On the Road

When you add to your life, what do you subtract for the new acquisition? Is the addition truly greater than what you take a way? Then, are you left in balance?

I add to my “miles traveled.” Adding another city to the places I’ve been while adding to the resume of rock stars & divas I’ve been blessed to work with. I add more friends to face book. I join more networking sites to feel more connected. I add to my personal “to do” list while the “artiste du jour” adds to their very long to do list, which becomes my list, hence the reason I was hired. But what I continue to subtract, by career driven default, are my personal goals, time with my family and being too busy in the quest for love & friendship.

Current status of my personal “to do” list: About 3 years on hold.

Current status of Artiste “to do” list: Accomplished!

In building the life we want, it’s about making choices you can sustain, adding the things that really count and subtracting the things that don’t. Some times the lines blur, making it hard to see clearly when you’re in over your head with commitments.

If you give constantly to your career, paid to take care of others while occasionally indulging yourself with personal aspirations - is what you get in return comparable? Does the input outweigh the output?

(Career) X< >Y (Life & Love)

The Not Equal Operator formula above shows to evaluate the expression and return TRUE if x is not equal to y and FALSE if x is equal to y.

So is this to say balance is not possible? I say, Rubbish!

Or is balance an illusion we seek it out to prove possible?

If balance is an illusion, I’ll keep tripping until I find it.

Stay tuned!

1. Tom Steele says,

   Interesting read Shari. In my experience I think it depends on what career you choose as well. You seem to have an extreme career when it comes to trying to keep a balance with personal and career goals. I think you have to give more of yourself to your career than most people. The travel and the amount of your time that you invest in your career is probably so high that you don’t have as much left over for personal goals as the average person.

   Clearly you get something out of it though, or you wouldn’t do it. In the very short time I have seen this website, it appears to me to be “living the dream” on one hand, but a great sacrifice on the other hand. I also think the grass often seems greener on the other side of the fence. Someone who has more time for family and personal goals might look at a lifestyle like yours longingly. And someone with a career driven lifestyle looks at a family and wonders if they missed something.

   There are probably lots of ways to do it though. In my case, I invested very highly in my career in the early part of my life, and when those investments reaped their rewards, I had the time to invest in my personal life. So I more-or-less did my split by not doing the family thing until late in life. I’m sure some people manage to split them down the middle their entire life, and some folks do family early and then career.

   I just wanted to pop in and say I enjoyed reading this…

   -Tom

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