I hear a lot of folks talk about balance in their lives.
“I need a work and life balance…
“Balance in chores…
“Balance in my relationships…
“Balance in this or balance in that.”
Balance, schmalance!
Balance is BORING!
It doesn’t make you stronger, nor does it teach you resiliency.
Now, hear me out: I am NOT suggesting that you go off all crazy and act irresponsibly or scattered.
But, think about a teeter-totter for a moment. If it sat still, exactly balanced, it would be NO fun.
No fun at all!
The Benefits of Being Down
On a teeter-totter, however, when you’re down, you use your muscles to push yourself back up, which builds your strength and keeps you looking forward to the upward ride and the amazing view from the top.
The gravity pushing you down is typically far less fun. When you hit bottom, momentum can make it a pretty abrupt stop!
But, if you know that it’s coming, and you bend your knees and push off before you crash, you can rise again.
Don’t you think life’s kind of like that? I mean, nobody expects their lives to be completely balanced with no ups or downs. And if you’re prepared for the downs and look forward to the breathtaking view at the top, isn’t it perfectly okay to accept the ups and downs?
Isn’t it the very ride that makes life exhilarating?
And if you know that exercising those recovery muscles can actually lead to a quicker recovery, couldn’t you be joyful as you exercise those muscles?
It’s a lot like doing sit-ups.
You fall back, knowing that the ground is there. But the important part is to use your muscles to get back up again. The more you pull yourself up from a down position, the stronger your muscles get and the easier it is to pull yourself back up the next time.
The Benefits of Returning to the Top
There is no strength-building benefit if you don’t pull or push yourself back up when you’re down.
If you didn’t have those down times, then you wouldn’t have the opportunity to strengthen your get-back-up muscles! And having strong get-back-up muscles is important to your overall success in life.
And you wouldn’t have the joy and wisdom of knowing that you can do it.
That’s how you become confident in life.
Life happens … Rejoice in the view from the top. And just as important, rejoice that you survived the lows and discovered strengths and reserves you didn’t know you had along the way.
Life is like a teeter-totter … and it’s like doing sit-ups, too. There are highs and lows and ups and downs.
In sit-ups and teeter-tottering, we accept the setbacks and low periods. We don’t fight them. We recognize them as a natural part of the cycle.
We also anticipate the highs. This, too, is a natural part of life.
Getting out of or up from the downs in life makes one stronger.
Pushing off the ground from a teeter-totter and pulling back up in a sit-up builds muscles, strength, endurance, and resiliency. The harder and faster you push yourself back up, the sooner the view is better.
The ups are there to remind you what you’re striving for.
They’re the goals. The ups remind you to stay focused and steady – because even when riding a teeter-totter, you still need to hang on and stay focused so you don’t fall off.
Don’t Strive for Balance
So, I encourage you, don’t strive for balance! Strive for strength.
Strive for the ability to bounce back and be resilient. Seek the ability to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Understand that without the downs in life, there is no appreciation for the ups.
Likewise, the highs allow you to look back, see where you’ve been, and appreciate just how far you’ve come.
Everyone gets knocked down. Everyone!
Don’t take a knockdown as a knockout. Bend your knees and push off so you can get back up again. Without getting back up from setbacks, there’s no strength. You earned those get-back-up muscles! Use them to pull yourself back up where the view is so much better.
But, appreciate the downs and lows for what they are. They’re not failures. They are our strength builders and placeholders for life lessons. They’re what we use to measure our highs and to see just how far we’ve come.
And while you’re at it, stop comparing your teeter-totter to those of others! Invariably, you’ll be teetering while others are tottering. It’s the nature of the “game.” It’s to be expected.
I believe that the ups and downs of the teeter totter and sit ups, is what is meant by, “Find joy in suffering,” a quote from Romans 5:3 in the Bible.
Be thankful for the lessons and what they produced. They make us stronger – if we let them.
Happy teetering and tottering. And teetering and tottering.
Love,
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