Months and months ago, a friend asked me, over coffee, what my biggest struggle was.

I told him, quite simply “balance“.

It’s a well-know fact that within my family, we don’t really do anything halfway.  I don’t just exercise a bit, I do it for a living.  I don’t just sort of like Gavin DeGraw, I’ve seen him on like 5 separate occasions.  It’s kind of why I don’t do drugs.  Because I’m not a casual do-er of anything.  It’s really all or nothing.  Which is why balance can be an issue in my life.

I want to do it all, run it all, work all the time, and still fit in time to teach, work out, and play with my friends.  But that becomes a little challenging when you realize that there are only 24 hours in a day, and that sleeping is a must.  And not getting my work done isn’t really an option either.

I started to notice a month or two back that I would noticeably become agitated  and anxious around 7 a.m. when some of my instructors would wake up and start sending messages.  Typically, the messages themselves were perfectly fine, but I would feel the need to immediately respond to them before my feet even hit the floor to get ready for work, and there’s something a little weird about that.

So last week, my 4s started to grind to a halt, and I swapped my phone over to another, functioning 4s so that I could squeeze a little time out before I have to take the plunge and buy a new phone.  Because of this, I never got around to the convoluted system there is to set your work email up on your phone, so in essence the only time I’ve had access to my work email is when I’m on my work laptop.

Which has been, in a word, glorious. 

At first I was nervous.  Nervous that I would miss something important, or that someone would be upset with me for my less-than-immediate response to their questions.  But that has not happened.  I have responded to emails once I’ve opened my laptop in the order that I’ve received them.  Nothing will fall to the wayside.  No one has been upset.  And it has been such a blessing for balance and such a blessing for my sense of well-being.

How have you worked to bring more balance to your life?