Balance is overrated.
S1:E23

Balance is overrated.

Summary

Or maybe balance isn't overrated and rather our definition of balance is flawed. Because "balance" doesn't help you achieve things in life. I'm weirdly fired up in this episode, just fyi.

[00:00:00] You are listening to the Daily Five, an experimental podcast by Aurooba, where I talk about something for five minutes. So let's get to it, shall we? Balance is overrated. Okay? Here me out. I don't think that there is any particular benefit to being very extreme in your life, you know, working to the extreme or relaxing to the extreme, but either balance is overrated or our definition of balance is flawed because, okay.

[00:00:46] Have you heard the four burner theory? I don't remember where I heard this for the very first time, but it's this idea that, you know, there are like, let's say four major parts of your [00:01:00] life, let's say, uh, work, family, health, community, those are your four. Okay? Let's say those are the four most important things in your life.

[00:01:12] It is not possible to have all four of them going at full steam ahead, you know, at the highest power at the same time. For most people, it is only possible to have two that are going really intensely at any given time. And then there's has to be two that are "on the back burner", right? They are in maintenance mode or like, you know, they're okay and you don't have to think about them.

[00:01:42] They're on autopilot. And yes, you can switch it around every quarter or whenever you need. You know, maybe right now work and health are at high power and family and community are on the back burner, but there might be a time when family and work become the high [00:02:00] powered ones, and health and community have to be on the back burner – so you can switch around which ones you are focusing on, but you can't focus on all of them.

[00:02:15] and that by definition isn't balanced, I don't think, right? I mean, yes, I gave the example of two high powered and two on the back burner, but maybe that's not feasible for you because of the nature of what's going on. Let's say you're a new parent, probably family is gonna be high powered and everything else is gonna be on the back burner for like the first few months, or maybe you're in a brand new job.

[00:02:40] Well, probably your job is gonna be way more high powered than everything else because you need to spend a lot more time and energy figuring it out at work, right? Balance requires us to be like, oh, I spend the same amount of time playing as I do working. And [00:03:00] that's, that's not realistic. That's not how people work.

[00:03:04] Who works like that, who operates that way? I certainly don't. I think that it is natural and necessary to not be balanced to try to do things that matter, whether that's to raise a good family, have an impact at work, do something awesome in the community, create something fantastic or get healthy if you haven't been for a while.

[00:03:32] All of this requires you to not be balanced, to put more energy into one or two particular things than everything else in your life for some amount of time. Yes, there is a point when that can be unhealthy. You know, the crazy intense workaholics are the people who go to the gym so much that they break their bones or are so fatigued they can't think.

[00:03:57] um, don't be extreme, [00:04:00] but I find that in my life when I'm trying to be "balanced", you know, I actually end up accomplishing very little, Very little that actually matters to me because by definition things that you need to matter, they take more from you in terms of energy and effort than simply existing, simply maintaining.

[00:04:27] Balance., the way I hear people talk about it is the act of maintenance, not the act of striving, not the act of trying to make something new or better happen. So balance, as far as I'm concerned, is overrated. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow.