during my University degree than I do now as a working, married, father of two busy kids. Balance is fluid through life's path, but try to identify patterns in order to work with them rather than in opposition to them. I absolutely can not claim to have found a perfect Zen like balance (and frankly who but a full time Zen practitioner genuinely can), but I have found things that work for me over different periods of time.