Balance is key to happier relationships

Most of us struggle to find ways to live authentic and balanced lives in our crazy, fast paced world.

The poet

E.E. Cummings once said, “To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle that any human being can fight; and never stop fighting!” The key question is not whether to fight the battle, but how to fight the battle. We all are faced with the many often conflicting demands of family and career and struggle to find the right balance.

However, achieving and maintaining that balance is often quite challenging given the ever-increasing demands of our daily lives.

What we really need to do is to determine what really matters in our life. In my experience, it is not the career accomplishments that usually matter most, but rather the quality of our relationships with those we love. It is very easy to take our intimate relationships for granted, and as we get caught up in our busy lives, it is usually those closest to us who pay the biggest price. When work responsibilities become too demanding, it is common for us to take the path of least resistance and make excuses to those we love in the hope that they will understand.

They usually do, for a while, but when this becomes the rule rather than the exception, trouble is likely to follow.

If we choose to make our relationships our highest priority, it will have to involve making different choices when it comes to our careers. It might mean saying no to working overtime, or it might mean passing up a promotion in order to avoid relocating our family. When we choose to make our relationships priority we usually realize that the rewards out