Life Balance vs Life Harmony

A lot of people ask themselves how to achieve life balance. For some, it's how to balance work with play, for others it's family time vs "the mission". What it all boils down to is cultivating fulfillment, but it can feel for many like spinning (and dropping) a bunch of plates.

Tony Robbins Wheel of Life

As Tony Robbins likes to say in his "wheel of life" something is usually out of balance somewhere. Maybe you've got a great career, but your body or your health is totally out of whack. Maybe you're in great physical shape but your relationship is on the rocks. Whatever the case, something always needs a tweak.

I disagree.

I believe it's all about committing to habitual asset allocation. For those of you familiar with Ray Dalio, you may have heard of the "all seasons" approach to investing. It's an asset allocation that all but guarantees surviving market crashes and raking in considerably above-average returns. It's the asset allocation he'd leave his family with. Not money. A strategy of wealth distribution that leads to money.

I think our lives can be like that - index funds of priorities that achieve long term success and fulfillment.

I also believe that each of us is a unique lil' snowflake with their own "risk portfolio" that suits their life. We all know how much play it takes to retain our sanity, and how much fitness we need to thrive, and how much time we need to spend with our family for it to flourish.

So, when asked about "life balance" I tend to reply that balance would be a terrible plan in most cases. If you've got a full time job, that's forty hours a week right there. There aren't an additional forty hours a week to allocate to your finances, your health, your family and friends, your romance, your personal growth, your fun, and your environment. There just isn't. So anyone looking to "balance the scales" is goin' have a bad time.

Harmony, on the other hand, is achievable.

Perhaps for you that harmony might mean getting up two to three hours earlier than your family to engage in your ikigai or side hustle, then working, then spending a few quality hours with your family, then back to your ikigai again. Maybe it means barely seeing your family at all during the week and spending every second with them on the weekend. Maybe it means exercising at work, or whatever - my point is, it's an index fund of your time and of your identities.

You get to choose who you are, and what your priorities are every second of every day. That could be exhausting if you didn't have an asset allocation principal to live behind. But if you do, not only do YOU know your schedule and priorities, but so does your family, your friends and your co-workers.

"I'd love to, but I've got (priority) tonight. But (day/time) is all yours."

Habitual Actions Lead to Predictable Results.