World Clock

Friday, November 24, 2006

Balance

post #126

Finally done my job as committee member of my office Q1 Community Meeting at Kemang News Café. It went quite well and finished earlier than we had planned. One interesting thing was the topic, work life balance. The guest speaker main idea was about balance. We all had our own definition of balance. It’s very subjective and depends on each individual. Made me think…if we really wanna be balanced, we can’t excel on one thing. And it’s impossible to excel in a lot of things, coz no matter how hard we try; we just can’t have it all. We might be good, great….but not excellent on many things.

Like I had written in my previous post, it’s about choices and consequences. If we wanna excel on one thing, we must face the consequences of sacrificing other things.
Example, if we want to have an excellent career, we might have to sacrifice our social life, maybe even romance life, coz we must give extra effort to excel on our career, we must be dedicated to it, thus it takes lots of our time. One fine example is in the Click movie. Adam Sandler thought that by pursuing his career, he could make his life and his family’s life happier. But in order to achieve the position he dreamt of, he ended up sacrificing his family.

That’s why the guest speaker said it’s crucial for us to find our own inner balance. We must know our purpose in life. What we value most, what matters the most in our life. Once we know that, we can make priorities and live based on them. But if we achieve balance, then aren’t we living a mediocre life? If we’re balanced, what makes us different than any other people? What makes us stand out?

I was very intrigued by a friend of mine’s siggy in a forum. It said:
“All greatness of character is dependent on individuality.
The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.“

After thinking about it, I think the answer is on the first line. What differentiates us from any other people is our individual character. It’s inline with Stephen R. Covey book, the 8th habit. It about achieving greatness, which all starts from our own character.

Beside, does standing out makes us happy? Balance, happiness and success are some things that cannot be standardized since we all have our own measure. I believe we must live our life to the fullest according to our own balance and have a solid character that defines us as a (good/great) person and differs us from the rest.




1 Comment:

Anonymous said...

hello, this is the owner of the siggy, you know who. u should give me some credit. LOL

well, actually my siggy is a quotation from an individualist. that's why it's interesting for me that you linked it with this topic.

well, as a respond for your topic, i think there's no such thing as pure balance in life. if you want to succeed in an area of your life, you have to make sacrifices in the other area. it's the real life.

i'm not a fan of stephen r. covey. well, that's why i disagree with 'achieving greatness which starts from our own character'. as for me, a fine character doesn't guarantee a succesful life. it must be accompanied by self- quality.

 

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