Last night I was riding my motorcycle to lunch and I was thinking about lowering my cholesterol. Don't worry, it's not all that high, but my doctor wanted me to consider medication although I've been able to lower it 10 point through exercise and diet. I got to wondering how I could possibly cut out ALL cholesterol. Anyone who knows me already knows I eat healthy and work out very consistently. I was a bit frustrated thinking how I could possibly cut out cholesterol from my diet. Then it hit me. The word "balance" popped into my head. This isn't the first time. I preach balance to every client that walks in my office, but I've never had it pop up while I was thinking about diet. I realized that lowering cholesterol or losing weight or eating healthy isn't about completely cutting out something. It's about eating a balanced diet.
I began thinking about how our society rewards people for being out of balance. Everyone wants to be the "best" at one thing or another. I'm occasionally asked if I'm the best therapist for a particular situation, my wife is asked if she's the best teacher, we're challenged to be the best parents, the best spouses, etc. When was the last time you were encouraged to be a well rounded person? I can't think of one myself. We don't reward people for being well rounded. Some people might call these people boring or mundane. How sad that we spend our lives seeking to be the best and we miss a lot of just being good and being happy and being balanced. Maybe we should consider changing our lives to reflect a more balanced lifestyle. For those that ARE the best, we should encourage and compliment them, but if we're not, we should still be encouraged and complimented. I think we should DO our best at anything we do, but if we aren't THE best then we shouldn't let that bother us as much as it does.
Embrace being balanced in everything you do. Don't succumb to the hype that if you're not the best you're not worth anything. Try your best to be balanced.
