We all need Balance

As this painful week comes to a close I am happy to put it behind me and look to feeling better and bringing balance back to my life. Balance is something that we all want but seem to fail at achieving. The balance of work and personal lives, the balance of a team and your own balance are just some of the areas that need balance. I think of things just being right.

So let me look at how balance can affect so many others. This past I feel that the sad state of my back has impacted my hockey teams and in a way has thrown them out of balance. My Monday night team just had a different feeling before the game and as you read we fell to defeat. Last night, my team the Steelblades took to the ice in the last game of the round-robin qualifier for the semi-finals. We had already qualified for the next round with a solid win last week, but a win this week would be a good result, but not needed. My back continues to trouble me and again I could not play and here is where the balance goes off. One of the team’s top scorers Shane Blakemore, is also our backup goalie. He played a solid game and was not the cause of last night’s outcome. The loss of his scoring on the team is critical and this factor was lost, we lost balance. On defence, our top defenseman Albert Jin, couldn’t play, something about work which we will get to later, but he was not there to set the foundation for the defence. As we all know defence wins games and last night the lack of team balance hurt our chances to succeed. The team worked hard, but the balance was not there. We play next week in the semi-finals. I expect my back to come back into balance and everyone to take their place on the team and put us through on our journey to the Championship.

Of course, the real balance is the work and life balance. I have seen it work and see the value that it gives and I also see the balance fail. As I like to say it depends and it truly does on the individual. It is what you want to get from life while still being productive and gaining satisfaction from both aspects of your life. I feel that we must achieve balance or you lose perspective. How often do we see the workaholic lose track of anything away from life, they lose touch with people and often with the world. Of course these people are driven in different ways and gain satisfaction from the job and of course profits. I feel that you really should have some balance. The fact that you work hard and achieve great things should help drive you and encourage you to continue, but you also need the time away from the “job” a place to clear your mind to come up with new ideas. A recharge of your creativity will improve your results on your return...this is balance. Just like leaving a field fallow to improve the long-term viability of the farm, you also need to find the balance of life and work, each will benefit from this balance being in place.

Finally, I wanted to let people know about something I heard this morning on the radio on the way into work. Apparently, with the holiday of Passover starting next week someone out there is selling a Kosher for Passover Tequila. This is just what the world needed. Now the Passover dinners can add a little drinking game to the story of the Exodus.

So I hope you all can find your balance in your lives, it’s worth it.