When Balance Plays a Factor, Everyone Wins

As a teacher, I always sent the same message to my students that I do to my staff — make sure to find the time to balance your life out, because you can only work as hard as your body and mind will enable you the ability to do so.

For example:
We know we can’t play for a living, at least, not all of us can. Those with the fortune in life to afford them the ability to play without work — awesome. For the rest of us in the real world — we know we can’t play without needing to be able to work. Additionally, playing all the time can not be healthy, and without a balance or in moderation could lead down many roads.

Regarding work, we simply can’t work all of the time, it’s not sustainable.

When can you find time to exercise?

When do you eat?

When will you be able to stop, go for a walk, rest your hands from typing or your eyes from staring?

NYC Subways…

I used to leave super early and avoid the masses leading southbound to midtown/hell’s kitchen, and hated it. The rush was nuts and I had it down to a science for efficiency purposes, safety sake, and ease of transfer as well. This made it tolerable because of how well I had it figured out, until I realized I was working almost around the clock and stopped exercising all together.

Then I realized one day that I was too late for the train I took normally, and instead I walked downtown — 30 blocks straight down one avenue. By the time I got to work, I was so excited to be there.

I felt energized, I looked around me and listened to podcasts and music on the way.

The balance from relaxation to utter chaos at work, made me think of walking home that day, and it was just as awesome as walking down in the morning.

Learn from the master…

I remember one of the best parts about Steve Jobs was that he would stop what he was doing and go for a walk. I feel like the walk is a secret that we should try to incorporate into our days because it causes pause, forces change in location and environment and even mood.

If I see a teacher going hard, I’m going to remind them to stop. I’ll remind the entire staff in the next meeting to take days and balance.

Literally put the time slot on your calendar that reminds you to balance out work with play somehow.

Take a break. Walk the floor and talk to people. Talk to students. Walk. Run. Disconnect. Turn off notifications.

Not doing so, is dangerous, as everything is good in moderation — and that goes for moderation as well…