Balance as a Practice, Not an Achievement

I’ve been thinking about the concept of balance recently. And I’ve concluded that balance…is hard.

That much is clear, even though we talk about balance as if it’s something natural or that we should all be able to attain if we just try hard enough. There are plenty of examples: work-life balance, a balanced diet, a balance of indulgence and restraint. The very concept of balance is often treated as a virtue, but if it were so easy, wouldn’t we all have mastered it by now?

Instead, balance remains elusive. And that, I think, tells us something interesting about ourselves and the nature of our lives.

Part of the challenge is that balance implies a kind of perfect equilibrium, and that’s just not how people work. We’re dynamic creatures. Our priorities shift. Our needs evolve. Some weeks (most weeks?), work is demanding, and it takes over. Other times, we lean more into rest, relationships, or personal pursuits. It’s unrealistic, frankly, to expect that we can always maintain an ideal ratio of everything we value.

Then there’s the fact that some things simply shouldn’t be balanced. We don’t strive for a little bit of everything just for the sake of even distribution, especially when some excesses are actively harmful. No one would argue that a “balanced” approach to heroin use is a good idea. Abstinence, in many cases, is the only path that makes sense. But even in less extreme cases, where balance might seem reasonable, it’s still tricky. Take alcohol, for example. A social drinker might wonder how to balance enjoying a cocktail with not overindulging. Take fitness as another example. How do we strike the right balance between dedication and obsession?

These aren’t simple questions, and they don’t have simple answers. The right balance for one person might look completely different for another person. And even for a single individual, the balance point can shift over time.

Maybe the real goal isn’t some static idea of balance, but rather an ongoing, thoughtful calibration. Maybe all we can ask is to obtain an awareness of when we’re tipping too far in one direction and a corresponding willingness to make adjustments. Maybe balance isn’t about getting it right all the time, but about learning to recognize when we’re veering off course and knowing how to correct it.

Ultimately, the pursuit of balance might be less about achieving some perfect ratio and more about the practice of mindfulness itself. Pay attention. Be honest with yourself. Accept that balance, by its very nature, is something we will always be working toward rather than definitively achieving.

And maybe that’s ok. Maybe just being mindful about that approach is itself the balance we need.