From the Introduction to The Balancing Act

Welcome!

Dear Reader,

Does your life sometimes seem out of balance? Are there simply not enough hours in the day to get everything done? Do you feel that you lack the power to change things at work? Are important relationships in your life untended, or have they become unsatisfying? Do you have to struggle to keep all the diverse parts of your life together? And, are you torn by conflicting demands, or frustrated by the grind of this whole effort?

If you've answered "Yes" to any of the above questions, The Balancing Act can be of help to you. There are many ways you can gain the balance you seek. In the pages that follow, I describe one tried-and-true method of achieving balance that can be used in your work, relationships, or life in general. The kind of balance this book focuses on is both within and among all the different "elements" of your life.

I have written The Balancing Act as a comprehensive approach with multiple applications not only for you as an individual, but also for couples, colleagues, groups, and whole systems (such as your workplace and community). For example, this book can prove helpful if you are: a manager who needs to increase productivity or harmony in your organization; a busy parent who wants to reduce the stress resulting from so many demands on your time; a worker who feels that there's nothing you can do to effect change in your company; or, someone who (like most of us) just wants healthier, happier relationships.

What is Balance? It can be defined in a number of ways. According to Webster's Dictionary, balance is a:

• State of equipoise,
• as between weights, different elements, or opposing forces;
• equilibrium; steadiness...
• act of balancing,
• as in weighing, judging, dancing....
  

I think that Balance is a state of inner and outer equilibrium, a highly desirable and exhilarating experience of Life as being less effortful and more harmonious. Achieving balance reduces tension and allows you to move more gracefully through life as things change around you. The kind of balance I describe in this book is achieved by integrating the five major elements of your life. These are critical points of reference that I call the Elements of Success.

This five-faceted approach to balance results in much more stability than you can achieve by simply reducing the friction between two opposing forces (such as weighing right vs. wrong on the scales of justice, or resting at the midpoint on a teeter-totter). For this reason, I will not directly address the pull you may be feeling between your work-life and family-life. (There are many good books already available on this topic.) Instead, I will provide you with a powerful model, a set of user-friendly tools, and numerous hands-on techniques that will show you how to deal, step-by-step, with all the vital aspects of your life. I have found the Elements of Success very useful in my consulting with organizations and coaching of executives. I also have used this method myself - to improve my own personal Balancing Act - and it has helped me a great deal.

The goal of this book is to help you experience your life (and everything within it) as more of a unified whole. This will significantly reduce the conflicting demands that sometimes put your stress level into the stratosphere. Between these two covers, then, you will find the points of reference you need to make your life, relationships and work into what ancient people called "miracles of one thing."

You may not think that such an ideal state of harmony is possible in your life. Indeed, a great many people I've met (no matter what their title or status) feel powerless to make the changes they want in their lives. I have often been surprised by who I've heard say, "But what can I do about it?" The Balancing Act is written as an answer to that question. It will help you claim your personal power to change your life.

You may well ask: "But how can I possibly achieve a state of balance when nothing in my life stays the same, when everything around me changes so fast?" Rapid change is the sea we all swim in these days. Things change around you (or you create changes), and then you need to adjust to the new imbalance. And because this happens again and again (and again and again), your striving for balance becomes your own personal tango with the universal law of action and reaction - a dance of where Life itself is your partner.

I find it instructive that "balance" is both a noun and a verb. The Balancing Act is, above all, a process. Even if you manage to achieve an absolutely perfect state of balance at some point, Life will always demand that you move on from it into the next moment. Actually the perfect state of balance is the ACT of Balancing itself! This is because Life demands vitality, and stasis results in death.

The good news is that you are your own best teacher in this particular dance lesson. You know when you are in balance and when you are not. You can feel that sweet spot. You know when you're "on" and when you're "off." When you're moving with the wind at your back, and when you're stuck. Your sense of inner and outer balance, then, is a great teacher, an ongoing feedback loop, that helps you adjust to your changing environment. This is no small matter. Quite simply, your own sense of balance is an innate survival mechanism.

Interestingly, the Kabbalah word for balance, Lamed, means "to teach." The Balancing Act then, can serve as your very own "teacher's aid." Indeed, I have designed this book so that you can easily tailor this material to quickly suit your particular personal and professional needs. For example, you can read The Balancing Act:

a) from cover to cover;
b) by first taking the instruments in Section I, then focusing on chapters in Section II that will help you make some improvements in a given part of your life, relationships or work;
c) by focusing only on the section of each chapter that is relevant to your particular interests (For example, if you want to read all the relationship sections or just the leadership sections throughout the book, look to the expanded Table of Contents for those cross-referenced listings); and,
d) if you're already quite conversant with the properties of the five Elements of Success, you may want to move directly onto Section III of the book, where I put everything together.

Finally, let me say that my hope in writing The Balancing Act was that it might assist you in achieving greater balance and harmony in your life, relationships and work. After all, this is your natural state. You deserve it.

Best wishes,

Sharon Seivert