There seems to be a trend among fitness-and-other-badassery-minded peeps around me going on right now: everybody’s dissing the idea of balance, as if it was a travesty of sorts.
The argument usually goes as follows: balance means everything in equal proportion.
I wholeheartedly disagree. Maybe it comes from working alongside circus artists for the better part of two decades, but balance doesn’t look like that. At all.
Balance isn’t about putting everything in neat and orderly piles, but finding the unique way of assembling several elements so that they’ll work together. Balance is never a one-size-fits-all solution, but the ways we find to make life work in respect to all of its components.
Can it mean everything in equal proportion? Sure. If that’s how you like it. I imagine it would be somewhat challenging to achieve, but if that’s what you’re interested in, go ahead, by all means.
It does not, however, have to be limited to this very narrow view. I’ll even argue that in most cases, it will be completely different―even look quite extreme―yet still remain balance.
Ever look at acrobats and feel like they’re somehow disregarding the laws of physics? Think about it, we even use expressions like “gravity-defying feats”. Be that as it may, it’s not only inaccurate but also impossible.
While you’ll always have to take physics into account―they’re laws, remember?―you can learn, just like those acrobats do, how to work with them.
One of the misconception that plagues the idea of balance stems from the fact that people not only have a very fixed preconception of what it should look like, but also fail to recognize that there’s a good chance they’ve achieved a state of balance already in their life.
It may not be the balance combination that they’re yearning for, but it’s a balance nonetheless. The challenge often comes when we try to shift that balance to give more priority to something else.
Let’s be real: if we add or remove a component and expect the dynamic to remain exactly the same, then we’re in for a big surprise. However, it doesn’t mean that we can’t strike a new balance, and quickly at that.
The key lies in understanding that all the parts have to work together, no matter how we’d rather assemble them. The more deliberate we are in judiciously putting the pieces together with this understanding, the more likely we are to strike a balance that resembles what we hope for.
Let’s all stop hating on balance, shall we? Because it’s never as one-size-fits-all as we make it out to be!
Have you joined my Special Crew yet? All the cool kids are doing it! (Just joking!) Seriously, though, I’ll be sharing free workouts, meal ideas and juicy mindset insight straight into your inbox―Add yourself by clicking here!
