As I stated emphatically in Moneylove over thirty years ago, prosperity is about a lot more than money. And I’ve been thinking a lot about balance in life, and how some people are a lot better at creating it than others. A large part of my new coaching sessions focuses on this aspect of success, and it’s very rewarding to see how it is possible to add a lot more balance to a life that has been teetering and tottering through imbalance.
So it was another one of my continuing serendipitous events that when I received the results of today’s Google Search Alert on my name, it contained a quote of mine and a link to a speech by someone named Bryan Dyson.
Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them – work, family, health, friends and spirit … and you’re keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – family, health, friends and spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for Balance in your life.
How?
Don’t undermine your worth by comparing yourself with others. It is because we are different that each of us is special.
Don’t set your goals by what other people deem important. Only you know what is best for you.
Don’t take for granted the things closest to your heart. Cling to them as you would your life, for without them, life is meaningless.
Don’t let your life slip through your fingers by living in the past or for the future. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life.
Don’t give up when you still have something to give. Nothing is really over until the moment you stop trying.
Don’t be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each together.
Don’t be afraid to encounter risks. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be pave.
Don’t shut love out of your life by saying it’s impossible to find time. The quickest way to receive love is to give; the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly; and the best way to keep love is to give it wings!
Don’t run through life so fast that you forget not only where you’ve been, but also where you are going.
Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
Don’t be afraid to learn. Knowledge is weightless, a treasure you can always carry easily.
Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savoured each step of the way…
Though there seems to be some confusion about exactly when he gave this speech, one version has it as a commencement address at Georgia Tech in 1996, and I’ve found no reason to dispute this, or any of the good sense he displays in the brief text. I’ve even seen his name spelled both Bryan and Brian.
I like what Mr. Dyson has to say, and it is indicative, in a time when it is popular to slam corporate executives as unthinking, unfeeling, greedy so-and-sos, of a special breed of CEO who is conscious, responsive, and philosophical. Dyson is also indicative of another great American tradition, the successful immigrant tale–he originally comes from Argentina. And I also like this comment he made back in 1984:
There’s an old saying that you can only live for a few days without food or a few hours without water or a few minutes without air, but you can live forever without any new ideas.
Dyson was using this comment to tell his employees that he was always willing to hear their ideas.
I particularly like his admonition to not set one’s goals by what others deem important. Too many times too many of us have done that.
And in this first month of the new year and new decade, how do you feel about how much balance you have in your life? And what are you doing to improve the situation?
Jerry
