The Art of Balance

Balance is something that I always seem to have a hard time with. On any given day, there are so many things that need to be done. There are also those things that I would like to do. Like most people, I am forced to chose between things as time and obligations prevent me from doing everything.

My biggest obstacle is the tv and the sofa. I love both of these! After a long day, I have a habit of turning on the tv and stretching out on the sofa. This has become such a habit, that I have certain shows that I watch every night of the week. Now, I go to bed relatively early, around 10pm most nights, but I still clock in a good 2 hours of tv after R goes to bed.

There is nothing wrong with relaxing and watching tv. However, I have a little more than one week from a race and I don't feel that I have done all that I wanted to do in practice. When I look back over the last week, my average daily workout has lasted 30 minutes. Compared to 2 hours of tv, that looks pathetic.

I like to justify this by saying that this is the time that Linds and I have to ourselves to connect. The reality is that most of the time we are in our own worlds. Linds will be catching up on school work, returning e-mails, and doing the never ending laundry. I will be playing on the internet, cleaning up from dinner, getting ready for the next day,and drinking chocolate milk. We are talking about our days during all of this, but not exclusively as other things also need to be done.

I have a love/hate relationship with schedules, but I think that for me to improve my balance, this is needed and overdue. I am not going to give up my tv, my time with Linds and the monkey, my exercise time, or the back log of household duties, but I need to stick to a plan where all of things get done with an appropriate amount of balance.

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? "
Henry David Thoreau