Balance

Like a lot of people, I struggle with balance. Not the physical kind, but the kind that means taking time for yourself. When I get involved in a project, I eat, live and breathe is until it is done, so I have to force myself to take a walk, weed the garden, or play with the dog. These are all things I like to do, so it seems odd even to me that I have to force myself at certain times to fit it all in. Here's an idea I give to my clients that I realize I need to use myself:

Allot a certain amount of time each day for certain tasks. If I can only spend three hours on a project, then I quit when three hours are up and decide to feel glad for the amount of work that I got done. That way, for example, I can take 30 minutes to walk, 20 minutes to weed and 15 minutes to play.

For those of you with horses, this idea works better when you are not working with horses than when you are. That's because when a horse is involved, you have to work at least partially on the horse's time frame. If you want to work on bending, you are only going to get as much done as the horse is capable of. His expectations and yours may be completely different, so you are only going to go as fast or as slow as your equine partner will allow you to go.

So my goal for today is to balance productivity with realistic time frames for everything I do.

For more on these ideas, check out the books section of my web site.