Thursday, January 1, 2009

Balance

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony." -Thomas Merton


No resolutions this year, just a plan of action: decide what's important in my personal and professional lives and begin to adjust my schedule accordingly.

Retirement is six months away. I don't want to be a juggler, multi-tasking is not my goal. There must be time for family, friends, hobbies, exercise, and work in my daily life. My house and my mind need to be decluttered.

Author Melinda M. Marshall has said that
“True balance requires assigning realistic performance expectations to each of our roles. True balance requires us to acknowledge that our performance in some areas is more important than in others. True balance demands that we determine what accomplishments give us honest satisfaction as well as what failures cause us intolerable grief.”

"Realistic performance expectations" are just what I'm after, in everything from housekeeping to blogging to online facilitating.

"Honest satisfaction" is what I hope to feel at the end of this transitional year.






"Balance" by Brent and MariLynn

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Excellent post and it may be still possible that one aspect is important at some times and not at others. I think balance is so tough and many look at it as weakness if we step back from certain areas.

Good luck in the retirement. I am hoping one day we too!

Jackie Ballarini said...

I think a plan of action sounds much more doable than a resolution. Your goal of finding balance echos strongly my thinking today.

I wish you the best in this final stretch of your last school year and in retirement.

A Keeper's Jackpot said...

Sounds like a great plan!

Alice in Infoland said...

"Realistic performance expectations" will evolve and change as you discover how your free time 'flows.'

Dillon said...

Balance is something that is needed in everyone's lives. Something I lacked a lot of last year, and as a result I didn't accomplish much of what I planned to strive for. Good luck doing what you need to do before retirement! (especially the de-cluttering part, I'm fighting that with my room right now.)

Ghostlibrarian said...

This sounds like really good advice, whether you're retiring or staying the course. Best of luck in your retirement.

diane said...

Thank you all for your positive comments and good wishes.

My balance was a little wobbly over our recent 2-week vacation, but I'm aware of where changes should probably be made and will work on it.

As for the decluttering, I'm trying to compress and refine as I reorganize. This summer, I'll tackle the dreaded under-the-stairs storage area!