Life is a balancing act

Life is a balancing act

Americans need to vacation more

 This column appeared in the Oct. 7th issue of the Pageland Progressive Journal.

By KIMBERLY HARRINGTON

Editor

My vacation was two weeks ago but I am still reeling from my mini-adventure.

My body is here but my thoughts sometime wander to somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, where turquoise and sapphire waters kiss white sandy beaches, where Bahama Mamas are always on deck and free spirits blow in the wind like tumbleweeds.

Ask any family member or close friend of mine and they will tell you how much I believe in balance. For every dollar earned, a dollar spent. For every hour worked, an hour played. For every “need” met, a “want” accomplished. For every love lost, a new love found. You get the picture.

Being that way keeps me content, satisfied and happy. I’m usually very good at keeping that balance in my life until this year.

I started this new job as editor in February and dived right into it. Three months later, my mother suffered from a slew of health problems that kept me on the road a lot to and from her hospital bed in Concord.

Then I had to direct my focus on getting my nephew/godson into college – a decision he made at the very last minute. This meant coming up with balances due minus financial aid, buying overpriced books and snatching up last minute supplies. Not to mention standing in line all day during the final orientation as my brain went into information overload.

Then my mother suffered another health crisis, losing sight in her right eye.

Now she is living home with limited vision, which necessitated a family meeting – and you know how those can go. Gotta love 'em, though.

After all was said and done, I agreed to move back with my mother temporarily. (That’s another column.)

So when my brother and his girlfriend broke up, and he asked if I wanted to take his already-booked cruise to the Bahamas, I considered it divine intervention to get me back centered. (God works in mysterious ways. The two of them are both ministers and who knows what sparks would have ignited on that ship.)

We processed the transfer and voilá, I was on my first cruise since 1995. I prefer flying to my destinations and getting all-inclusive packages so a cruise was a different twist.

Without giving you play by play, let me just say this vacation with my best friend, Patricia, was not particularly one for R&R. I didn’t sleep much, had two too many Bahama Mamas, ate like I had a high metabolism, danced like no one was watching, played in the water like a toddler, posed in pictures like super models, made new friends, slept at highway rest areas, and laughed til it hurt.

I had the time of my life.

After months of living on the edge, I jumped off – giving me back my balance.

My late night anxiety attacks have calmed. My stress level has evened out. It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Everybody needs balance and more vacations. As a country, we work longer hours and take less vacations than any other industrialized country in the world.

A study released in August by Travel Effect, a project of the U.S. Travel Association, revealed that 40 percent of American workers will leave paid vacation days unused.

Tony Schwartz, chief executive officer of the Energy Project, says, “the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less.” Living a life in which we work all the time and never prioritize recharging simply isn't sustainable – not for individuals, and not for companies either.

It’s OK, people, to relax a little and not feel guilty about it.

One of my own favorite columns is about a man I worked for at a hospital. It was his first job as chief executive officer and he was torn between climbing the corporate ladder of success, which meant long days and no weekends, to spending time with his new wife and child. After about six months on the job, he chose the latter.

The following is an excerpt from that column I wrote five years ago:

“Too many times we live unbalanced lives. We work more than we play. We eat at our desk more than we do at our dinner table at home. We wear more dress shoes and pumps than flip flops. We spend more time at work than we do with the ones we love.

It may sound cliché, but at the end of our lives, it’s time with our loved ones that will envelope our thoughts and bring us comfort. It will be the times where we played more that will give us reason to smile.

 Over the years, I’ve been given some great advice from successful professional leaders that I take to heart and try to live by: Don’t take work home with you; sometimes you’ve got to be selfish and put yourself first; work hard, not long; and work to live, not live to work.

True balance is getting up in the morning and putting on your work shoes, but knowing when to take them off and slip on your favorite pair of flip flops.”

Balance for you may not be a trip to the Bahamas. It may simply be a day off in your pajamas watching movies, getting home in time for dinner, or having a date night with your spouse.

To quote a poster on Pinterest: Never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.