I Go 100

First, I want to thank all of you for reading my blog and spreading the word about igo100; spreading the word gives me greater exposure and greater opportunity to get sponsorship for my fundraising goal.

Second, a special thank you to all of you who have already sponsored me in my journey to 100 km. Your contribution is making a real difference in this world, by enabling the education of hundreds of children who need a school.

Balance

How do you picture your life in balance? Do you strive for each area of your life (family, friends, work, health, wealth, etc) to be equal in size and importance?

Is it really that wrong to let some areas take over the pie chart at times?

A few years ago, I tried the perfectionist balancing act – where I analyzed each thing in my life and scheduled tasks and events to improve each area. I even used a calendar to track and score myself on how I was doing. That was stressful and didn't last. I realize now, and am starting to accept, that I often perform and feel at my best when I only focus on three things at a time. If I try to focus on anything more than that, I get bogged down and often something gets neglected…or they all get neglected to some extent.

You may have seen this type of diagram before – it's quite popular in certain pop personal development books:

Note that there are a lot of things in the missing part besides what I've listed here – physical health, financial wealth generation and much more.

So, where are these other circles in this diagram – the ones for "me" time,  spiritual growth, friends, and more? Well, they aren't in play in this particular scenario. But they may enter the relationship paradigm at any given time. For example, once my 100 km journey is achieved and we have successfully raised $ 40K for the school, my diagram may look like this:

I see the different circles continually switching in and out of the picture. So the balance is there, but the areas change.  Perhaps my goal is to make sure every circle gets a turn….or delete the circles I never use (such as housecleaning).

What do you think?