I recently heard someone say that clichés are underrated, that they often hide nuggets of truth that, upon reflection, help to lead a better life. It’s simply the act of dismissing them as cliché that deprives them of value.
All that setup to lead to something I’ve been considering lately: life as a balancing act.
The analogy of a seesaw seems most appropriate. We have so much to balance between the two sides: work and play, supporting and being supported, time for friends and time for reflection.
We never do it perfectly, but as long as we have a good self-correction mechanism we end up alright.
Sometimes, much like the bully on the playground, we lay our foot down and commit fully to one side. We become fully engrossed in our work and ourselves, forgetting to live the enjoyable parts of life. Meanwhile, more weight accumulates on the other side in a desperate attempt to self-correct.
At this point, mechanics allows for two options: Enough weight accumulates, and we get rocketed back to the other side. An aggressive self-correction to balance the bulk of mass, leaving us to commence the balancing act with our lighter load. This kind of rocketing may or may not be fun, but generally leaves us reconsidering how to balance.
The other option: The Seesaw breaks under the pressure. We become so out of touch with ourselves that we don’t even allow for the correction and we break. We burnout. We snap.
We almost always manage to put the seesaw back together. But the scars stay as a reminder.