You. Are. Human. That pretty much sums up everything I have to say, but for the sake of those who took the extra effort to click, I’ll expound.

Somewhere, somehow, someone decided to pump this idea of perfectionism and “having it all” into our minds. Because of this, we run ourselves into the ground trying to do everything we “should” do. A lot of people are under the false pretense that “balance” is a real thing and that it means that you have everything under control. That’s what I thought, at least. I thought that it meant you had to divide your time and energy equally to your priorities. I thought it meant that you had to excel in every area. I thought wrong.

I’m no expert, but I think I’ve experienced enough to know that balance is almost the opposite of what I thought it was. It isn’t about equality, it’s about equilibrium. Here’s the most important lesson I’ve learned that has helped me understand and achieve balance.

Everything is not a priority. Some stuff you really love and care about, some stuff you don’t. Focus on the stuff you do. Make your priorities a priority, and give what’s left over to the rest.
Some things are really important, and some things are kinda important, and some things are “supposed” to be important (but we really don’t care about them). Allocate your energy accordingly. You have to decide what you are/aren’t willing to sacrifice and then allow your priorities to coincide with those things.
Ex: I want to be healthy.
I love food. I love reading about it. I love making it and eating it. I only kinda sorta like to exercise, but I do like to run occasionally and do some yoga.  I wanna be fine. I’m supposed to be in the gym 4 times a week.
Priority: Health
Love: Food
Kinda wanna: Workout
Don’t care: Gym
Resolution: Cancelled the gym membership. I put a lot of energy and time and care into eating good healthy food, and nourishing my body properly.I decided (recently lol) to run a couple times a week and to do resistance training once a week. I also accepted the fact that I’m not going to have abs, nor am I going to be skinny. And that’s fine with me. I’m not a model. I spend most of my time in a cold office wearing a sweater, or at home in pajamas. If I am at peace with my jiggle, then everyone else is going to have to accept it as well. If not, holla in a minute.

So, that’s my take on balance. I get it. I know you want to workout and pray and meditate and kill it at work and be a perfect student and be a masterful artist and hit all the poppin’ events in your city and travel and have lots of money in your bank account whilst you save the world. But like…no. One step, one day at a time. Just like there are different seasons within a year, there will be different seasons in your life. Sometimes you will have a lot of time to devote to the things you want and sometimes you will only have time to work on the things you need. And sometimes you’ll strike gold and meet right in the middle. Either way is okay. You can have it all, but most likely, not all at the same time. Don’t fret, you’ve got to spread out all that good and all that bad over an entire life span. Take ya time!

xoxo Kaisha