Balance Is A Verb, Not A Destination
Before we jump in: This article was originally shared with my email community in February 2021. I'm sharing it with you on the blog today in the hope that it may be of some encouragement and insight to you in your creative journey right now, and also give you a little sneak peak of what you can expect from Weekly Letters too. If you'd like to receive letters like this one straight to your inbox every Monday, you can sign up below. You'll also have access to all of my Mini Books too!
I’ve been thinking lately about what it means to find a sense of balance as a business owner and human in the world just trying to live a simple, intentional, joyful daily life.
Ever since having my son and becoming a working mother my relationship with work and balance has shifted in so many ways big and small.
There have been seasons in my business journey so far where I have felt so grounded in my work/life blend, in such a good groove with my working days and just living my daily life too.
There have also been seasons where things have felt not so balanced, whether it’s because I had overloaded my work commitments or because circumstances in my life were leaving me feeling out of balance instead.
And if I’ve learned anything over the years so far it’s this: balance is a verb, not a destination.
It’s not a permanent state we can find and create for ourselves, instead it’s something we do, something that we experiment with, something that we try to find and create and protect for ourselves along the way.
And balance is something we get to define for ourselves in each season too.
Sometimes balance may look like having enough energy to run our business and live our life and show up for our family too.
Other times it may look like pouring ourselves into a new goal and reducing some of our life commitments to make that possible.
Other times it may look like easing back in our work so we have more space for our life instead.
Balance doesn’t always have to mean 50/50.
Sometimes a 50/50 blend between work and life may be exactly what we need, and other times we may want a 20/80 or 60/40 blend instead.
What matters most is that we work with whatever blend serves us best in each season that we’re in.
So here are the questions I’m currently asking myself:
What does balance look like for me in this season?
What blend will serve my work and my life best right now?
What will support me to embrace my own version of balance in this season?
And the thing that’s coming to the surface for me the most right now? Permission to let it be a little messy, for my work/life blend to adapt and evolve alongside this season of new motherhood and figuring out this new chapter as a working parent. To let balance mean finding peace in surrendering to what is out of my control in this season, and to bring a whole lot of intention to the choices I have available to me each day too.
It’s okay if some days feel wildly out of balance in our work and our life, we can learn from them and also just accept them as part of this crazy ride we call life too.
And it’s also okay to want to find a better flow for yourself too, to experiment and explore what balance can look like for you in each season that you’re in.
Just remember: it’s a verb, not a destination.
Your version of balance will evolve and adapt alongside you and you can choose to gently check-in, bear witness to what you need, and support yourself to embrace whatever balance means to you in each season.
Here’s to living and working in whatever blend works best for us...
I’ll be rooting for you every step of the way!
With love,
Jen
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