Balanced Life

Dalat students live ethically by living a self-disciplined and balanced life.

While living a self-disciplined and balanced life seems like a simple and worthwhile goal, it is quite elusive to many of us. That’s the reason so many people set New Year’s resolutions– and break them within the month. We’re striving to find that ideal “balance” in life. I think that there are two major things that make this a difficult goal.

First, we need to figure out what a balanced life means to us today. Balance looks different as we embark on different phases in our lives. It looks different for a young child, a teenager, a college student, a parent with toddlers, and so on. One of the things we need to do regularly is assess our lives and decide what things feel out of balance. Do we need to devote more or less time to our physical health, career, parents, kids, friendships, or something else? Putting more time and energy into one aspect of our lives necessitates putting less focus on something else. And that is where we often get overwhelmed and give up.

The second big challenge is self-discipline. We all have certain amounts of willpower, and some of us have developed more discipline than others. However, when we face times of stress and difficulty, even the most disciplined of us give up. How many people give up their healthy eating lifestyles for the holidays? I keep hearing people quote from the bookAtomic Habits by James Clear (which I haven’t read yet). He teaches that you need to develop small habits that will eventually become such a routine part of your life that they no longer take discipline to follow. This makes sense, but it’s a very long process.

As I’ve been learning more about spiritual growth, I’ve enjoyed reading Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. He suggests that we need to develop an ancient practice called a Rule of Life. “A Rule of Life is a schedule and set of practices and relational rhythms that create space for us to be with Jesus, become like him, and do as he did, as we live in alignment with our deepest desires. It’s a way of intentionally organizing our lives around what matters most: God.”

I think that is really the heart of living a balanced life: intentionally organizing our lives around what matters most. And that begs the question. What matters most to you?