The Is No Such Thing As Balance

I've been reading about the 80/20 principle lately (in addition to game theory and chaos theory) and have been struck by something big....

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BALANCE.

All those books talking about living in balance, finding balance, etc., etc. (hmmm, this probably includes something I've written or talked about at some point! How humbling...) are based on some kind of fantasy...not on observable data from the world around us.

THE WORLD WE LIVE IN IS DYNAMIC.

That means it is constantly flowing, moving, shifting - like a river or the earth's crusts or a dirt particle picked up in one place and gently landing hundreds of miles away.

As a matter of course, things don't sit still for very long and any balance point becomes something we get to visit, but not live in.

Think the changing cycles of seasons, of aging, think....

Now this doesn't mean that we have to feel "unbalanced" or out of sorts, overwhelmed, etc.

We've made balance an unrealistic goal and being out of it some kind of dirty word that implies we're not enlightened nor will we ever be (which really, as far as I'm concerned is just fine - enlightenment is mainly the destination of a desperate ego, not a stable self.)

Being out of balance simply implies there's movement, and just like chaos theory says - that even in chaos we can find some level of predictable order when we zoom in the microscope close enough.

Now the 80/20 principle takes this even further. It suggests that instead of 50% of your hard labor producing 50% of your results, happiness, etc....that it is more like 20% of your efforts produce 80% of the results. This is in economics, business, personal growth, computer design, you name it.

So there is no balance between how hard you work and the benefits you reap.

The inputs don't equal the outputs.

There is no BALANCE between the effort you put in and the outcome that happens. (that's because only a little of what you do creates MOST of what you experience) see more on that next week too.

How does all this affect your daily life? This is the key question for me in all matters of great ideas - how can it be applied to ACTUALLY make a difference in how you live your life?

First - Stop trying to attain balance - you won't get there and you definitely won't be able to stay there

Second - Watch for the kind of movement you're in - what the current cycle for you is...is the energy moving forward or pushing you backward? Does it feel stagnant and painful or is it gently uplifting? Just notice and don't judge.

Our experience here is dynamic, fluid and WILL cycle no matter how hard you try to cling to the cupboard by your fingernails....you WILL get yanked off and thrown around the merry-go-round a couple times just to mix things up a bit and see what happens...

Third - Accept the movement you're in by shifting your energy. Neutralize your physical, emotional and mental reactions to the space you're in.

Fourth - Prepare for the next cycle you want to create. In chaos theory we find that the beginning conditions are important. Yep, that's right. You can create your reality (at most about 70% of it but we'll discuss that in another posting). So start figuring out what you want to create, start getting your energy aligned with it, and you've set yourself up to finish the current cycle well and create the next one even better.