A tough thing to maintain, an even tougher thing to build from scratch. The dividends paid by keeping balance are worth the efforts.

Personally, I still struggle fiercely with balance due to my FOMO. When I had suffered enough from the natural anxiety that comes with imbalance, I decided to find balance out of a strong desire to lead a more productive and meaningful life for myself. Going from 0 to 1 in establishing your baseline for balance is no small feat. Building balance in your life when daily chaos is a consistent menace is akin to repairing a sinking ship’s existing leaks as new leaks are forming. The key to not drowning is to find balance faster than your ship is sinking. Finding timeouts throughout your day for yourself to decompress and disconnect from the flow of an active day is critical to keeping perspective on your journey towards balance.

A recent decision I was faced with surfaced a choice that had to be made between being aggressively optimistic about the future or tempering my temperament and keeping a conservative outlook. I couldn’t help but feel the déja vu and tried to reflect on what I’d learned going through a vivid challenge from the past where I had leapt headfirst into optimism to quench my FOMO. However, this time around, I found balance in the present decision. By having learned the lesson, I had freed myself up to make new mistakes.

The sense of peace that overcame me as a result of the decision was in it of itself worth making the decision. The power of saying “no” was crucial in calibrating me back to balance in my life.

When seeking balance, it’s important to be patient with yourself and others as you make mistakes in calibration. A baby crying, a dog barking, the neighbor’s lawn mowing, push notifications, in-laws calling, texts from ex-s, are all opportunities to test your balance and recenter. The process of equilibrating your life is iterative, usually requiring many small changes to finally get in the neighborhood of center. Inner peace, confidence, and stoicism are strong indicators of having reached balance.